IT

In Republik of Uzbekistan, comprehensive programs for the digitalization of economic sectors and the formation of a digital government have been adopted and are being effectively implemented.

As a result, in a short period of time, IT has become one of the leading sectors of New Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan has become an attractive place for foreign countries.

In 2019, the number of residents of the IT park of Uzbekistan was 147, and by the current year it has reached to 1,400 residents.

The volume of services they provided in 2017 amounted to 179.9 billion soums, and by the end of 2022 it was already 5.1 trillion soums, an increase of 28.3 times, and the weight of exports increased by 82 times, rising to $140 million.

12 Branches of the IT -park were created in the regions of the republic, as well as representative offices of the IT -park were opened in the USA and Germany.

Today, the potential of Uzbekistan and the opportunities provided to foreign IT companies attract reputable foreign IT companies to Uzbekistan. The result is effective: the number of foreign companies has increased from 4 to 200 in 7 years.

There is a dynamic growth in the export of the industry: in a sector where there were no exports 7 years ago, in 2020, exports were made in the amount of $17 million, and in 2022 this figure was $140 million.

In 2016, remote self-employment in Uzbekistan was not developed, and the population did not carry out activities in this direction. However, today there are about 45,000 freelancers working online.

Thanks to the development of the industry, young people have received new professions. Over the past 7 years, 187 BPO centers have been created in our republic and 500 young people have been employed.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH

Youth – is the biggest resource in the IT field. However, until 2016, the government did not allocate sufficient funds to support their ideas and projects. Today, all opportunities have been created for them to receive education, implement ideas and projects.

In particular, in order to raise the interest of young people in improving their knowledge in the field of information technology, a system was introduced to cover up 50% of the costs of obtaining international IT certificates.

Thousands of young people who have received international IT-certificates have been reimbursed up to 50% of their costs. Moreover, the most important news: starting from October 1, 2023, boys and girls who receive such certificates will be reimbursed 100% of their expenses.

One of the most significant news: today, in order to increase the number of innovative youth projects that can compete in the global IT market, the competition “President Tech Award” has been initiated with a $1 million prize pool.

Such competitions will help to increase qualified personnel in this area. If we analyze, then in 2016 the number of employees in the field of information and communication technologies was 25 thousand, and the number of specialists working in the IT field was 2.5 thousand.

By the end of 2023, 56,000 people will be employed in the ICT sector, and 65,000 people in the IT sector.

The number of legal entities operating in the field of information and communications in 2016 was 6,370, and in 2023 their number increased by 1.9 times and reached 12,204.

Huge results of development in the field of information technologies are recorded. Please note, for the whole year of 2020 the export volume was $47 million, and today only in the first quarter of the year IT services were exported in the amount of $48 million.

E-GOVERNMENT

Another important branch of digitalization is an increase in the number of services provided through the Single Portal of Interactive Public Services. In 2016, it was 197, and today, through the my.gov.uz portal, access to more than 430 e-services is available.

In 2016, the number of registered users was 400 thousand, and in 2022 this number reached to 6.3 million.

The positive results achieved regarding the positions of Uzbekistan in international rankings. In particular, in the e-government development rating, in 2020, our country ranked 87th among 193 countries, and in 2022 it rose by 18 positions, taking 69th place.

Also according to “Open Data Inception” Uzbekistan ranked 4th among 201 countries in terms of the number of open data sources.

In order to further develop these efforts Data Center was created.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Another important area is the telecommunications infrastructure. If we analyze, then the price of connecting to the Internet for 1 Mbps in 2016 was 522 thousand soums , in 2023 it was reduced to 30 thousand soums .

To cover the regions with fast speed and high-quality Internet connection, the length of fiber-optic communication lines has been increased from 20,000 km to 170,000 km. This means an increase of 8.5 times.

Another important fact: in 2016, the volume of ICT services per capita was 198,000 soums, and by the current period, the volume of these services increased by 3.2 times and reached 642,900 soums.

The cost of connecting to the international Internet for operators and providers has decreased by almost 33 times and amounted to $2.7.

As a result, the number of Internet subscribers in 2016 amounted to 22 million, and by the end of 2022 reached to 31.1 million.

At the same time, over the past 7 years, the cost of mobile Internet has decreased by almost 9 times, and in the world ranking it has risen from 68th to 15th place.

THE INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Important cooperation is also taking place in Uzbekistan to further develop the digitalization network . In this regard, on October 24-27, 2022, the information technology week “ICT WEEK Uzbekistan – 2022” was organized in Samarkand.

During the week, 22 international events took place, in which more than 15,000 people took part. Investment contracts worth more than $200 million have been signed.

The main goal of all digitalization efforts is to turn Uzbekistan into an IT hub of the region.

Source: Ministry of Digital Technologies of the Republic of Uzbekistan