Ministry of Digital Technologies of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Much attention paid in recent years to information technology is yielding results. Last year, residents of the IT Park provided services worth 5 trillion UZS and exported services worth $140 million.

370 out of 715 public services have been digitized, last year 12 million people used e-services. As a result of digitalization, the demand from the population for more than 70 types of certificates and documents has been canceled.

However, it was noted that these measures are not enough. There is a lot of work to be done in the spheres and regions. In particular, only 30 percent of the 5,000 functions of ministries have been digitalized. Dozens of services in the areas of internal affairs, justice, standardization, and healthcare, to which the population turns most of all, have not been converted into electronic form.

In information technology, the main part of production and export falls on the city of Tashkent. The construction of IT parks in Karakalpakstan, Bukhara, Namangan, Surkhandarya, Navoi and Tashkent regions has not yet been completed.

At the meeting, the existing shortcomings in the sphere were analyzed and tasks for the future were defined.

It was noted that in the future the export of information technology services in Uzbekistan should reach $1 billion. This requires at least 100 thousand qualified programmers, IT architects, operators, and engineers. It is necessary to expand the high-speed Internet network in the regions and create a more favorable environment for the presence of foreign IT companies. It is required to introduce new electronic services in the areas most in demand by citizens and entrepreneurs.

The Head of state listed the growth opportunities available in the sphere.

First of all, it was determined that the projects tested in Tashkent will be implemented in all regions. In particular, such systems as the Digital Geoportal, the digital portal of the housing and communal sector, and the People’s Control system were launched in the capital. The City Hokimiyat has a digital development department. It was determined that this structure will be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Digital Technologies and will be engaged in the process of digitalization in all regions of the country.

The main attention is paid to the issue of full digitalization and integration of all business processes and the most necessary services for the population.

For example, due to the lack of a unified database of students, schools had a different number of classes. In September last year, as a result of harmonizing the databases of schools, kindergartens, registry offices, and internal affairs bodies, 4,000 unreasonably created classes were optimized, thereby saving 350 billion UZS.

The Head of state noted that such work can be carried out in other areas. The Ministry of Economy and Finance was instructed to allocate funds for these purposes, as well as leave half of the funds saved due to digitalization to the ministries and hokimiyats.

The Ministry of Digital Technologies was tasked with connecting 26 information systems to the Single Public Services Portal and increasing the number of services in it to 570.

“What is the purpose of digitalization? To make people happy, to ensure human dignity, justice”, Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.

The President noted the need for training young people in information technology, creating conditions for working in this area, and creating a market for products developed by young people.

On April 1, the national competition with a prize fund of $1 million will start in the areas of “Electronic Government”, “Programs for Business”, and education. Also, the 50 best programs created by youth in the regions will be purchased at the expense of digitalization funds.

Over the past two years, 215 IT training centers have been opened in Uzbekistan. The creation of financial incentives for such educational institutions and their graduates has been announced. In particular, for each graduate who gets a job in a company that exports its products, training centers will receive a subsidy of up to 25 million UZS, and for each employed specialist with disabilities – up to 35 million UZS. Young people with an IT certificate will be able to get a personal plastic card and receive a preferential loan to buy a computer.

The “One Million Uzbek Coders” project also justified itself. Currently, the majority of IT Park specialists are young people who have completed this program.

Youth education will be expanded, including through the Coursera platform. The most talented, who passed the selection, will be trained for the international IT market based on a separate program.

The issue of increasing exports in the industry was also discussed at the meeting. The goal for the current year is to reach $300 million.

The Head of state noted the need for creating additional conditions for attracting orders from abroad. In this regard, the task was set to create a Digital Financial Technologies Center for foreign companies in the IT Park.

On the issues discussed at the meeting, information and proposals from responsible persons were heard.