Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade of the Republic of Uzbekistan

As global digital transformation accelerates, Uzbekistan is steadily establishing itself as a regional leader in e-governance. On the fourth day of the Tashkent International Investment Forum, a high-level panel session titled “Digitalization of Public Services: Enhancing Governance Efficiency” brought together top experts, investors, and reform-minded officials from New Uzbekistan, alongside participants from the UAE, the United States, and other countries.

The session was moderated by Nazim Turdumambetov, Chief Executive Officer of Outpost Eurasia and former Government Relations Director for Philips and Apple. Opening the session, he noted: “Digitalization is no longer a choice - it is the foundation of any sustainable and efficient governance system. Uzbekistan is not just expressing ambitions, it is taking action.”

The keynote speech was delivered by Olimjon Umarov, First Deputy Minister of Digital Technologies of the Republic of Uzbekistan. He noted that since 2023, the number of online public services in the country has doubled. Today, over 50 of them are designed to assist citizens with everyday life events, including childbirth, employment, retirement, and business registration.

“We are building a modern e-government system to save time for our citizens and remove unnecessary bureaucracy in public service delivery,” Umarov emphasized.

He added that today, more than 750 online services are available through the e-government portal, with over 11 million users. All paid services offer a 10 percent discount, while people with disabilities receive a 50 percent discount. Uzbekistan has also adopted the approach of shifting data between institutions rather than requiring citizens to travel between offices. Thanks to the G2G platform, government agencies now exchange information directly. As a result, over 1.7 billion inter-agency requests have been processed, and since 2022, 220 types of documents previously required from citizens have been removed.

Uzbekistan has also launched the OneID system, which provides unified digital access to all major government websites and private services. Over 13 million users now enjoy seamless access to more than 600 state information systems. Face ID technology now enables citizens to obtain driver’s licenses, bank cards, and SIM cards without visiting offices in person.

“In the last two years alone, we have sent over 250 million notifications to citizens regarding key life events ranging  from passport renewals and fine notifications to document expiration alerts. This is how the government shows care for people,” added Umarov.

He also highlighted the launch of a national data center for e-government, enabling state bodies to reduce costs for data storage and processing, while significantly improving reliability and service speed. All of this has been made possible under the framework of the “Digital Uzbekistan – 2030” strategy, which has already propelled the country 24 places up in the UN e-Government Development Index, placing it among the world’s fastest-developing digital nations.

Human capital development was another central topic during the session. Manal Bin Salem, Director of Government Experience Exchange Programs at the UAE Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, presented the results of the flagship joint initiative “One million uzbek programmers”.

“We anticipated one million participants, but 2.5 million registered, and 1.5 million have already successfully completed training and received certificates. This reflects the country’s strong desire for knowledge and its willingness to embrace global digital trends,” she said.

The panel also spotlighted the mGov Award, a competition involving 300,000 students from 27 universities. Participants created mobile applications for public services, taking ideas from concept to fully operational platforms accessible to citizens.

The panel concluded with remarks from Anil Vijayachandran, Deputy Director for Development at DataVolt, a global technology company that has begun construction of a 12-megawatt data center in Uzbekistan.  He emphasized that scalable digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence integration, and regulatory transparency are essential for the development of a next-generation digital government.“We are now in a position to implement AI-based systems from the ground up. These systems can integrate large language models trained in Uzbek, Russian, English, and other languages directly into public services, enabling natural language interaction between citizens and government. This also opens up new possibilities for using intelligent video analytics in key areas such as customs, road safety, and agriculture,”

Uzbekistan is not merely catching up with the digital world. It is shaping its own strategic model of digital development, one that is rooted in citizen convenience, resilient infrastructure, and transparent collaboration between the public and private sectors.