Uzbekistan IT market

• Digital Uzbekistan
• Biometrics in Uzbekistan

2023: IT services export growth by 22 times to $344 million

According to the results of 2023, the export of IT services from Uzbekistan reached $344 million. For comparison, in 2020 this figure was estimated at $16 million. Thus, in three years, the volume of exports increased by about 22 times. This is stated in the materials of IT Park Uzbekistan, with which TAdviser got acquainted in early October 2024.

It is said that by the end of 2023, the number of IT park residents in the country reached 1,652: they provided services worth $1 billion. Residents include 890 service companies, 400 grocery companies and 362 educational companies. 523 enterprises are located in the regions, 1129 - in Tashkent.

The growth in exports is explained not only by the expansion of the volume of services, but also by an increase in the number of exporting residents, which at the end of 2023 was 1.5 times more than in 2022 - 551 companies. At the same time, only a third of residents are active in the regions, while the bulk of exports are provided by companies in the capital. As already noted, in 2023, exports reached $344 million - this is 2.4 times more than in the previous year, when the figure was $140 million. IT outsourcing amounted to 57%, product exports - 23%, other services - 20%. A significant part of exports goes to the United States ($151 million), Britain and the EU countries ($82.5 million), the CIS countries ($69 million), the states of the Asia-Pacific region ($27.5 million), the countries of the Middle East and North Africa ($14 million).

In 2023, 846 companies received IT Park resident status, while 304 applications were rejected. The status was revoked from 281 companies: 256 for default and 25 for conducting unauthorized activities. The number of employees of exporting companies has exceeded 13 thousand, which exceeds the number of employees employed in companies operating in the domestic market.

According to the Statistics Agency, in 2023, the average salary in Tashkent in the IT sector amounted to 16.2 million soums ($1,267 at the exchange rate as of October 9, 2024), which is almost 2.3 times more than in the regions of Uzbekistan (7.2 million soums). As of January 1, 2024, more than 26 thousand people were employed in IT park resident companies, of which 22,376 in Tashkent and 3641 in the regions. The number of IT specialists reached 18,950, IT teachers - 736. The number of foreign specialists is 2442.

The number of educational institutions of IT park residents in the country by the end of 2023 reached 362, of which 73% (264) are in the regions, and the remaining 27% (98) are in the capital. In the regions, about 26 thousand young people studied in these centers over the year, which is 67% of the total number of students.

The total income of IT park residents in 2023 for the first time exceeded $1 billion (12.5 trillion soums), an increase of 1.9 times compared to the previous year ($520 million). Of the total volume of services provided, 95% falls on Tashkent and only 5% - on the regions. In total revenue, 73% came from IT services, 26% from software and 1% from IT education.

Uzbekistan It creates optimal conditions for the development of IT-Business, including tax privileges and active support from the state. In particular, IT Park Uzbekistan helps companies. It offers a number of programs to help stimulate the industry. Resident status exempts all types of corporate taxes. Non-residents pay a corporate tax of 4-15%, while residents are exempt from it. Social tax for non-residents is 12%, for residents - 0%. Income tax for non-residents - 12%, and for residents - 7.5%.^[1]

2022: IT services market growth by 125.5% to 22.9 trillion soums

The volume of IT services in Uzbekistan in 2022 soared by 125.5% compared to 2021 and reached 22.9 trillion soums (about $1.87 billion at the exchange rate as of November 22, 2023, when these data were published). This is stated in the study of the international professional IT community Global CIO.

It follows from it that in 2022, sales of programming services provided by Uzbek companies and specialists amounted to 4.2 trillion soums. By the end of 2022, there were more than 12 thousand companies operating in the field of information and communication technologies in Uzbekistan. And the total number of people employed in the ICT industry exceeded 100 thousand.

The volume of IT services soared by 125.5% compared to 2021 and reached 22.9 trillion soums

The number of telecoms and IT companies has increased 1.8-fold in the previous five years, according to the national statistics agency published in 2023. The country's government stimulates the growth of IT companies by exempting equipment, software, and various materials for ICT companies from customs duties. In addition, in 2022, the excise tax on mobile services for operators was reduced to 10%.

Also in the republic, a strategy for the development of the digital economy is being implemented in the program "Digital Uzbekistan - 2030." Global CIO noted several results that countries have achieved in the process of active digitalization:

• in the GovTech quality index in the public services sector, Uzbekistan took 43rd place in 2022, rising 37 positions from 2020.
• in the e-government UN Survey, Uzbekistan in 2022 rose immediately by 18 positions and became one of the countries with a "high/very high level of development."
• In the rating "Government Readiness Index for Artificial Intelligence," developed by the British organization Oxford Insights, Uzbekistan has risen from 158th to 79th place in 4 years.
• According to the Telecommunications Infrastructure Index (TII), in 2022 Uzbekistan is named a country with a high level of TII and ranks 19th out of 220 countries in terms of the cost of broadband internet.^[2]

2019

The share of the digital economy in GDP grew to 2.2%

GDP Uzbekistan According to the results of 2019, the share of the digital economy in 2.2% amounted to 10.9% against USA 10% in, China in and in the 5.5% century. India Information technologies are increasingly developing in the country, but the pace could be higher if not for a number of barriers. More. here

ESET: more than half of Uzbekistan's companies do not have a budget for information security

The international antivirus company ESET conducted an analysis of the state of information security in Uzbek companies in 2019, interviewing dozen of Chief information officers and system administrators. The purpose of the study is to assess the level of protection of the most important information assets from current threats and the degree of readiness of companies to repel cyber attacks.

According to the results of the survey, it became known that 55% of Uzbek companies faced internal cyber threats and 72% with external ones.

The most common cyber threat, as in most other CIS countries, was spam - exactly half of the respondents noted it in a multivariate survey (50%); in second place is malware (48%).

An impressive 18% of respondents reported that their companies suffered from accidental information leaks and 10% from deliberate ones. Also, 18% drew attention to security problems on the side of the service provider/provider and 15% reported that they faced the loss of corporate mobile devices by employees.

The most significant entrepreneurs of Uzbekistan consider financial information: 75% of companies noted that it needs special protection from cyber threats. 48% highlight information about operating activities, 45% - information about partners and clients, 25% - personal data of employees.

Uzbek companies resort to various measures to protect information. 98% use antiviruses, 43% control the use and update of installed programs. 28% of companies have systems for protecting financial transactions.

When assessing the state of information security of Uzbek companies, it turned out that 18% of respondents consider it unsatisfactory. This may be due to a lack of budget for building an effective information protection system, as reported by 53% of respondents.

Opening of the first IT park

On July 24, 2019, the official opening of the first IT park in Uzbekistan took place. It is a complex of facilities, buildings, structures and equipment designed to launch and bring startups to the market. Read more here.

2018

Deloitte to develop ICT development concept in Uzbekistan

Deloitte will help the Government of Uzbekistan develop a concept for the development of the ICT sphere, which includes telecommunications infrastructure, "Electronic Government," information security, innovation, mail, logistics and e-commerce^[3].

The Ministry for the Development of Information Technologies and Communications of the country has already held a working meeting with representatives of Deloit in the CIS. The company's participation in the development of the strategy was discussed, as well as its international experience in ICT issues.

Mininfok, in turn, leads the development of the strategy in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan of December 18, 2017 No. PP-3437 "On the introduction of a new procedure for the formation and financing of state development programs of the Republic of Uzbekistan."

2017

President of Uzbekistan approved the creation of a ministry for innovative development

The Ministry for Innovative Development will appear in Uzbekistan. The corresponding decision was made by the President of the Republic Shavkat Mirziyoyev in November 2017. The main mission of the new department will be to introduce the achievements of science, high technologies and modern innovative developments. Speaking about the creation of a new ministry, the head of the republics stressed that both material wealth and human resources should be used effectively in the country^[4].

The presidential decree "On additional measures to improve the activities of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Moldova" was adopted on November 27. And based on this document, the executive structure of the republic was reorganized, including the creation of new departments. Also, the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan introduced the posts of head of the complex on investments, innovative development, coordination of the activities of free economic and small industrial zones.

Uzbek Silicon Valley plans to create in Tashkent

A High Tech City technology center will be built in Tashkent, which will house modern high-tech production facilities.

The State Investment Committee of Uzbekistan and the South Korean company POSCO Daewoo signed an agreement in November 2017 to create such an object with a total value of over $1.4 billion. A foreign investor also expressed his intention to organize the Uzbek-Korean Institute of Technology in Tashkent (the total cost of the project is $100 million), as well as invest over $630 million in the production of modules for solar panels and the construction of several solar photovoltaic stations with a capacity of 2 GW on the terms of a public-private partnership^[5].

Unified interdepartmental electronic system of performing discipline

Uzbekistan In September 2017, the Unified Interdepartmental Electronic System of Performing Discipline - ijro.gov.uz. was launched in test mode The system should establish document management between all government agencies and will allow monitoring the progress of the tasks.

The interdepartmental system will become an additional tool for operational control with centralized collection and processing of data that were previously stored in the internal systems of departments. Recall that it was the lack of integration of departmental systems that was the main problem of the entire electronic government of Uzbekistan. Another problem requiring elimination was the formal attitude of heads of departments to the implementation of tasks. Often, instead of specific actions, numerous boards and meetings were collected, unnecessary statistics and certificates were collected. The system is designed to correct these shortcomings and identify unscrupulous officials.

The order to create a unified interdepartmental system for improving public administration was given by the country's president Shavkat Mirziyoyev. The implementation of the project was entrusted to the state-owned Unicon.uz companies, the enterprise will also continue to act as the operator of the system^[6].

While the service is at the stage of testing and connecting government agencies. As they join the system, government agencies will have to report on the progress of the implementation of decisions and instructions. All user actions in the system will be automatically confirmed by an electronic digital signature. A user database is created and generated in parallel. Since May 15, all orders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have already been received through the new system. On September 1, it became possible to exchange data between the Cabinet of Ministers, the presidential apparatus and other departments. The South Korean company Bridgesoft inc will provide $200 thousand for further development, maintenance of the system, as well as developers.

Negotiations with American suppliers

The World Bank proposed introducing a project in Uzbekistan to provide residents of the republic with high-speed Internet.

"The World Bank has presented a project on the introduction of high-speed Internet in CA. This will unite the countries of Central Asia and South Asia. High-speed Internet creates a reliable platform for information transfer, which will help develop a digital economy provided with a guaranteed security system. I believe that Uzbekistan has all the conditions for the development of this sphere, "Randeep Sudan, adviser on digital strategy and government analytics at the World Bank, said in September 2017

HP Tech Ventures is ready to assist Uzbekistan in creating and supporting an ecosystem of technology parks and innovation centers. Amazon's subsidiary, Amazon Web Services, expressed interest in creating data centers in the republic using solar panels, as well as providing web services through Amazon Web Services platforms for users in Uzbekistan.

Also, the Uzbek side signed an agreement of intent with Cisco, whose specialists are planned to be involved in the development of a strategy for the development of "smart" and safe cities in the republic.

Uzinfocom - Unified Integrator for Implementation and Development of State Information Systems

The unified integrator Uzinfocom will be engaged in the development, implementation, integration of IP in the Electronic Government system, the preparation of project and technical documentation. The Center will also improve the quality of electronic public services and ensure interdepartmental interaction of all government agencies. In fact, the same tasks that the Electronic Government Development Center (CEP) had fell on Uzinficom's shoulders. However, the systematic approach to the implementation of projects has changed. If earlier a tender was announced for the implementation of the IT project, now a single integrator reserves the right to attract contractors on a competitive basis who will be engaged in the creation of IP and other subcontracting work. Local IT companies will be able to get only 30% of all work^[7]

System of electronic legal proceedings in Uzbekistan

85 thousand applications from yuridi­cheskikh and individuals were accepted into civil courts through the National Information System of Electronic Legal Proceedings E-Sud of the Republic of Uzbekistan for the first half of 2017. The head of the information and legal support department of the courts of the Verkhovno­go Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Maruf Ergashev, spoke about this in an interview with ICTNews. The electronic litigation system is used in all interdistrict courts for civil cases of Tashkent, as well as in Tashkent­skoy, Andijan, Ferghana, Naman­ganskoy, Syrdarya and Dzhizak regions. In 2017, 550 employees underwent special trainings to work in the system.

Current system functionality:

• remote filing of claims and documents attached to them at a time convenient for citizens,
• automatic access to judicial acts in their personal account immediately after their signing by the judge,
• remote tracking of the latest changes on the application of citizens,
• delivery of judicial acts to the citizen's e-mail address.

Now work is underway to integrate the E-Sud system with the Interbank Universal Netting Information System (MUNIS), which will be used to confirm the payment of state duties when applying to courts in civil cases.

In addition, in accordance with the presidential decree of February 21, 2017 No. UP-4966 "On measures to radically so­vershenstvovaniyu the structure and increase the efficiency of the judicial si­stemy of the Republic of Uzbekistan," the Cabinet of Ministers developed a draft resolution "On measures to dal­neyshemu improve the use of modern infor­matsionno-communication technologies in the activities of courts." The document provides for the further development of the system.

2012, Presidential Decree No. UP-4459 "On Measures to Fundamentally Improve Social Protection of the rabotni­kov Judicial System" and Cabinet postanovleni­e No. 346 "On Measures to Introduce Modern Information and su­dov Technologies into kommu­nikatsionnykh Activities" were issued. In 2013, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan, together with UNDP in Uzbekistan, launched the E-Sud National Information System for Electronic Legal Proceedings in the Zangiatinsk Interdistrict Court for Civil Cases. In 2017, its industrial operation began. Objectives of the system: improving the ef­fektivnosti functioning of civil courts, collecting, processing and khra­neniye information on the activities of courts, as well as providing interactive services in the field of legal proceedings, ensuring openness^[8]

2014

ICT Infrastructure Overview

On July 23, 2014, a meeting of the Board of the State Committee for Communications, Informatization and Telecommunications Technologies of the Republic of Uzbekistan was held, which summed up the development of the field of information and communication technologies for the first half of 2014.

During the meeting, it was noted that during the reporting period, enterprises in the field of communications, informatization and telecommunications technologies provided services for 1.93 trillion soums (an increase of 125.4% compared to the same period in 2013), including services for 1.2 trillion soums (an increase of 123.4%).

The total speed of using international information networks increased by 15% compared to the beginning of 2014 and amounted to 11.8 Gbps.

The number of ports installed for the provision of fixed broadband access services to the network Internet has been brought to 613 thousand, the number of used ports has increased by 154.6%.

The state of operation of ports for the provision of broadband telecommunication services in the regions was analyzed. The need for rational and widespread operation of ports for the provision of broadband access services using FTTx technologies, as well as improvements in technical services for the prompt response to requests from telecommunications consumers, was noted.

Within the framework of the project "Creation of contact centers" in all regional centers, new contact centers have been created and modernized in the city of Tashkent.

The tariff for operators and Internet providers connected to the International Packet Switching Center has been reduced to $306.04. US for 1 Mbit/s, which is 2.1% less compared to the beginning of 2014, and 20.3% compared to the same period in 2013.

A phased transition to digital television is being carried out, currently the level of coverage of the population by digital television has been brought to 43.5%.

The number of domains registered in the UZ zone to date has exceeded 18.2 thousand.

The total number of electronic digital signature (EDS) certificates and valid EDS keys issued by EDS key registration centers amounted to 658.7 thousand units.

Over 3,000 software products, 220 developers and 120 companies Software.uz registered in the national catalog of programmers and software products.

The number of computerized postal facilities in the first half of the year increased by 436 and amounted to 1708, the number of automated jobs increased by 413 and reached 2685, the growth was 134.3% and 120.4%, respectively. An additional 353 are connected to the electronic money transfer system, a total of 1,479 workplaces of postal facilities.

Separately, the issues of implementation, determined by the country's leadership, of the tasks of further development of the ICT sphere, outlined at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on the results of the socio-economic development of the country in 2013 and the most important priority areas of the economic program for 2014, were discussed. In this context, the heads of enterprises in the sphere were instructed to take appropriate measures:

• implementation of projects envisaged by government programs for the integrated development of the information and communication system of Uzbekistan for 2013-2020, which outlined such tasks as providing the population with the opportunity to carry out relations with state authorities in electronic form, the introduction of the "one window" principle in the "Electronic Government" system, identified measures to create complexes of information systems and databases of the "Electronic Government" system;

• improving the quality of public services provided, simplifying procedures and reducing the terms of their provision, as well as introducing uniform standards for servicing citizens by all state bodies.

Internet market and audience in the Republic of Uzbekistan

According to J'son & Partners Consulting (Jason & Partners Consulting), in 2014 the number of mobile broadband Internet access subscribers exceeded the mark of 10 million users, fixed broadband access - 117 thousand subscribers. The growth of subscribers in 2014 was 3% and 5%, respectively.

Five operators provide cellular services in Uzbekistan, and the seven largest operators providing broadband access services in Tashkent and other cities of the country are present in the fixed Internet market.

Despite the fact that the gradual reduction in tariffs has increased the availability of the Internet, unlimited Internet is still rare due to the high cost. Therefore, downloading films or other applications that absorb a large amount of data is not common in Uzbekistan. But the popularity of social networks, online chats, forums and video communication prevails - they make up 35% of national Internet traffic. In addition, popular activities on the Web are online messaging, file sharing, as well as discussion forums.

According to a survey by J'son & Partners Consulting, the frequency of Internet access varies depending on the device. Thus, the frequency of Internet access from mobile devices (from a mobile phone or smartphone) is 15% higher compared to personal computers or laptops. Almost half (47%) of mobile users go online every day, among PC and laptop users the share of such users is 32%.

Over the past 5 years, the national telecom operator AK Uzbectelecom, which has a monopoly position in the fixed telephony market and access to international communication channels, has been actively developing fiber-optic networks throughout the country. The total length of the networks exceeded 4000 km. The situation with the availability of fixed broadband networks in the country began to improve, but it is too early to talk about the wide availability of fixed broadband networks. The high cost of transit of Internet traffic due to the lack of competition on backbone networks affects the high cost of broadband access for the population.

The main driver of further development of the main infrastructure of the country and the broadband access market will be:

• Uzbectelecom investments in the further construction of fiber-optic communication networks, especially in the regions;
• sustained growth in domestic demand for data services;
• increasing the role of broadband access in education and public services.

Cellular communication

Main article: Cellular communications (Uzbekistan market)

Tashkent Smart City

Main article: Smart city

See also

• Uzbekistan

Notes