Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 23 March 2023, the Europe-Uzbekistan Association for Economic Cooperation (EUROUZ) and Association for European Businesses (AEB), in partnership with the Ministry of Digital Technologies of the Republic of Uzbekistan and IT park, with the support of Uzbekistan Mission to the EU held an online webinar “The State of Digital in Uzbekistan”. 

More than 100 companies from across Europe took part in an online discussion or watched the event live on social media, marking this one of the largest IT sector outreach events to EU businesses from the start of this year.

The webinar moderated by Oybek Shaykhov, EUROUZ Secretary-General, and L. Skyner, EUROUZ Board member and Partner at Dentons, included remarks from high-level speakers including Sherzod Shermatov, Minister of Digital Technologies of the Republic of Uzbekistan; Farkhod Ibragimov, Director of IT Park Uzbekistan; Felix Lammers, Co-founder and Director of Plug and Play Uzbekistan and Gulsara Sharipova, Research Development Manager at Revotech, who provided an extensive overview of the opportunities, progress and increasing presence of international companies in Uzbekistan.

The Minister of Digital Technologies Sherzod Shermatov emphasized the government's efforts in the education sector to create future cohorts of graduates having the skills to work at outsourcing jobs for any European companies without having to leave Uzbekistan. The Minister also highlighted Uzbekistan's interest in promoting opportunities for increasing IT export revenue in the European market. “While most of the EU companies search for ways of optimizing costs to stay competitive in the global market, we are aiming to make Uzbekistan the next IT outsourcing destination. For this purpose, we provide international IT companies with the best conditions available, including necessary infrastructure, legal framework and taxation incentives, human capital, and support from the government”, said Mr. Shermatov at the end of his speech.

This theme was also supported by the next speaker, the director of IT Park, Farkhod Ibragimov who informed the audience on the work implemented by the IT park to support the digital ecosystem of Uzbekistan by providing tax preferences and one-stop shop services; launching regional IT Park Branches, IT and BPO Centers; investing in IT education; initiating corporate accelerators and tech awards, as well as opening representative offices in Germany and the USA. Mr. Ibragimov has also provided statistics when talking about Uzbekistan’s potential for the future: “Over the last six years, IT Park service exports have increased from 0 in 2017 to US$140 million in 2022. IT Park's income goal for 2023 is US$300 million, with a potential revenue of US$1 billion in 2025”.

Felix Lammers, Co-founder and Director of PLUG and PLAY Uzbekistan, praised Uzbek entrepreneurs and innovation culture, noting that one of the main reasons for PLUG and PLAY to enter the Uzbek market was the country's huge potential. “We see enormous potential in the market with a population of 36 million, the majority of which is under the age of 30, well-educated, driven entrepreneurs who dare to work on the ideas to scale up not only on the regional but also international levels. We want to see Uzbekistan as a real driver of the IT initiatives across the world by making it a real BPO-provider country indispensable for the global market”.

Gulsara Sharipova presented the case study of RevoTech company, which was one of the the IT Park's first residents. Started with IT, and minor accounting jobs years back, the RevoTech company is now able to take on various functions from data entry to financial forecasts, showing by example the unlimited growth potential that awaits every company in Uzbekistan.

The webinar concluded with a Q&A session, during which the participants could address detailed questions to the government officials on the future plans and targets of IT development in Uzbekistan. As it was pointed out by EUROUZ Secretary-General - Mr. Shaykhov: “EU companies should note that in Uzbekistan, no matter what you do - you get personal attention, transparency, and unwavering dedication to your market entry & presence development plans".

“The State of Digital of Uzbekistan” event follows “the Uzbekistan Economic and Investment Update” webinar, held with the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade at the end of February, and became the second in the series of online events organised by EUROUZ, which aim to bring European audiences into a direct and transparent dialogue with high-level speakers from Uzbekistan’s government. The webinars are part of a series of events titled “Uzbekistan: beyond the numbers” over the course of 2023 that aim to create a new economic communication bridge with the European Union & to highlight the large-scale progressive reforms taking place in Uzbekistan.