Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Ambassador of Uzbekistan Javlon Vakhabov met with director of Facebook’s product policy and strategy Andy O’Connell to discuss prospects for establishing partnerships in the field of introducing innovations and modern technologies in the development of the domestic economy, as well as assistance of the American side in the field of advanced training of our IT specialists, Dunyo news agency reported.

During the meeting, the American side was informed in detail about the measures being taken by the Government of Uzbekistan to support and stimulate active entrepreneurship, the introduction of innovative ideas and technologies, the creation of the necessary conditions for the accelerated development of information technologies that contribute to increasing the country’s socio-economic potential and sustainable growth in the standard of living and well-being of the population.

During the negotiations, special emphasis was placed on the need to improve the interaction of the parties to prevent violent extremism and radicalization in the Internet space, in particular through the platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. It was emphasized that the priority tasks of the Government of Uzbekistan in this matter are to increase the resilience of young people to the propaganda of the ideas of violent extremism, to timely prevent our people living and working abroad from falling under the influence of extremists.

The representative of Facebook highly appreciated the reforms carried out in the republic in the field of ensuring the openness of government bodies and freedom of speech in the country. As Andy O’Connell noted, the American company is grateful to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev for his personal contribution to ensuring the smooth operation of the Facebook platform and other Internet networks in the country.

In his opinion, at present, social networks are not only a tool for communication between people, but also a very effective channel for the rapid identification of pressing problems in every society. In this case, Andy O’Connell emphasized, the new dynamics in the Internet space of Uzbekistan and the close attention paid by the Government to solving urgent problems is a very productive and justified approach.

The management of Facebook fully supported the desire of the Uzbek side to closely cooperate with the company on the timely elimination of any sources of extremist ideology and networks of online recruitment of terrorist groups. As stated by Andy O’Connell, Meta Platforms, Inc. in general, and its division Facebook will welcome the active interaction of the parties in this direction.

In addition, the representative of Facebook expressed his readiness to assist in the training of gifted IT specialists, to receive representatives of our country at the head office of the company. As it was noted during the negotiations, every student in Uzbekistan who wants to can apply for internships in an American company through a specially created web page on the company’s website.

At the end of the meeting, the Embassy expressed gratitude to Andy O’Connell for verifying the status of the official Facebook page of the Uzbek Embassy in Washington, DC Dunyo.