Mr. Zhao arrived in Uzbekistan at the invitation of the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan as an honorary guest of ICTWEEK Uzbekistan 2017. During the visit, the head of ITU expressed a desire to meet with the leadership of the largest telecom operator.

Houlin Zhao, accompanied by the head of the Telecommunication Development Bureau in the CIS region Kirill Oparin and the representative of the Ministry for the Development of Information Technologies and Communications, got acquainted with the activities of Beeline, having discussed a number of pressing issues. Thus, the Secretary-General of the ITU highly appreciated the initiative actively being discussed now to introduce in-country inter-network roaming, which will allow subscribers, while leaving the service area of their network, to use the services of other operators without changing the SIM-card.

Commenting on the results of the meeting, Mr. Zhao said: “It is always difficult to ensure high-quality communication in remote, hard-to-reach areas. It is remarkable that the leadership of Uzbekistan supports the desire of operators to provide the entire population with voice and data services, creating the most favorable conditions for this. In many countries, significant progress has already been made in the field of inter-operator roaming, and I consider it an excellent idea to simplify this system by facilitating communication among people.”

During the meeting with Director General of Unitel Dmitry Shukov and top management of the company, ITU representatives discussed key trends in telecommunications and digital sector, detailing the prospects for dynamic development of the industry. The head of ITU stressed that he is impressed by the changes taking place in the country and is inspired by the optimism with which the management of Beeline looks to the future.

Dmitry Shukov particularly noted the constructive partnership with the Uzbek ICT Ministry: "Positive changes occurring in all spheres of the economy are perhaps especially evident in the IT and telecommunications industry. Over the past weeks, a number of decisions have been made, which, with proper implementation, will soon bring our industry to a qualitatively new level. I am sure that we are expecting a technological breakthrough in the digital era, because the communication operators of Uzbekistan with the support of the regulator are working on this right now. "

Summarizing the results of the meeting, the head of ITU expressed his readiness to assist in providing expert support to the planned reforms at the international level.