Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The current pandemic conditions have once again proved the importance of implementing information and communication technologies and developing the telecommunications sector.

It became obvious that education, public services, public administration, trade and services are largely dependent on information technology. Services that have not been provided remotely for many years have switched to online mode in a matter of days.

According to experts, in the next three years, thanks to the digitalization of the economy, 22 percent of jobs in the world will be created using Internet technologies.

With this in mind, on 28 April, the President’s resolution was adopted “On measures for the widespread adoption of the digital economy and e-government”.

According to the document, an integrated system for the digital economy has been created at the Ministry for the Development of Information Technologies and Communications. In particular, tasks such as the development of e-government, the digitalization of economic and agricultural sectors, the organization and management of IT parks, were completely transferred to the ministry.

However, the resolution specifically indicates the financial sources of new projects. It is planned to implement 104 projects in the amount of 1.3 trillion soums in the electronic government, 87 projects in the amount of 5.3 trillion soums in the real sector of the economy, 35 - in the amount of 15.1 trillion soums in the telecommunications sector, 18 - in IT parks and 24 projects in the agricultural sector.

During the implementation of the State Program in the Year of the Development of Science, Education and the Digital Economy with the goal of developing telecommunications infrastructure, in 2020, 800 thousand ports for broadband Internet communications will be installed, 12 thousand kilometers of fiber-optic communication lines will be laid.

From the beginning of the year to the present day:

In order to expand broadband Internet networks, contracts were signed for the purchase of telecommunication equipment. Phased delivery of this equipment is currently in progress. Today delivered 300 thousand broadband ports with a capacity of 300 thousand subscribers. They were distributed by region, and today they are being assembled and installed;

During the implementation of the project on the expansion of fiber-optic communication lines this year, 1,405 kilometers of fiber-optic communication lines were laid to the facilities, and work in this direction continues. Thanks to this, many remote rural areas gained access to various telecommunication services, including the Internet;

In addition, in order to expand data storage and processing centers, 40 servers and 5 data storage facilities were installed. Currently, experts carry out installation and installation of equipment;

During 2020, at 104 facilities, 284 base stations were built and commissioned. 460 existing facilities have been upgraded using 3G / 4G technology. Work on modernization in this direction is ongoing.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev at a meeting on 11 May on the widespread adoption of the digital economy and e-government paid special attention to the issues of further acceleration of work in this direction, development of information technology infrastructure.

In 2020, the task was set to increase the coverage of fiber-optic communications in the preschool education system from 41 to 100 percent, in the public education system - from 40 to 70 percent, in healthcare - from 38 to 100 percent.

In this regard, the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications Development has been tasked with providing social facilities with high-speed Internet access, and by the end of the year to reach high-speed mobile Internet coverage up to 90 percent.

Starting with the announcement of the quarantine regime, all operators provided free access to students of secondary schools and pupils of preschool educational institutions to educational sites for the purpose of unhindered learning at home, as well as to information websites and official sources of information.

In particular:

To the portal and resources of the Ministry of Public Education (eduportal.uz, edumarket.uz, online-maktab.uz, talim.uzedu.uz), the website of the Republican Children’s Library, (kitob.uz), the web portal of the Muhammad al Specialized School -Khorazmiy (itschool.uz), domestic video resource (utube.uz), educational portal “ZiyoNET” (ziyonet.uz);

To the resources of the most widely read Internet publications (uzreport.news, xabar.uz, daryo.uz, gazeta.uz, kun.uz, podrobno.uz, repost.uz, uznews.uz, spot.uz);

Sites of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education (tube.edu.uz, dist.edu.uz, mt.edu.uz, pf.bimm.uz, lib.bimm.uz, mt.bimm.uz);

On the official website for the purpose of reporting on coronavirus (COVID-19), on measures taken to prevent its spread (coronavirus.uz).

Technical support was also provided to expand hosting capabilities and ensure uninterrupted operation of channels when exceeding the number of requests from users and official websites of the Ministry of Public Education and the Ministry of Preschool Education when posting video lessons during the holidays.

An open access broadcast of television video lessons was organized, organized by the National Television and Radio Company of Uzbekistan jointly with the Ministry of Public Education and the Ministry of Preschool Education on 3 television channels under the heading “online-maktab” via digital terrestrial, cable and IP-television, the Internet, including by satellite broadcasting to low-power installations in remote and inaccessible settlements.

In this case, the TV channels on which video lessons are broadcast are not disconnected, even in cases of untimely subscription fees for services.

It should be noted that during the implementation of the State program in the “Year of the Development of Science, Education and the Digital Economy” this year, the role of digital technologies in society will increase and the level of digital technology coverage throughout the country will increase.