Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 29 July, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited Astrum IT Academy in Yuqorichirchiq district, where he met with IT specialists and youth.

The IT industry is one of the fastest-growing areas in the world. The growth rate of IT services is 10 percent annually. It is expected that this year their volume will reach 4 trillion 300 billion dollars.

Large-scale work has begun in Uzbekistan to take a strong position in this market. Over the past five years, US$2 billion has been directed to the sphere, including US$700 million of direct investment.

At the initiative of the Head of the state, IT parks have been opened in all regions, a special tax regime has been introduced for them. Thanks to this, 14 thousand young people were provided with highly paid jobs. The number of self-employed IT specialists has increased by 2.5 times since the beginning of the year – up to 43 thousand people.

Most importantly, an IT career has become a trend among young people. The “One Million Uzbek Coders” project is being implemented in schools, lyceums, colleges, technical schools and universities.

This year, 134 new IT companies have been created in the country, including 50 foreign ones, and the number of exporting enterprises has doubled. The volume and range of services also increased.

An important factor in this is the ongoing work to create a new and improve the quality of existing infrastructure. In particular, the cost of mobile Internet over the past three years has decreased by 9 times. According to this indicator, Uzbekistan has risen from 68th to 15th place in the international ranking.

“In the next five years, we plan to increase domestic exports of information technology services to US$1 billion. If we properly organize the training of young people, provide them with high-quality infrastructure, computers and guaranteed orders, we will easily achieve this goal”, Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.

The Head of the state noted that for this it is necessary to resolve 4 issues.

First, to significantly improve the coverage and quality of Internet access. Now the level of coverage of regions with high-speed Internet is about 70 percent. There is no internet or mobile communications in 118 villages.

Secondly, the identification and expansion of support for talented youth in information technology. To date, only 10 billion soums of grants have been allocated for youth startups. Technical support is insufficient.

Third, make digitalization a priority in all areas. There are positive developments in this direction in the government, several ministries and companies. However, the measures taken are not enough in the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Energy, the Veterinary Committee, the companies Uzbekistan Railways and Uzagrosugurta.

The fourth important issue is to help young people in the regions enter export markets. In particular, foreign companies have ordered US$100 million worth of services from our young programmers. But orders from domestic enterprises are much smaller.

The meeting was held in the format of open communication. The Minister for the Development of Information Technologies and Communications Sherzod Shermatov spoke about the problems in the sphere and proposals for their solution. Participants of the meeting also shared their opinions.

The Head of the state supported the proposals of specialists and youth, responsible persons were instructed to develop draft relevant documents.

“These issues are a solid foundation for our current and future development, for creating decent jobs for our youth”, the President said.

At the Astrum IT Academy, where the meeting took place, hundreds of young people acquire modern programming skills and earn income while studying. The President said that it is necessary to organize similar facilities in other regions, and such initiatives will receive full support.

Hokims of the regions and local specialists took part in the meeting via videoconference.