Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- At an expanded meeting of the Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications, tasks were considered for the execution of instructions to the heads of industries and areas, announced during the meeting held on 14 April under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the results achieved in the field of information technology and tasks for 2022.

Minister for the Development of Information Technologies and Communications, Chairman of the Board Sherzod Shermatov gave information on the work done by the Ministry and industry enterprises for the first quarter of 2022, in particular, on the growth 2.8 thousand mobile communication base stations, creating about 1.5 thousand jobs, bringing their total number to 11.5 thousand.

During the meeting, Sherzod Shermatov gave many examples of this kind.

“If in 2019 the number of employees of IT Park residents was four thousand people, today the number of specialists is already 11.5 thousand people. But even this figure is not high, as the President noted, setting a new task for us. From now on, our main task is to increase exports and create high-paying jobs. By the end of this year, we must bring this figure to 15,000, next year to 30,000, and in a year to 50,000. This is a serious task, to achieve which we all must make an effort. In addition, in the IT sector, the number of self-employed reaches 20,000. By the end of this year, this figure will reach 23,800, or almost 24,000 people. Here, too, performance needs to be improved. Leaders in the regions should know them, study their activities, and, if necessary, hold meetings. 20 thousand people, 20 thousand workers is a big figure. Also, our main task is to turn Uzbekistan into a regional IT center,” said the Minister of ICT.

In particular, Sherzod Shermatov paid special attention to the task that President Shavkat Mirziyoyev set for the ministry - to turn Uzbekistan into a regional IT center, and by the end of this year to bring the export of IT products and services to one hundred million dollars.

To turn our country into a regional IT center, first of all, it is necessary to further develop and improve the telecommunications infrastructure, to raise the system of personnel training to a high level to use the capabilities of the infrastructure, since reforms in the field of education do not have a sufficient effect. In addition, the need to create appropriate conditions not only in the capital, but also in other regions of the republic was noted.

As it was emphasized, despite the ongoing work to widely attract young people to the ICT field, ensure their employment through the development of highly paid IT professions, the phased organization of distance service centers (BPO centers), achievements and implemented measures, one cannot be limited to this, since there is still many more important things to do.

The meeting also heard reports from the Deputy Ministers of ICT.

First Deputy Minister of ICT Oleg Pekos spoke about the ongoing work in the framework of the development of IT entrepreneurship, the e-government system, and further digitalization of regions and industries. So, by the end of the first half of the year, it is planned to introduce 30 public services into the system, and by the end of the year - 40 public services, and thereby bring their number to 376. The task was set to increase the number of users of public services in online format from 1.5 million to four million Human.

The report of the Deputy Minister of ICT J. Makhsudov on the ongoing measures to improve the telecommunications infrastructure was heard. As noted, by the end of the year it is planned to connect about 800,000 households to high-speed Internet, increase fiber-optic Internet coverage to 75 percent. It is also planned to increase the coverage of main roads by mobile communication to 60 percent, to speed up work on the coverage of 80 rural settlements with Internet communication.

The meeting also noted the planned work on the qualitative transformation of the activities of O‘zbekiston pochtasi JSC and O‘zbektelekom JSC, on the possible IPO by the company in the future, i.e. placement of its shares for public sale on international stock markets.

During the meeting, special attention was paid to the development of IT education. To this end, the task was set to develop a program to transform the Tashkent University of Information Technologies into a scientific and educational cluster. It will train specialists to work with international companies aimed at exporting IT products and services.

The opinions of the heads of the relevant departments and departments of the Ministry on the issues raised at the extended collegiate meeting were heard. 

On the issues discussed on the agenda, a corresponding decision was made at the expanded meeting of the Collegium of the Ministry.