Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev was presented with information on measures aimed at developing digital technologies in Uzbekistan, expanding specialized training for youth and supporting projects in this area.

Relevant instructions were formulated by the head of state during a visit to the Ministry of Digital Technologies on 20 December 2023.

In recent years, this sector has shown a high growth trend, the number of specialists emplohyed in this area, as well as the services provided, is increasing. For example, if in 2017 there were 147 IT companies registered in the country, today this number is close to two thousand. These companies employ about 30 thousand people engaged in highly paid activities. More than 70 thousand young people independently study information technology.

Over the four months of this year, the volume of services in the field of digital technologies increased by 20 percent, exports amounted to US$200 million, and 5 thousand new jobs were created.

However, the bulk of services and exports in the information technology sector is concentrated in the capital, where 80 percent of specialists live.

In this regard, in order to develop this industry in remote regions of the country, it is planned to create IT towns.

According to the project, towns will be organized first in fifteen regions - Chimbay, Gijduvan, Zaamin, Sharaf-Rashidov, Farish, Khatyrchin, Pap, Shakhrisabz, Kushrabat, Saryasi, Syrdarya, Parkent, Tashlak, Tuprakkala regions and the city of Khanabad.

Every year, about ten thousand young people will be able to receive free education in information technology, foreign languages and other modern professions.

The President emphasized that IT towns should be conveniently located for young people and have highly qualified teachers.

“In our rapidly changing times, all areas require personnel with information technology. In this area, qualified specialists are a key resource for both service provision and export. IT towns should become a platform that will help young people unlock their potential and master modern professions,” said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

In advanced countries, startups are widely supported for the development of the IT industry. Uzbekistan also hosts startup competitions for IT education and software products. However, it is necessary to increase their transparency and allocate grants based on project performance.

In this regard, it is proposed to hold a competition among startups of IT education and software products with a prize fund of up to 1 billion soums.

The President emphasized that the evaluation of competition participants should be carried out by prestigious international companies, as happens in the President Tech Award competition.

Work on the creation and application of solutions based on artificial intelligence is also progressing successfully. These technologies are being implemented into the My ID system for biometric identification. Today, 28 banks and 5 government organizations are connected to this system, and the number of users exceeds 8 million 200 thousand people.

A voice assistant in the Uzbek language Muxlisa is being developed. It is planned to introduce this development into various modern technical devices.

In order to increase the efficiency of the digital technology sector, the task is to improve regulations in the field of artificial intelligence and space activities.

The Unified Platform for Utilities was also presented at the presentation. This system will allow consumers to pay for services from eight utility organizations, as well as collect and automatically distribute data from more than 14 agencies.