On 16 October Tashkent will host an international scientific-practical conference on "Topical issues concerning the development of the infrastructure and communication services and electronic document circulation".

The organizers of the event are the Uzbek Agency of Communication and Information and the Federal Agency for Information Technologies of Russia.

First Deputy Director of the Centre of Scientific-Technological and Marketing Research, the Candidate of Technical Science Rihsi Isaev told UzA about the integration of electronic document circulation in Uzbekistan.

"First of all, I’d like to emphasized that the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov "On further development and computerization and integration of information and communication technology" dated 30 May 2002 defines the practical measures that should be taken to meet the strategic priorities in the information and communication technologies sector," Isaev said.

"In 2003-2004 a series of legislative acts were passed in the Republic of Uzbekistan on the initiative of the head of our state. Among them were the Law "On electronic digital signature" according to which electronic digital signature was made of equal power and of equal legal force with the autographic signature, and the Law "On electronic document circulation", which establishes the legal force of an electronic document. One of the compulsory features of an electronic document is the electronic digital signature. Another act of legislation of that period was the Law "On electronic commerce" which determined the aspects of legal regulation of e-commerce.

All this was preceded by a true revolutionary breakthrough in the field of data transmission and dissemination which resulted from the establishment of the global computer networks in the world. According to the international analysts, about 30% of all corporate information is exchanged and stored in electronic form both in the structured (databases) and unstructured forms. The volume of electronic text information doubles every three years. Along with the growth in the volume of electronic information, there is an increase in the number of paper documents and the volume of document turnover. Every year, about 6 billion new documents are produced in the world. Undoubtedly, in this sort of conditions, electronic document circulation should see fast development. It allows to significantly raise the speed of information sharing and processing, and substantially reduces the need for storage space.

The need to develop electronic document circulation is determined by three factors. This includes the technological breakthrough in the work with official documents, where electronic document circulation is gradually replacing conventional paperwork. Companies are experiencing the need to automate the processes of collection and processing of large flows of information and ensure the proper recording and control over the business processes, financial, material, non-material, labour and other resources. In the progressive electronic commerce deals are made between the parties in the electronic form using the Internet network.

The first in the world electronic document circulation systems emerged in the banking sphere. One of such systems – SWIFT - has been in place since the early 70s of the previous century. Internal and inter-bank information systems began to develop later on. Next followed the improved and more sophisticated document circulation systems tailored for business processes, information management, images and work flows.

At this time, there are in the world about ten thousand companies specialized in the development of electronic document circulation systems. The main leaders in this sphere are the companies, such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Documentum and others. There is also the tendency towards the consolidation of the efforts of individual companies in the development of joint solutions for the development of the electronic document circulation systems.

Today an electronic document is the main means of information provision. In active work with various documents, sooner of later the problem of systematization, processing and safe storage of large volumes of information arises. Using the systems of electronic document circulation one can overcome many organizational and technological limitations, typical for paper data-carriers. This allows increasing the productivity and efficiency of paperwork, raising the quality of administrative work and management, and ensuring the reliability of information protection.

The system of electronic document circulation should be integrated not only at the scale of one individual enterprise, but in all sectors of the country’s economy. For instance, in the taxation sphere this would include the collection of the reported information on the performance of tax obligations by taxpayers, its registration, as well as collection and analysis of informational and analytical reports on tax inspections. The sphere of foreign economic activity and customs could use the system to keep record of the companies and individuals engaged in the foreign economic operations and trade, receive reports on the customs payments, import, export and transit cargo transportation. The sphere of economy and industry could use it to collect macroeconomic data and forecast the key technical-economic indicators of the industry’s development, etc.

A substantial progress has been observed in the development of the systems of electronic document circulation tailored for the organization (formalization) of relations with business partners and clients. In this, electronic documents are exchanged for the purpose of confirmation of the deals made. The organization of this form of exchange is supported by the integrated system of electronic document circulation involving the use of electronic mail and portals.

The services of electronic document circulation find particularly high demand and are efficiently applied in the systems of electronic commerce. The organization of electronic commerce requires the development of the system of electronic payments – intra-bank, inter-bank and the systems of different sorts of electronic payments. The electronic payment systems providing alternative means of improving financial operations through teller machines using the banking credit and debit cards, as well as electronic wallets have become particularly popular lately.

The main obstacle on the way to the development of the electronic document circulation is the need to solve a number of issues concerning the maintenance (guarantee) of the security of information provided and providing the electronic document a status, under which that electronic document would have a probative force. These issues could be solved through the legal regulation of the electronic document circulation both within individual sovereign state, as well as on the international arena.

The abovementioned special legislative acts passed in Uzbekistan have created a strong legal foundation for efficient use of electronic documents in the country. This is already some first experience. A pilot project on the integration of electronic government envisaging the construction of an integral system providing for the openness and transparency of the activity of government agencies is being implemented in Syrdarya region. According to the project plan, a portal of Syrdarya region will be created, and electronic document circulation and other measures intended to help closer interaction among the local government structures, citizens and business structures will be put in place. The effect of the integration of electronic document circulation at the scale of individual organization, industry and the country as whole, as well as beyond its boundaries is huge.

For the transition to modern electronic information sharing around the country as a whole, the infrastructure of electronic document circulation services has been created: telecommunication network has been digitalized to more than 80% and this is a very high indicator for a former Soviet country. The main legislative acts and government decisions have been passed to start the construction of the infrastructure for the use of digital signature, etc.

At the same time it is important to note that there is a number of urgent problems, the solution of which will determine further speedy development of electronic document circulation in all sectors of the country’s economy. There is a need to first of all develop information and communication infrastructure in each sector of the economy individually and for the country as a whole, i.e. there is a need to create corporate information networks and integrate information and communication technology. Conditions should be created for the reduction of the digital gap in integration of information and communication technologies between the industries and regions of the country. The issues of standardisation of the systems and services of electronic document circulation and its use by the government should be solved. The centres for registration of electronic digital signatures should be developed for further formation of the infrastructure of open keys of electronic digital signature, and the use of cryptography in civil-legal relations should be regulated.

The international scientific-practical conference on the urgent issues concerning the development of the infrastructure and communication services and electronic document circulation to be held in Tashkent will provide an opportunity to discuss the ways to solve important problems, such as speedy and all-round training of the users of electronic document circulation services, raising the level of population’s trust toward electronic digital signatures, and strengthening information safety within the electronic document circulation systems.