08.06.2020

On June 8, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev was briefed on the progress of reforms in the field of information technology and the development of digital economy.

It is worth reminding that earlier this year, on April 28, the head of state signed a decree envisaging measures for the widespread introduction of digital economy and e-government. To ensure the quality and coordination of the tasks defined in the document, the post of Advisor to the Prime Minister on these issues was set up.

Today, at the presentation, it was noted that the achievement of goals in the field can be accelerated by training a new generation of specialists.

The initial stage of the “One Million Coders” project, it was reported, has been covered with over 62 thousand students, and 5.4 thousand of them have already received certificates of qualification.

The task was set to train 100 thousand people by the end of the year and another 150 thousand in the first half of 2021, and improve students’ skills in software development. The President urged officials to improve the discipline Computer Science taught from the 5th grade in schools, and to include subjects from the project “One Million Coders” in the school curricula.

Today, the demand for digital economy achievements, online services, including in public ones, has been growing. However, only 185 of the 780 types of public services in Uzbekistan are currently available in online form. And the process of digitalization of the activities of most public organizations is reduced to the introduction of electronic document management.

In this regard, Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted the need to enlist graduates of the e-Learning Program to work in government and business institutions as IT specialists. They would be tasked with the digital transformation of organizations.

For example, the decision to provide loans and subsidies to poor families should be taken automatically by a special electronic program based on specific criteria.

The Advisor to the Prime Minister was instructed to devise, with assistance from international experts, a concept for translating the processes of issuing permits and decision-making in organizations into digital format.

It also requires improving the infrastructure of information technologies, increasing IT literacy of the population, especially youth.

The Ministry of Information Technology and Communications Development has been tasked with opening at least 100 digital technology training centers in all regions of the country. The establishments would offer short courses in programming, e-commerce and graphic design.

Attention was also paid to creating conditions for specialists in the field. Last year, a software products and information technology park was opened in the Mirzo Ulugbek district of Tashkent. Branches of this IT Park are set up in Andijan and Margilan. Another subdivision is being built in the campus of the Muhammad al-Khorezmi School of Information Technology in the capital city.

By the end of this year, it is intended to establish similar branches in Gulistan, Bukhara, Namangan, Nukus, Samarkand, Urgench and Jizzakh.

At the presentation, responsible executives informed the President about the progress in construction of these IT parks, ongoing works to expand the network of fiber-optic lines, the speed and quality of mobile internet.