On May 13, Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev conducted a government meeting on measures to develop digital technologies and expand IT training for young people across the country.
In recent years, Uzbekistan’s IT sector has undergone rapid growth and compared to the 147 companies registered in 2017, the country now has close to 2,000.
The number of specialist employees has likewise increased and today some 30,000 people work in high-paid company jobs and a further 70,000 young people are independently engaged in the sector.
During the first quarter of this year alone, services in the sector increased by 20 percent, exports amounted to $200 million, and 5,000 new jobs were created.
Home to 80 percent of the country’s IT specialists, Tashkent represents the hub of Uzbekistan’s IT services and exports.
To redress the balance through the development of the IT sector further afield, the government now plans to create IT towns in fifteen of the country’s regions and in the city of Khanabad.
Once established, the IT towns will enable some 10,000 young people per year to study, free of charge, information technologies, foreign languages, and other professions in high demand.
Hailing the initiative, the president emphasized that the key aim of the IT towns is to “give young people wings and train them in professions fit for the modern world.”
