Viewing results 1 - 6 of 51
TASHKENT (TCA) — President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev on November 20 visited the Technological Park of software products and information technologies in Tashkent, the president’s official website reported. Continue reading
ASHGABAT (TCA) — At the session of the Turkmen Cabinet of Ministers on September 6, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov signed the Law on Cyber Security, which, among others, defines the processes of digitization in Turkmenistan, the state information agency TDH reported. In this context, a totally new branch for the country — the computer production — is very important for establishment of ‘digital’ Turkmenistan and supply of the national economy with domestic information technologies. The development of the domestic computer industry started with the opening of Agzybirlik Tilismaty company, which was founded by the Centre of Computer Technologies of the Ministry of Trade and Foreign Economic Affairs of Turkmenistan together with Chinese Hengsheng Lianhua Investment Management Co. Ltd. and Tongfang Hongkong Limited for production of computers in Turkmenistan. This year, Agzybirlik Tilismaty made 80,000 children learning computers according to the Resolution of President Berdymukhamedov. The computers were presented to the first grade school students of the country on behalf of the Leader of the Nation. The software of the computers is able to perform 198 various educational functions and has three languages – Turkmen, Russian and English. Agzybirlik Tilismaty now works on manufacturing of test samples of notebooks, tablets, personal computers, and servers. The first batch of personal computers under its own brand name is to be produced by the end of this year. Annual production output of the facility is planned to reach 500,000 computers. It is planned that computers under Turkmen brand name will be supplied to neighboring countries as Agzybirlik Tilismaty is the only plant in Central Asia for production of computer equipment. The joint venture also works closely with Microsoft, the largest transnational company for software development, and the Intel, the leading producer of electronic devices and computer components. They have already given their recommendation to their clients in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan for procurement of computers from Turkmenistan.
BISHKEK (TCA) — Preparations are underway for the first Digital Transformation in Central Asia Conference to be held in Kyrgyzstan in October 2019. Organised by the University of Central Asia (UCA), State Committee for Information Technology and Communications, and the High Technology Park of the Kyrgyz Republic, the event will provide Information Technology (IT) leaders the opportunity to connect with over a hundred Chief Information Officers and IT leaders within Central Asia and abroad, in both the government and private sectors. Continue reading
NUR-SULTAN (TCA) — Kazakhstan’s security service said it will finish testing an encryption-busting root certificate on August 7 that critics say allow it to spy on user activity on the Internet, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported. Continue reading
ASHGABAT (TCA) — Authorities in Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat prevent the residents from installing satellite aerials on the facades of residential buildings and occasionally order public utilities staff to dismantle the dishes from the walls. As a result, people are now installing the aerials on the ground in front of their houses, independent foreign-based news website Chronicles of Turkmenistan reports. Continue reading
DUSHANBE (TCA) — RFE/RL’s Tajik service, Radio Ozodi, is facing Washington’s scrutiny, as critics say it is ineffective in performing its watchdog responsibilities in Tajikistan and overly accommodating to the country’s strongman president. We are republishing the following article on the issue, written by Peter Leonard*, originally published by Eurasianet: Since its founding at the outset of the Cold War, U.S.-funded news broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has sought to promote press freedoms and advance an American vision of democracy in some of the world’s most hardened dictatorships. RFE/RL’s mission – to “provide what many people cannot get locally: uncensored news, responsible discussion, and open debate” – often puts its reporters in the way of harassment from undemocratic governments. As modern authoritarian regimes become more adept at muddying the waters with false narratives, that goal has never felt more urgent. And yet, in Tajikistan, an economically wrecked and profoundly corrupt former Soviet republic on Afghanistan’s doorstep, RFE/RL’s Tajik service, Radio Ozodi, is facing Washington’s scrutiny. Critics see Radio Ozodi as overly accommodating to the strongman president, unintentionally enabling him to gloss over his abuses. Over the course of a months-long investigation into Radio Ozodi, Eurasianet has heard multiple accounts, from almost a dozen current and former staffers, about contacts between Tajik officials and Ozodi editors. According to Eurasianet’s sources, that communication has over several years led to Prague-based senior editors at RFE/RL quashing or watering down stories – especially those that reflect badly on President Emomali Rahmon and his extended family. As a result, critics say, Ozodi is ineffective in performing its watchdog responsibilities: to hold Tajikistan’s regime to account for its myriad human rights violations and report on the unbridled nepotism suffocating economic development. This evaluation is echoed in an internal U.S. State Department memo that has been obtained by Eurasianet. The authors of that document argue that when Ozodi “parrots an authoritarian government’s messaging to its own people,” it risks undermining Washington’s standing across a strategically important region. “The United States cannot risk further staining the American brand in an information space already dominated by anti-American disinformation and anti-democratic norms,” the memo reads. While declining to comment on the contents of the memo, a spokesman for the State Department told Eurasianet that it is in “close communication” with RFE/RL about issues of concern. “We will continue to track the situation, and to support RFE/RL as they investigate the matter,” the spokesman said. For its part, the U.S. Agency for Global Media – or USAGM, the former Broadcasting Board of Governors, the entity that oversees RFE/RL’s work and guarantees its editorial independence – confirmed to Eurasianet that it had recently asked the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General “to aid in investigating Tajik Service programming and management.” RFE/RL representatives at its Prague headquarters have pushed back on multiple accounts detailed below, but nonetheless acknowledged that some problems do exist and that they are working to address them. Most of the people who have spoken to Eurasianet for this...
