On July 1 this year, the President of Uzbekistan watched a presentation of plans in the field of digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and telecommunications.
The number of residents of the IT park of Uzbekistan has exceeded 2800, and the number of foreign companies has reached 752. About 40 thousand young people earn high incomes in this area.
Over the past 5 years, the industry’s exports have grown from $170 million to almost $1 billion.
In 2024, startups attracted $70 million in venture capital investment.
As a result, Uzbekistan has risen 12 positions and entered the top 100 of the global ranking of startup ecosystems. The country also moved up 17 positions in the international AI readiness index, ranking first in Central Asia.
Uzbekistan topped the ranking of CIS countries in terms of the growth rate of the telecommunications industry.
Work in this area is ongoing. In particular, the following goals are set for the next year:
As part of the implementation of these goals, a number of draft regulatory documents have been developed and discussed during the presentation.
To date, 760 types of public services have been digitized. Last year, 10 million citizens used digital services.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted that it is time to move on to the next stage – building a Digital Government. First of all, digitalization should cover the most popular areas: education, healthcare, construction, and utilities.
Special attention was paid to the development of artificial intelligence technologies. According to the Presidential Decree of October 14, 2024, the AI development strategy until 2030 was approved. USD 50 million has been allocated for the development of infrastructure in this area.
The goal is to create a national model of artificial intelligence and train 1 million specialists.
The Minister of Digital Technologies reported on the current stages of this task and measures to improve the infrastructure.
Expanding the scope of digital services and export potential remains a priority. So far, the main indicators are concentrated in Tashkent, but thanks to the conditions and benefits created in the country, interest from foreign specialists and companies is growing.
In this context, the President emphasized the importance of creating an attractive environment in each region in order to more actively attract foreign IT companies and stimulate the development of the digital economy throughout the country.
The volume of IT services exports from Ukraine in the first quarter of 2023 decreased by 16 percent year-on-year to $1.68 billion, the IT Ukraine Association said in a press release on Friday.
It pointed out that for January-December 2022, IT services exports increased by $400 million compared to 2021, to $7.35 billion.
“This decline (in Q1-2023) is due to two factors: first – in previous years, the industry grew at an ultra-high rate, and second – each first quarter of a new year traditionally has a decline compared to the first quarter of the previous year. However, the results of the quarterly exports of IT-services from Ukraine in 2022-2023 show that now the industry has entered into a “flat”, that is, growth has stopped and a significant decline has not begun, “- a comment from the executive director of the Association IT Ukraine Konstantin Vasyuk said in a press release.
According to the Association, in the fourth quarter of 2021, exports of IT services from Ukraine amounted to $ 2.11 billion, in the first quarter of 2022 – $ 2 billion, in the second quarter – $ 1.74 billion, in the third quarter – $ 1.74 billion, in the fourth quarter – $ 1.87 billion. At the same time, the first quarter 2023 export figure is higher than any first quarter figure since 2014, when it was only $0.34 billion. Even in Q1 2021, the figure was lower than the current $1.44 billion. It was only surpassed in Q1 2022 at $2 billion.
It is reported that according to the Association’s observations, which are based on data from the National Bank (NBU), a similar situation took place in 2014, when the IT-sector also showed a drop of 26% and held positions $350-400 million quarterly. However, in 2016, the IT-sector resumed growth and until 2022 was adding 20% annually.
With reference to the NBU data, the IT Ukraine Association reports that IT services account for 43% of total services exports from Ukraine in the first quarter of 2023.
Ukraine has increased exports of IT services in 2019 by 30.2%, to $4.17 billion, according to a posting on the website of the IT Ukraine association, referring to data of Ukraine’s balance of payment.
“The export of computer services in 2019 increased 30.2% compared to the previous year and amounted to $4.17 billion. Accordingly, the amount of taxes and duties paid to the national budget of Ukraine increased by 28% and amounts to UAH 16.7 billion (an increase of 28.5%),” the association said.
The IT Ukraine association said that, in fact, taxes on the export of IT services for 2019 can cover a third (32%) of the national budget of Ukraine for education for the specified year.
“IT export grows by 20-25% annually. To maintain the current growth rate amid fierce global competition for talents, first of all, we need a balanced government approach to reviewing existing tax models and developing IT education,” Executive Director of IT Ukraine Association Kostiantyn Vasiuk said.
According to IT Ukraine, the growth factor of Ukrainian IT exports is, first of all, the high demand of the global market for IT solutions and the preservation of the contract model in the interaction between companies and IT specialists.
The IT Ukraine Association was founded in 2004. The association includes export IT companies that develop software and products with a total staff of more than 160,000 employees, which together account for 50% of the industry’s total revenue in Ukraine.
The IT Ukraine Association is the silver sponsor of the Ukraine House.
