Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 22 February, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a videoconference on accelerating digitalization processes in areas and regions.

Much attention paid in recent years to the field of information technology is yielding results. Last year, residents of the IT park provided services worth 5 trillion soums and exported services worth US$140 million.

370 out of 715 public services have been digitized, last year 12 million people used e-services. As a result of digitalization, the demand from the population for more than 70 types of certificates and documents has been cancelled.

However, it was noted at the meeting that these measures are not enough. There is a lot of work to be done in the areas and regions. In particular, only 30 percent of the 5,000 functions of ministries have been digitalized. Dozens of services in the areas of internal affairs, justice, standardization, health care, to which the population turns most of all, have not been converted into electronic form.

In the field of information technology, the main part of production and export falls on the city of Tashkent. The construction of IT parks in Karakalpakstan, Bukhara, Namangan, Surkhandarya, Navoi and Tashkent regions has not yet been completed.

At the meeting, the existing shortcomings in the field were analyzed and tasks for the future were identified.

It was noted that in the future the export of information technology services in our country should reach US$1 billion. This requires at least 100 thousand qualified programmers, IT architects, operators and engineers. It is necessary to expand the high-speed Internet network in the regions, create a more favorable environment for the presence of foreign IT companies. It is required to introduce new electronic services in the areas most in demand by citizens and entrepreneurs.

The head of state listed the growth opportunities available in the sphere.

First of all, it was determined that the projects tested in Tashkent will be implemented in all regions. In particular, such systems as the Digital Geoportal, the digital portal of the housing and communal sector and the People’s Control system were launched in the capital. The city khokimiyat has a digital development department. It was determined that this structure will be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Digital Technologies and will be engaged in the process of digitalization in all regions of the country.

Particular attention was paid to the issue of full digitalization and integration of all business processes and the most necessary services for the population.

For example, due to the lack of a unified database of students, schools had a different number of classes. In September last year, as a result of harmonizing the databases of schools, kindergartens, registry offices and internal affairs bodies, 4,000 unreasonably created classes were optimized, thereby saving 350 billion soums.

The head of state noted that such work can be carried out in other areas. The Ministry of Economy and Finance was instructed to allocate funds for these purposes, as well as leave half of the funds saved due to digitalization to the ministries and khokimiyats.

The Ministry of Digital Technologies was tasked with connecting 26 information systems to the Unified Public Services Portal and increasing the number of services in it to 570.

“What is the purpose of digitalization? To make people happy, to ensure human dignity, justice,” said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

The President stressed the need to train young people in information technology, create conditions for working in this area and create a market for products developed by young people.

On 1 April, the republican competition with a prize fund of US$1 million will start in the areas of "Electronic Government", "Programs for Business", education. Also, 50 best programs created by youth in the regions will be purchased at the expense of digitalization funds.

Over the past two years, 215 IT training centers have been opened in our country. The creation of financial incentives for such educational institutions and their graduates has been announced. In particular, for each graduate who gets a job in a company that exports its products, training centers will receive a subsidy of up to 25 million soums, and for each employed specialist with disabilities - up to 35 million soums. Young people with an IT-certificate will be able to get a personal plastic card and receive a preferential loan to buy a computer.

The Million Programmers project also justified itself. Currently, the majority of IT park specialists are young people who have completed this program.

Youth education will be expanded, including through the Coursera platform. The most talented, who passed the selection, will be trained for the international IT market on the basis of a separate program.

The meeting also discussed the issue of increasing exports in the industry. The goal for the current year is to reach US$300 million.

The head of our state stressed the need to create additional conditions for attracting orders from abroad. In this regard, the task was set to create a Digital Financial Technologies Center for foreign companies in the IT park.

On the issues discussed at the meeting, information and proposals from responsible persons were heard.