A memorandum was signed with the UN Development Program

On December 15, a round table was held in Tashkent on the topic “Closing the Gender Digital Divide in Uzbekistan” with the participation of the Minister of ICT Sherzod Shermatov, Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the State Committee for Family and Women Affairs Zulaykho Makhkamova, UNDP Permanent Representative in Uzbekistan Matilda Dimovska, Advisor to the Minister of ICT  Kamola Sobirova, Deputy Director of IT Park Makhliyo Muksinova and representatives of several other organizations.

The event was dedicated to the main recommendations for closing the gender digital divide in Uzbekistan and a number of other issues.

“If we talk about the digital divide, then there used to be an opinion that the majority of women in Uzbekistan do not use the Internet. But thanks to various studies, it became known that women are good at using information technology. We are trying to attract more women to the ICT field. Following the information technology strategy outlined by the President, Uzbekistan intends to increase the export of IT services to 100 million US dollars by the end of this year, and in the next 5 years this figure will reach 1 billion US dollars. Therefore, it is very important to increase the presence of women in the field of IT and create conditions for their development and growth” – said Minister Sherzod Shermatov in his speech.

The meeting also discussed the best practices for bridging the digital divide, gender equality in digitalization: the main obstacles and ways to advance, strengthening the knowledge and skills of women to address gender issues in Uzbekistan.

Makhliyo Mukhsinova, Deputy Director of IT Park for Development of Digital Education, also spoke at the event. She told the meeting participants about educational opportunities for women.  In particular, about womenʼs educational projects implemented by IT Park, such as: ITWomen.Uz, TechBika, Skills4girls, Future Skills, Tumaris Tech, Digital Internship Program, Digital Pulse and others.

As a result of the event, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the United Nations Development Program and the Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan.