IT Community was launched in Uzbekistan!

On March 4, 2023, with the support of IT Park, one more large-scale project was launched in the capital city: the opening of the IT Community Uzbekistan took place. The event was held at the Tashkent State University of Economics. In total, more than 500 people took part in the event.

The ceremony was opened with a welcoming speech by Deputy Director of IT Park Makhliyo Muksinova. In her speech, she noted the importance of the community for the development of the IT industry, as it can become a springboard for the implementation of new ideas, bringing together young people and creating start-ups, sharing knowledge and experience, and dialogue between young professionals and IT-experts, which will allow the industry to develop more actively.

The first meeting within the IT Community was marked by the speeches of 6 speakers:

• Leonid Cherny – Executive Director according to UZUM, a well-known top manager who participated in the creation and development of products of such companies as MegaFon, Rambler, Yandex, Mail.ru Group;
• Bobur Rajabov – technical entrepreneur, owner of a network of training centers, CEO at EverbestLab;
• Akmaljon Musaev – CEO at HyperApp, project manager and founder of startups, co-founder and head of the GAMEFALL project in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and the United States;
• Alyona Vladimirskaya – a former HeadofRecruitment at Mail.RuGroup and an HR Brand of the Year award winner. She is called the main headhunter of Runet;
• Munira Bekmuradova – Senior Software Engineer and Community Leader at Toptal;
• Shavkat Karimov – the head of the IT Community Uzbekistan, SEO specialist, mentor, investor.

They shared with the participants of the meeting the secrets of their success, which allowed them to pave their own way to IT peaks. At the end of the sessions, the participants had the opportunity to ask questions to the speakers of the meeting.

After the official opening ceremony of the session with invited guests, the head of the IT Community Uzbekistan Shavkat Karimov held a presentation of the project, noting that the goal of the new project is to unite IT-professionals and all those interested in this area in one place.

The program was also filled with activities: throughout the event, participants took part in interactive activities and contests with prizes. For example, interactive games involving artificial intelligence were organized during the event. These games ensured the active participation of all those present at the opening ceremony and representatives of the community.

The participants had the opportunity to get to the closed Pizza Party, where they could communicate with the speakers and ask all their questions.

Several speakers shared their impressions of the event:

Alena Vladimirskaya, CEO of ITalant.

“I firmly believe that Uzbekistan will become IT country and believe in the development of the IT Community.

I also took part in organizing such communities in Russia. From my experience, I realized that it is difficult for young professionals or those who do not have experience to find their way in the IT industry on their own and talented young people are often left behind. The main task of the IT Community is to find such young professionals, develop their abilities and bring them to a new level. We gather such specialists and send them to the right companies, based on their interests.

Seeing the enthusiastic attitude of participants and volunteers at the opening of the community, I became a witness that the doors of great opportunities are opening in Uzbekistan for the development of the IT industry. Here, young people have potential and are fluent in foreign languages. This is certainly a great historical event.

Additionally, specialists from Uzbekistan are considered not very expensive and high-quality programmers for international IT organizations. Of course, they will also be happy to launch IT Community.

I wouldnʼt be at todayʼs opening if I didnʼt believe in the community perspective. I believe that Uzbekistan will become IT locomotive, continue to develop and achieve high goals”.

At the opening ceremony, the head of the IT Community, Shavkat Karimov, emphasized the following important points.

“Our organization of the IT Community has three main goals.

Firstly, to create an opportunity for people and professionals with knowledge in the field of IT to find comfortable and suitable conditions for themselves in the future.

Secondly, we have set ourselves the goal of developing key products that are in demand internationally and throughout the IT industry. At the same time, we want to create great world-class products and bring them to a high level inside and outside Uzbekistan.

Thirdly, we plan to achieve recognition of Uzbekistan as an IT country on the world map, like America, India, Russia and China.  We will achieve our goal if foreigners hear about Uzbekistan as an IT country.

It hasnʼt been that long since the launch of the community. Despite this, more than 2 thousand people were accepted as members. Our team has high hopes for the implementation of large and promising projects.

Our biggest goal and vision is to create every opportunity for people to get an education, get a job, build a career and do business in the IT field.

It is too early to talk about future expectations.  But I can say with confidence that our plans for the future are very ambitious.  The opening and formation of the IT community will be one of the major steps towards digitalization and development of the IT sector in Uzbekistan”.

The participants of the meeting shared their feedback:

Andrey Pirogov, Marketing Director of GeoAlert.

“The GeoAlert company was founded in March 2022. We are a resident of IT Park. We are an international operating company. Our team consists of 15 people and we operate worldwide.

Our office is located in Tashkent and we employ local specialists to implement projects. We are very pleased with the speed and quality of their work. We also have offices in Israel, USA and China.

If we talk about what Uzbekistan is currently doing to develop the IT sector and ongoing reforms, then, in my opinion, this is a colossal discovery for us and the beginning of huge changes.  Today, the formation of the IT community is becoming a worthy example for many countries.

I think that in the future this community will contribute to the further development of the IT industry, bringing together large companies and small start-up projects like us”.

Alexey Niskoromny, operations manager of the resident company Brain Garden.

According to Alexey, he was interested to listen to the speeches of the speakers, about the history of their success – how they came to the IT field and how they got stronger in it, as well as their views on the IT industry as a whole.

Todayʼs event gathered a large number of participants, he continues, which indicates the interest of young people in the field of digital industries.  Alexey assures that the IT Community will become a platform that gathers like-minded people.

He also mentioned that he plans to take an active part in such events in the future.

Dildora Alimjanova, Project Manager of TechCells.

“IT Community is a community that unites everyone who is interested in the IT field, who works and studies in this industry. The community will certainly contribute to the empowerment of youth and will give growth to the IT industry of Uzbekistan. Iʼm very proud to be a part of this program”.