“Pitching of Uzbekistan”: what made the first Digital Leadership Forum memorable

In recent years, international forums in Uzbekistan have become a frequent occurrence, but they tend to concern the entire economy.

At such events, the reforms that are currently being carried out in the country are presented, a lot is said about investment in industry and production.

There are still not enough thematic events that would bring together specialized experts and professionals.

The Digital Leadership Forum held in Tashkent on July 7-9 is an attempt to fix this.

In fact, it became the first major event where Uzbekistan was presented in a new capacity – as an emerging IT-hub and international BPO-market.

Get ready to rock&roll

This phrase of the CEO of IT Park University Bakhodir Ayupov, who performed the tasks of the moderator, set the tone for the entire event.

The audience immediately realized that now they would not be read out the size of GDP and other macroeconomic indicators again.

No, instead the guests received a presentation of the country, like those that IT companies do.

So, for example, the Minister of Digital Technologies Sherzod Shermatov literally outlined the ultimate goal of the forum in one slide:

• six years ago, Uzbekistan exported IT services for $0.6 million;
• this year it is planned to reach $300 million;
• in another seven years – to grow to $5 billion.

Statistics and forecasts on the volume of exports of IT services in Uzbekistan.

Simply put, Uzbekistan is now becoming an international center for BPO services and has a specific goal.

The current BPO results show that it is quite real, because there is a working model that now just needs to be scaled up.

That is why the main participants of the forum were international BPO companies that came to find out what opportunities Uzbekistan is ready to provide them.

By the way, about them. During the presentation, Sherzod Shermatov briefly spoke about the current tools (IT-visa, benefits and preferences for IT companies, infrastructure) and announced the next big step – the creation of the International Center for Digital Technologies.

Among its features are:

• special legal regime;
• regulatory sandbox;
• special financial and banking environment;
• the system for protecting the rights and interests of investors.

In fact, it will be a special zone where IT companies will be able to focus on their core activities, test hypotheses faster and launch new projects.

From this we can conclude that Uzbekistan is going not only to become an attractive place for outsourcing, but also to turn into a full-fledged hub.

If we take into account the geopolitical situation, then we can say only one thing – “everything is right, now or never”.

Opportunities that donʼt exist anywhere else

The Director of IT Park, Farhod Ibragimov, during his speech announced new opportunities that will be available this year.

Interestingly, these are unique programs that are no longer available in any country except Uzbekistan.

Letʼs take Zero Risk, for example, within which IT companies will be able not to pay for renting premises in the regions for a whole year and get full technical equipment of this office for up to 50 people for free.

Yes, all expenses will be covered by the Information and Communication Technologies Development Fund and IT Park itself.

Moreover, companies will be covered part of the salaries of professionals, will be allocated compensation for HR-services and will be given the opportunity to share the costs of mentors.

Thus, opening offices outside of Tashkent is now a very attractive step.

Another program, Global Excellence, aims to attract foreign companies to the country. It provides for:

• working with foreign direct investment consultants on fixed contracts;
• full covered programs of visits to Uzbekistan;
• the search and analysis of promising projects.

The third program, Local 2 Global, aims to increase the exports of local companies.

Thus, it will reimburse the costs of export counselling and business trips to other countries.

Additionally, a mentoring program for exports, a sponsorship program for trips of foreign clients to Uzbekistan and more will be launched.

Simply put, in order to reach the $5 billion mark, it is necessary to increase the number of companies involved in outsourcing.

To do this, Uzbekistan must offer something that is not available in other countries. Three new programs – thatʼs exactly what it is.

Start of the new business projects and panel sessions

Another part of the forum was the presentation of several projects from old and new companies.

First of all, this is Huawei, which has opened a regional marketing and development resource center in Uzbekistan.

By the way, the company has only five such centers around the world – in addition to Uzbekistan, they are located in Mexico, Egypt, Malaysia and China.

Moreover, the center in Uzbekistan is considered one of the largest, because it serves the whole of Europe, the MENA countries, Central Asia and 75 other countries.

Secondly, ZTE opened the BPO Center in Tashkent and announced that Uzbekistan is a new key direction for the company.

Thirdly, the VEON company, which already has several projects in the country, for example, Beeline, announced the launch of a new product – the OQ telecommunications application.

Fourthly, Acharya Institute of Technology (India) has announced the opening of a branch in the city of Karakul, Bukhara region.

All new projects are united by the fact that they are aimed at developing the digital environment of Uzbekistan in one direction or another.

For example, the Huawei resource centre is an example that Uzbekistan is well suited for opening a regional office, while the new VEON project demonstrates that the domestic market is developing and there is plenty of room for new start-ups.

The opening of the Acharya branch in the Bukhara region will increase the number of new personnel in IT specialties, and the ZTE BPO Center has become a good signal for everyone else who is also looking for a promising platform for outsourcing.

Additionally, panel sessions on a variety of topics were also held as part of the forum, you can read more about them on the IT Park website.

“Pitching of Uzbekistan”

In business, there is a term “pitching” – this is when an employee or startup must defend their initiative in front of management or investors.

The current forum has become a pitching session of Uzbekistan, which put forward an initiative to become a hub and outsourcing center to the international IT community.

The event brought together over 300 BPO companies from all over the world, who had the opportunity to see for themselves the seriousness of intentions, plans and prospects.

Yes, the ultimate goal is to increase the volume of exports of IT services by $5 billion by 2030, however, as Huawei CTO Paul Michael Scanlon noted during the forum, for this we need to join forces and cooperate now. Digital is around us.

The first Digital Leadership Forum seems to have coped with this task, so next year we can expect the second one. 

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Author:  Timurmalik Elmuradov — analyst, R&D specialist, Msc of the Research University Higher School of Economics. Author of "Skartaris Peak (https://t.me/skartariss)" - the leading Telegram channel about business, market and technology in Uzbekistan.