Speaker A
Okay. Uh, good morning. I don't know. Good day to all of you. Thank you for coming to our panel on AI, digital governance, and innovation.
Exploring AI's transformative impact on digital governance, innovation, and investment opportunities globally, with a focus on Uzbekistan.
Key Takeaways
- AI is a transformative technology reshaping governance, innovation, and investment landscapes.
- Governments must invest strategically in AI to modernize public services and compete globally.
- AI governance is becoming a geopolitical issue dominated by a few leading nations.
- Uzbekistan is positioning itself as a key player in AI infrastructure and digital economy development.
- Practical AI applications in healthcare and education are already demonstrating significant benefits.
Summary
- AI represents the biggest technological transformation in human history, with rapid exponential growth since 2022.
- The traditional theory of the state is evolving, with technology driving profound changes in public services like healthcare and education.
- AI-driven automation can revolutionize bureaucratic government processes such as tax, customs, and business setup.
- Geopolitically, AI is controlled mainly by the US and China, with export controls shaping global AI governance.
- Investment in AI infrastructure and innovation is critical for countries to gain competitive advantages and economic growth.
- Uzbekistan is actively developing AI infrastructure, including national supercomputers and special economic zones for data centers.
- Private sector investments in AI, such as those by JP Morgan, highlight the scale and speed of technological adoption.
- AI tutors and AI doctors are emerging as practical applications that can significantly improve education and healthcare outcomes.
- Collaboration between countries leveraging their strengths and trusted partnerships is vital for future AI economic structures.
- The panel encourages audience engagement and highlights the importance of implementation capability in AI adoption.
Chapters
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Uh, so we have a very long list of speakers tonight. So I'm inviting all the panelists to take their seats, please, uh, in the front.
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And, uh, the setup is going to be as follows. So we have first two keynote speakers today.
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Uh, and I will invite them one by one. And after that, uh, if the audience has any questions to speakers, please feel free to raise your hands. I believe we have people with microphones in the audience. So they should be
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able to hand in the microphone to you to ask questions. So the audience will have a chance to ask questions after each speaker is done, uh, uh, with their part. So with this said, uh, please allow me to invite Benedict Macon-Cooney,
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chief AI and innovation officer from Tony Blair Institute for Change. Thank you. Well, thank you, Nazim, and good morning, everyone. Um, it is an honor to be here, and, um, what a fantastic forum that has been put on. I had a little
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walk around just before my session, and incredibly impressive what is being to happen here in Uzbekistan, uh, of course, in many of the areas that I'm just about to discuss. Um, secondly, I should also say, uh, for any
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of the football fans out there, congratulations obviously to Uzbekistan with the loss this morning.
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Um, as an England supporter at World Cup, so I know how that feels, but I'm sure you're going to beat Portugal in the next game.
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Um, I really want to touch on a few things this morning, and I think I'll start with a bit of the backdrop as I see it.
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And I think one of the most simple ways to frame what is happening today is that AI is a technology like no other.
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It simply is the biggest technological transformation that we've ever had in human history. Um, and when often we go around the world to speak to the presidents, prime ministers, and governments that we work with, we sort of say that, you know, you can't just treat
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it as a thing. It really is the thing. And a lot of the world will sort of be second-order consequences will come as a result of the change that comes with this. And I think if you then just look
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then in just very simple terms, if you go back to the Industrial Revolution, 200 years ago, the long tail of that potentially took a century to change through our societies, and arguably actually even still through the things like the energy transformation, it is
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still happening. Some of the, you know, the big industrial components that we bought built in that early era are still very present in our society and still have ramifications.
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Yeah, you then have the electrification, which took decades to go through America, as well as many countries around the world are still even being electrified today.
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The internet, we saw the consequences, you could probably say two decades of change. Now, just to think about what's been happening in AI, really the fundamental breakthroughs only came in 2022, and the pace of change has been, you
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know, exponential. If you comparatively think in very simple ways, the EU AI Act and Anthropic, the major US company, were basically started at the same time. Now, one piece has then been put into legislation as being reviewed right now.
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The other is already a trillion-dollar plus company. And even when people think we're very late to this game, it shows you actually how much quick gains you can have if you get yourself in the right place.
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Um, and so thinking about that and some of the change that is then going through, I think there's three big things that sort of political leaders and investors and those many of those in this room need to think about today. I think
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number one is that the theory of the state as it currently exists, I think, will change quite profoundly in the coming years. If you look at a country like mine, the UK, you know, we're really in a place where
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economic growth has been very stagnant, taxes are very high, all the public services that we you consume as citizens are really kind of at a point where they're fundamentally broken. And I think that exists across a lot of the sort of the
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Western and OECD world. That the sort of basically the limitations of the what I would call the 20th century version of the state has sort of hit its limits.
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Now, countries like Uzbekistan, now 7.7% GDP growth, as well as countries like Ukraine around the world, others are really moving at deep pace to think about actually how do we change how the state operates using technology as the
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transformative vehicle. I think some of the areas that you'll begin to see this in in very profound ways in the coming years will be health care, of course, which, um, has already seen quite large breakthroughs in places like biology and
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life sciences. But in more simple terms, I think if you probably many of you use ChatGPT to Google symptoms when you might have them or feeding your health care records.
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I think in the next few years we will see AI doctors being relatively prevalent in many parts of our, you know, system and society. Um, and just in part because that's how consumers behave, but also secondly, those who have been using ChatGPT and
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others will see that it is extremely good on many parts of the diagnosis and the capabilities will only get much better over the next couple of years.
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I think in second, you look at somewhere like AI tutors. Um, these are already beginning to come quite prevalent in many nations around the world. We've done work in countries where you can basically get the equivalent of about 3
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to 4 years of teaching in areas such as STEM and mathematics, uh, in very, very short spaces of time.
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And when the traditional policy response of many is to look at things like, yeah, we just need to train more teachers. I think that's arguably true, but at the same time you can think about much more creative ways to do that.
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I think then third, if you look at across the other parts of the government system, a lot of it is long bureaucratic systems of process, whether that's tax, customs, setting up businesses. All of this can be automated in an extremely
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profound and quick ways. And if you think about how the private sector is moving in this, a company like JP Morgan, let's say, who is obviously at the frontier, but invest 22 billion a year in technology transformation today.
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Um, and you know, governments need to be into think about how they really invest for the ROI that they will get very, very quickly, I think, over the time. And I understand it is an investment up front, but I think those that begin to move
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very quickly today will see profound gains over the next couple of years. Now, the second big point I think that is worth then thinking about if you can transform the state, I think you have to think of AI as a
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geopolitical system, not just a technology today. Um, I think this has been very, very true for a number of years, but I think the events over the last couple of weeks with things like what happened with Mythos and Anthropic and the White House
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in the US putting on export controls on the most powerful models that exist today show that, you know, how tightly this will be controlled from the nations that are at the frontier.
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Yet arguably, if you look at that frontier, it is just two nations really at this current, current time, which is the US and China with the US very, very, it still has a bit of a lead in the
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frontier models with Anthropic and OpenAI, and then with Google and Gemini. But China with particularly some of the deep seek and the open source models arguably about 6 to 9 months behind that frontier.
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And then the others such as the UK, France, Germany, Japan, uh, and others have some capabilities but are not quite at that point.
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Now, what I think that looks like it in terms of what it means to govern is that if you're a political leader, you're anyone working at the forefront of this thing today, you have to navigate what will be new
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sets of alliances, new sets of controls.
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Um but I think there is a very very deep risk in how some nations are treating sovereignty today.
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I think if you take an analogy to set up an airline, if you were to starting an airline from scratch today as a nation, you wouldn't be deciding you need to build your own airplane maker. What you would be would you be procuring from an
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Airbus or a Boeing or one of the other best companies putting on your national flag, having your own pilots drive it, uh fly it even, and also then you know building your own network around this.
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And I think there is a there's a profound mistake that some countries are making thinking that okay, there is some controls and there are some questions of whether we trust some of these nations today, but you can't just start from
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building a frontier model which might cost a trillion dollars plus to train from scratch today, and you're going to have to think about how you ally with the most powerful nations on these capabilities.
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Now, I think the third big point that I think is then worth then thinking about, particularly in terms of a country like Uzbekistan and the the the nations that are not quite at the frontier, but are thinking about what they do in this uh
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geopolitical era of technology as the sole primary driving force. Now, I think a country like Uzbekistan has some profound capabilities, which you're seeing in areas like energy and you know, thinking about nuclear and some of the other parts of the infrastructure
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stack, which will be incredibly powerful for this transformation. One of the big bottlenecks today in AI is not just simply about training at the frontier.
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It is about having data centers, compute, having energy infrastructure, memory, chips, all that core AI stack that is building and which is basically the fundamental technology stack that all nations should be looking to at least have some capabilities and
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comparative advantage in today. I think others in the system as well. Again, I put the UK and I I put my friends in Japan in the system as well.
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They are thinking about what would be called the middle powers and how they align around some of these capabilities to build the scale through trusted alliances and partner networks.
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Now, again, I think the fundamental point that you need within that kind of system is that you will need some strength and capability to compete in this world.
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We're not just talking simply just you know, matters of billions. It is if you look at SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, the IPOs together will be basically creating over a thousand billionaires in the world in the coming months, which is basically double what
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already exists today. That is one of the biggest periods of wealth creation that has ever happened, but they're all not just happening in that sort of four small concentrated area. There are companies within the system, whether that is in the silicon ecosystem, chip
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ecosystem, which are seeing extraordinary gains in this in this era. And I think there is a long way to go on this. $7 trillion has been committed in in CapEx over the next few years to build out this infrastructure, and the
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demand is only going to increase. Now, with all of that, I think there is extreme opportunities. I think many nations can very quickly ride up the development curve because it will give new advantages to leapfrog old legacy systems that,
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you know, as I say, have begun to creak under their own weight in the modern era.
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But, there are going to also be some risks. And I think the fundamental thing around this technology as well is that if it is a general-purpose technology that is a transformative technology, it will also create disruption.
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I think the the biggest debate that is going on today is already in the labor market. Um I sometimes think about this myself when the AI models and the agents I'm now using within my day-to-day life are probably much smarter than me,
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uh and will probably be, you know, well, will definitely be much much smarter than me in the years to come. Uh they can also work 24/7 and achieve a lot of the tasks which sometimes, you know, you just don't want to get around to.
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Uh and and I and I think the companies and the nations that really begin to adopt that at speed will will, you know, absolutely move ahead. But, at the same time, there will be a whole new social compact that
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I think will have to be drawn with with workers and with citizens as we go through this change. Now, I think jobs will be created. I think more opportunity and economic growth will be created, but there's no doubt that as
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with every other form of technological transformation, it will create disruption through the system. Some of that is already being seen in the politics around the world. Um and you know, people protesting against data centers being built, people protesting
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against jobs being lost. Uh and I think leaders will have to navigate that in very, very nuanced and you know, very profound ways. So, with that, I think the core things that I think then to take away for everyone
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today is simply this. AI is a technology which is unlike any other. It will become more powerful in the years to come. I've already been surprised as someone that's been living it day to day how quickly things have
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changed. If you'd asked me in December last year, we're on an exponential growth curve and I thought, you know, this would continue. I never believed it was a bubble. Uh but I was also very surprised at how quickly we moved into
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very, very new capabilities this year with generative AI and others and I expect that growth to continue at very, very large pace. Now, I think the people that harness that opportunity will, you know, as I say, will lead the charge in
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the 21st century and I think it doesn't mean that the opportunities will all be concentrated in, you know, the you know, the absolute giants of this era which are the US and China. There are going to be plenty of market opportunities. There
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are also going to be plenty of opportunities for nation states that are innovative and think about this to harness that and to accelerate much, much faster in the years ahead.
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Thank you. [applause] Thank you. Just one Just just there uh in case uh there are any questions from the audience.
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Just raise your hand if you have a question and in the meantime, uh Ben, I'm going to ask you a question.
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[clears throat] So, we know that the TBI is back in Central Asia. Uh so, you have teams and resources in Uzbekistan, in Kazakhstan.
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Actually, one of my good friends has been recently hired by TBI in Uzbekistan. And I'm uh I'm happy for both him and TBI.
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Uh But back home in UK, I know that you have co-authored the TBI's new national purpose series with Tony Blair himself.
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Do you think uh countries in our part of the world, countries like Uzbekistan, what could they learn?
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What could they take as a best practice from those series? Mhm. Sure. Well, thank you. And I'm very glad your friend has joined us as well.
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I think the fundamental point around all of this is that there are countries that are beginning to harness AI in very very interesting and novel ways. I mean, I mentioned a couple where countries like Ukraine, unfortunately born out of crisis, are
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are thinking about how you reform an AI-type government. You know, some of the leaders in this field have always been the smaller states, so such as Estonia and Singapore, who have been able to, you know, very much move the
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machinery of government very very quickly. But I I I think if you think about what needs to happen, this is the way that I see this. So, number one, what kind of often happens in organizations, you know, often the
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private sector does this as well as government, is that you will have an enlightened pocket within your company or organization that says, "Right, this AI thing is a really much of a thing. We need to play around with it." They set
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up some sort of small little pilots. They might increase their productivity, but it doesn't bring about the change through the system.
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Now, I think for companies, that means that, you know, the CEO has to be the one that sets the mandate for the organization. And the same is then true for governments, which is that if your prime minister or president or head of
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government isn't driving this change through the system, the system doesn't really change. So, the way that we see that then is this.
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You need to start with the central government reform with the leader having profound capabilities in the space because if the leader can move faster than his system and can push the system, the system needs to catch up.
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So, some of that is as simple as building your kind of private office, your central organization to make sure that you have things like agentic delivery systems that when you're a prime minister and say, "I want that to
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get done." you know it's going to get done. Um because that is not always the case in how systems operate. I think secondly on that, you then need to begin to think about your wider digital and data architecture across the whole of
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government and how it begins to interoperate and share information because you know, part of the problem with things like delivery is that if you don't know what's going to happen across the system where procurement stalls or where the points get sort of choked. Uh
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you know, you're not all you're going to be chasing that by email and WhatsApp etc. whereas actually interoperate to data systems of understanding what's happening across the system at any kind of given point will allow you that granularity and fidelity to change the
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system. I think then the third point is then think think about the use cases that you really want to deliver as well cuz I think one of the one of the core components that people get a little bit
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confused about sometimes is almost where to start. It's this general purpose technology and you know, you can play around on Open AI or you know, Claude code and do some pretty interesting things, but what is the problem you're
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actually trying to solve? Now, I I named a couple of areas where I think this is reasonably sort of simple to think about in terms of actually the outcomes you're trying to get, i.e. things like improving education or improving health
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care, but still how you begin to change that system to deliver that is extremely extremely hard. Um but I think there are going to be lots of other points of low-hanging fruit, things like just how quickly to set up a business and know
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your know your client compliance, you know, automation of uh things like passport or driver license etc. I mean, you can pretty much name any part of the government system which is going to be some form of process and bureaucracy and
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you can probably apply AI to make that better. Okay, thank you. No questions from the audience.
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I don't see any hands. Then, thank you so much Benedict. Thank you. [applause] And with that, I would like to give the floor to Takahiko Matsuo, Vice Minister for International Affairs at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan.
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[applause] And I believe Mr. Matsuo has a few slides. If you could bring them up on the screen.
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Uh Good morning. Uh it's a great honor for me to join this wonderful forum. And I would like to firstly express my sincere appreciation to government of Uzbekistan for this wonderful opportunity.
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Uh today is so I'd like to briefly introduce two points. First one is regarding our policy of Japanese government related to this AI.
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And secondly, second point is uh regarding our cooperation related to AI by AI ecosystem between Uzbekistan and Japanese government.
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Uh so first it's regarding a Japanese AI related policy and our thought behind this uh policy.
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And I'd like to briefly make three points. First is uh regarding our kind of objective.
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Uh so uh building a competitive digital ecosystem. Uh this has become a strategic priority uh shared by countries around the world.
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And Japan has set a goal of becoming the most AI-friendly country in the world for both development and the deployment.
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At the core of this vision is the concept of a trustworthy AI. And then we are promoting industrial transformation and strengthening competitiveness uh through the uh practical implementation of AI while maintaining a balance between innovation and risk management.
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And secondly, uh we also recognize that the nature of AI competition is changing. This This uh nature of a competition is the second point.
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Uh the focus is shifting from a competition based solely on the performance of a a large-scale foundation models to competition based on the ability uh to create real value in industry through the reflective uh effective use of data and the practical deployment.
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In other words, in our understanding, implementation capability is becoming increasingly important. And here, we believe that uh Japan and some other countries like Europe have a chance.
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And in this context, uh Japan is focusing on vertical AI tailored to specific uh industries and also physical AI uh that operates in the real world.
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We are leveraging the vast amount of operational data accumulated in the sectors such as manufacturing.
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We are also promoting the development of a multimodal foundation model that capable of integrating and processing diverse forms of data.
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Just everyone started developing this multi-modal foundation model and it needs lots of a diversified uh uh di- wide range of a data including operational data of machinery, human personal data including health care data. Uh so there must be some
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chance for us. It's a our view. And what we can do with Uzbekistan? Uh these digital technologies are becoming essential foundations of our economic and social systems. However, of course no country can realize this this vision alone.
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And cooperation with trusted and like-minded partners is more important than ever. Uh partnerships in human capital and a digital infrastructure will be a key source of future competitiveness, we believe.
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Uzbekistan uh shares many common principles and aspirations with Japan and it possesses a young and talented workforce, a strong commitment uh to digital transformation, and significant potential as a regional hub.
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For these reasons, Uzbekistan is an extremely important strategic partner for Japan especially in digital sector as well as others.
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And looking ahead, so looking ahead, I'd like to highlight three key areas of cooperation.
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Uh first, uh human capital development. In the AI area, a talent is as critical as technology itself.
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The ability to develop, deploy, and effectively utilize uh digital technologies will determine future competitiveness.
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Japan Uzbekistan have signed a memorandum of cooperation on digital human resource development. And based on this memorandum, we are supporting integrated efforts to develop talent in Uzbekistan and match them with employment opportunities in Japanese companies.
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A second, uh strengthening uh computing capacity uh to support AI development and deployment. Uh projects involving Japanese companies are already uh underway in Uzbekistan to develop data centers and highly efficient computing uh infrastructure integrated with uh power systems.
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Access to computing resources is becoming is becoming a critical factor in the AI era.
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And we believe this area offers significant opportunities for our bilateral cooperation. A third, uh developing trusted communication infrastructure.
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Uh Japanese companies have already began uh contributing in this field as well. In particular, the application of a next-generation communication technologies including photonics-electronics convergence, is beginning to take uh to take shape uh here in Uzbekistan.
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Uh these technologies will provide an important foundation uh for future digital growth. In closing, uh let me emphasize that digitalization and the utilization of AI are not just technological developments.
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They represented a a process of redefining our economic structure themselves. And in this process, uh what will matter most is uh how countries leverage their respective strengths and work together with trusted partners.
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Uh Japan is committed uh to working with Uzbekistan and other like-minded partners to build an open, secure, and a trusted digital ecosystem as a trusted partner.
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Uh thank you very much. [applause] Thank you, Mr. Matsuo. Uh do we have any questions for Mr. Matsuo?
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All right, I take it as no. If there's no Thank you again. Uh now back to a representative of our host country.
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Uh I'm pleased to give the floor to Makhliyo Muksinova. She's deputy director general at IT Park Uzbekistan, and uh well, I have to say that uh as a policy consultant, I have personally been watching IT Park's development over the last 3 years, and
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it's impressive. I've been witness of your roadshows around the globe, uh and with I think it's already over 3,000 presidents that you have at IT Park.
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And I'm specially impressed and amazed by this ambitious goal of 5 million prompters that IT Park is part of of this national goal. So, Makhliyo, uh the floor is yours.
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Thank you. [applause] Uh good afternoon. Thank you very much. So, uh it's a pleasure to speak with you today about Uzbekistan's uh rapidly developing AI ecosystem, and the development of artificial intelligence in Uzbekistan is uh strongly supported by the highest
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level of the government and the part of the vision of the president of Republic of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Miramonovich Mirziyoyev.
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And under his leadership, digital transformation has been chosen as one of the country's key priority areas of development. And to to reflect this commitment, uh Uzbekistan developed AI strategy development AI strategy 2030 and it proved that was approved by the
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resolution of the president. The strategy sets ambitious goals of the nation up to 2030. And according to this, uh the increase of export of AI-based products and services should reach 1.5 billion US dollars and the the number of talents involved to AI
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ecosystem should reach 3 uh thousand uh 300,000 people. And we should enter to the top 15 of the Oxford Insight Government AI Readiness Index.
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These goals demonstrate that AI is not only the technology, but a strategic tool to economic development and reaching competitiveness in global area for Uzbekistan. A key pillar of the strategy is investment in human capital.
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Uh as it was previously mentioned, uh we have initiated the new project that is 5 million AI leaders program.
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And Uzbekistan is expanding AI literacy and preparing the new generation of professionals who are who will be capable of using and developing technologies based on AI.
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More than 20 universities has uh have initiated and created AI-based laboratories to create opportunities for research, for experimentation, and practical skill development.
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At the same time, AI has been actively applied across all sectors of economy. And around 200 AI-based projects will be implemented in various spheres of government.
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So, to support this ambition, Uzbekistan is also investing heavily in compute infrastructure. In In cooperation with Nvidia, the country has adopted a phased approach to building national AI capacity. A smaller supercomputer was launched in 2025, where the first phase of
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large-scale national supercomputer project begins this year. And another important advantage is energy. So, special conditions have been introduced in the one of the part of Uzbekistan, Republic of Karakalpakstan, to attract AI infrastructure and data center investments. By 2030,
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Uzbekistan plans to have 9.3 gigawatt of wind energy capacity supported by an extensive high-voltage transmission network.
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So, investors can benefit from competitive electricity rates, affordable water supply, customs exceptions for imported services and GPUs. So, along alongside AI development, Uzbekistan startup ecosystem experiencing remarkable growth. According to the StartupBlink Global Ecosystem Index 2026, the Uzbekistan ranks number one country
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in the world for the speed of startup ecosystem growth. Also, Tashkent has been recognized as a number one city in Central Asia for the startup growth.
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The ecosystem now includes more than 1,000 startups across the Uzbekistan that are registered. And Uzbekistan has already produced two unicorns in the few years, Uzum and TBC Bank.
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Uh, startup investment increased from $69 million in 2024 to more than 308 million in 2025.
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Today, over 20 venture uh capital funds and angel investor networks operate in the country with combined capital exceeding 200 million US dollars.
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And IT Park Ventures alone has expanded to 30 million US dollars and invested in the last uh year to more than 70 startups.
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So, [snorts] government support remains uh as a key catalyst for the growth. And through the digital startup program, founders receive assistance with intellectual property protection, international acceleration programs, co-investment opportunities, and access to digital infrastructure.
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One of the most successful initiative is the President Tech Award, launched at the personal initiative of the President of Republic of Uzbekistan. Over three seasons, the winners raised over the 10 million US dollars inflow on investment and uh created more than 400 highly paid
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jobs. In parallel, the President AI Award was launched in dedicated 1 million US dollars prize fund for AI-based startups.
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Most importantly, Uzbekistan is not simply building individual startup isolated AI projects. It's creating complete innovation ecosystem that combines strategic governmental leadership, world-class infrastructure, talent development, venture capital, international partnership, and global ambitions.
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We believe this foundation will enable Uzbekistan to become one of the leading innovation and AI hubs in the region.
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Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh like I said, I was witness of IT Park's road shows across the globe.
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And well, personally I've seen these slides, some of them. Some of them are quite new, I believe. Uh but on a more personal note, Makhliyo, so you've been with IT Park for quite a few years now. So, what's the most
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rewarding experience that you get out of working at IT Park in all of the last couple of years at least?
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Yes, thank you very much for the question. I am with IT Park from its establishment from 2019.
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Uh and I think that IT Park is also the one of the startups of the government. And most amazing thing for me as a part of IT Park and the work we are doing is that uh we are developing so fast. Both the
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country, the organization, the ecosystem. To compare 2000 In 2019, when IT Park Uzbekistan was established, we have started in one lecture room of our partner university without facilities, without networks, without any experience in in creating, in building ecosystem.
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And we had only ambition. And it passed 7 years. And today, I think we uh achieved a lot of more than we decided to do. And I believe that after the next 7 years, Uzbekistan will be one of the leading AI and tech ecosystems in
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the region. And I hope that after 7 years, we will remember this day, this event, and we will discuss our conversation also.
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Thank you. Thank you for your great work. [applause] Okay, uh we now are turning to business that is operating in Uzbekistan and I actually in my list I have David Melikidze and I'm checking if he's in the room because he's not here with
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us. Uh Otabek, shall we wait? Okay, we're going to skip. Okay, okay, he's not in the room. Okay, sorry then.
Speaker A
Uh then it means that we're going to move to Anil Vijayan Chandran. Uh I have personally known Anil since last year, so I was moderating another panel and Anil was uh my panel speaker. Uh so uh Anil, we would of course love to
Speaker A
hear to what has changed for DataVolt in Uzbekistan. We know that you are one if not the biggest investor when it comes to data center building and we have been following your success here locally and we would love to hear uh
Speaker A
news and updates from DataVolt. Thank you. Uh I think there are slides. I don't know whether they're ready.
Speaker A
Can you bring up slides, please? For DataVolt. No, not this. Yeah, that's uh thank you.
Speaker A
Um so yes, I as you know, the introduction said, I kind of represent DataVolt. Uh we are building the first uh significant data center project in the country that is AI capable/green, etc.
Speaker A
And uh it's effectively a bet on Uzbekistan, you know, the the story line that, you know, the IT park has been kind of putting together that the government has been putting together over the last years. We are fully sold
Speaker A
to that. And for us, you know, the key when in in respect of this slide, for example, you know, the use cases keep changing every 2 weeks practically. So, the numbers that you see here, the story line that you see here keep changing
Speaker A
every 2 weeks again. And today, for example, health care is one of the key areas where you see a lot of these gen AI implementations.
Speaker A
You know, background scribes, autonomous diagnosis, and triaging, etc. You see a lot of these use cases that are again more and more being implemented across different sectors.
Speaker A
But regardless of who is winning or losing, the key for any market is ensuring that they have access to compute at the lowest possible cost to allow for local language LLM trainings, to allow for inferencing use cases, to
Speaker A
allow the startups to be able to deliver their products at the lowest cost, at the most competitive cost for their customers, whether inside the country or outside. So, from that perspective, we've taken it on ourselves to ensure that we deploy the data center capacity,
Speaker A
the compute for these services. We work with the ecosystem to enable the connectivity for the delivery of these services to the end users. And we work with the government, with the IT park, etc. to ensure there is the supportive
Speaker A
regulatory frameworks as well in place for the widespread adoption. So, that's, you know, the kind of mission that we've taken on for ourselves.
Speaker A
Um Yeah. So, keeping all of this in mind, we started construction. So, we signed the implementation agreement with the government back in 2023. We started construction for this project last year.
Speaker A
And we are on track to deliver at first phase of this 12 megawatt air ready green data center project in December of this year end of this year.
Speaker A
Uh it is again from our perspective it's we we have we are very proud that we were also able to attract global development from the financial institution financing for this project. The signing actually happened yesterday here at the IF.
Speaker A
Uh where the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development DEG Proparco and OPEC Fund have funded this kind of an asset class in on a project recourse basis for the first time. And that's something that you know we are very proud of and that's
Speaker A
something that is also to the credit of Uzbekistan. It is their confidence in the regulatory frameworks and in the viability and the future of the market here that has resulted in this kind of a financing support for this kind of a
Speaker A
project. Um and that is and that is now we are also working very closely with the ecosystem in relation to deploying the connectivity solutions ensuring that they are available for the end users.
Speaker A
And we are also working very closely with the system in ensuring that the right regulatory frameworks remain in place.
Speaker A
Uh and again when it comes to that regulatory framework we think that you know uh the government is setting the baseline in ensuring cloud adoption across that ecosystem and across a number of markets that we have seen governments through their you know
Speaker A
deployment of public services through their deployment of things like dedicated cloud regions etc. for the delivery of public services tend to become that initial anchor demand that then crystallizes private sector cloud adoption around it. Um and this is
Speaker A
something again that we do see significant progress from Uzbekistan's side. Uh to just give you example, Oman is one of the kind of front runners on this where they they successfully used uh their adoption of Oracle's DRCC system across
Speaker A
120 plus governmental enterprises as that starting point, on top of which entities like Oman water, Oman uh gas, etc. kind of came on top and then, you know, the demand grew to it such a speed that very quickly they had to deploy a
Speaker A
second availability region. Um and this is something that then tends to crystallize hyperscaler entry as well, uh which then in turn creates that positive flywheel effect where the private sector starts scaling on top of this infrastructure that has been
Speaker A
created. So, yeah, I mean, effectively uh from our perspective, uh we kind of think of this initial infrastructure that we develop as that core on top of which a lot of this can be built, uh creating that positive uh flywheel between career
Speaker A
uh proving capability, which then translates into hyperscaler entry, creation of local champions across multiple use cases and ecosystems, which in turn then drives that market maturity and AI adoption. So, uh we remain a proud proud participant in the
Speaker A
Uzbekistan story and, you know, we remain ready to deploy a much larger uh capital pool. Uh so, we've already made commitments on a multi-billion dollar, multi-100 megawatt kind of capacity deployment pipeline, and we look forward to working with the government and the
Speaker A
ecosystem and, you know, converting this into reality. Thank you. [applause] Well, uh it's interesting. I looked up I I actually asked Gemini what Gemini thinks of Data World, and I'm going to read it out loud to you, and then, maybe you'll be surprised,
Speaker A
maybe not. So, Data World builds critical infrastructure with core philosophy of bringing power and cooling to the data rather than the other way around. Could you please briefly reflect on this, and how it makes Data World unique uh and different from others?
Speaker A
I understand. Of course. Uh so, we belong to Data World belongs to the Vision Invest Group. So, this group has uh significant investments, $120 billion plus of investments across a number of countries in this ecosystem. And uh we are a very proud member of that
Speaker A
group. And this is effectively the mindset that we come from is the deployment of critical infrastructure in countries that, you know, we have the greatest confidence in. Uh we are a significant investor in Uzbekistan, our group companies, which including Vision,
Speaker A
that signed yesterday uh milestone airport project, uh including ACWA Power, which is a group company, which has the largest deployment of critical energy infrastructure in the country, and including a number of other entities who are very actively working in Uzbekistan,
Speaker A
as well as other markets in the region and around the world. Uh and we have been deploying these energy infrastructure, uh desalinated water infrastructure, critical infrastructure, etc. across multiple sectors. And these are then capabilities that effectively we bring into the
Speaker A
digital infrastructure space when we step in. So, we ensure that the that we are able to also deploy the supporting infrastructure around it, which includes the renewable energy generation, which includes the grid strengthening, which includes the, you know, the water and
Speaker A
the utilities availability, etc. to ensure that we are not uh let's call it imposing an extraordinary load, right? When we do this to the local ecosystems when we step in. And we also bring in the innovation that ensures that whether it is cooling
Speaker A
infrastructure, whether it is energy integration, etc. that we are able to offer the most efficient and the most cost-effective services in the digital infrastructure we deploy. So, it's it's the strength of the group that we bring to the table when we when when we
Speaker A
deliver infra. Thank you so much for your hard work in Uzbekistan. Um with this uh now let's jump into a completely different industry.
Speaker A
Uh it's industry about air flights, airports, and this company actually serves over 400 million passengers annually. And actually, as I was preparing for this panel, I knew about their Samarkand project.
Speaker A
But I turn just right before the panel, she shared with me that they have just another project in Uzbekistan. So, I turn to Mustalieva, VP for Europe, Americas, and CIS at TAV Technologies.
Speaker A
To you. [applause] Thank you very much. I have some slides as well if you can uh bring it to the screen as well.
Speaker A
So, good afternoon, colleagues, and uh happy to be in Tashkent again like every year. So, um as my colleague mentioned today uh I'm switching totally to different business topic which is about aviation and AI in aviation. So, um
Speaker A
we will speak I will speak more at the end that about the Samarkand and Namangan project, but uh before I wanted to give just a high-level information.
Speaker A
Um so, we are actually the investment firm and then in general when we say we speak about investment, we are thinking more like a building like runways in aviation specifically.
Speaker A
Uh however, um there is also another type of the investment which we are supporting in the market is a digital investment.
Speaker A
So, if you look to the the graphs that in the slides, we can we can see that we already forecast for 2026 to have more than 10 billion passengers globally. And next decade, it's actually planned to be double,
Speaker A
which is a big increase. Uh, and you can also see the the increased rate per region. And Asia Pacific region is keeping the leadership in the in this growth.
Speaker A
And if we speak and if we look specifically to Uzbekistan, uh, Uzbekistan actually has the I was actually in the conference also last year and speaking to colleagues that everywhere actually in the aviation conferences, we start to use Uzbekistan as a
Speaker A
as an example because the growth is so fast. And we can see also in this graph as well that you can see the basically in the pink color, this is Uzbekistan and the blue one is the growth rate
Speaker A
globally. So, the aviation the passenger numbers in Uzbekistan has been increased dramatically and it's like already 15 million for 2025 and it's planned to increase more in coming years. But then the what is happening with this increase, yeah?
Speaker A
So, the increase is great, but then there are challenges coming up with this. And one of the challenges is that it means more passengers, more flights. And for airports and airlines, it becomes a bit difficult to manage all
Speaker A
these operations. And what we are bringing here uh, is basically AI is coming to the picture. So, as AI I using different industries, also we start to use it in aviation as well.
Speaker A
And on the first day of the conference, I was listening to my HY colleagues presentation, and he was also talking about this digitalization and AI and saying he also mentioned that they started to use it at HY operations,
Speaker A
which is which was great to hear it because it's really helping a lot, especially on predictive maintenance and on operational efficiency. It helps for airlines and airports to manage it better and to predict the upcoming problems and to be more um
Speaker A
reactive and prepared. And in terms of the airport, maybe it's business maybe for some of you is a new, but just to give you high-level information for airport, we divided for five stages for development of the airport, yeah. So, we
Speaker A
start from the stage one like monitoring, analyzing, then third one, the forecast, manage, and the last one is the intelligent. Yeah, intelligent is where the AI, this is the fifth stage, where AI is coming to the picture. And this is
Speaker A
where we are bringing all these solutions and IT to to optimize all the systems.
Speaker A
So, in terms of the when we come to AI, there are airports worldwide which we are supporting. And one of them actually I was just before before coming here, I was I stopped by in Baku and we are
Speaker A
in the region because there is a new project ongoing. They are currently implementing AI in their airport systems, which is I think for CIS is the even the worldwide is something new.
Speaker A
And we are planning also as mentioned that we have two projects already here, Samarkand and Namangan starting soon. Uh To to have also AI solutions inside of the airport operations to help for airport to be more ready with the increase of the
Speaker A
volume that they are going to have in coming years. And all this like how it works basically the airport there's a system on the back end yeah like and then we are adding there all AI solutions inside of the new
Speaker A
solutions called the airport cockpit. But at the on the other side the existing solutions that we already use at airport we are adding AI layer in order to make sure that it's fully optimized and it's um it's efficient for the for the airports
Speaker A
and it helps actually for airports to increase the passenger satisfaction and they are already they work in the planned manner because one of the things I don't know the other industries but in sometimes what happens in the airports we are we work on the
Speaker A
daily there is a problem. The problem comes we start to solve it. So we don't try to predict in advance and try to be more planned but this is where we are trying to use AI to to avoid all this stress
Speaker A
during the day because it's already stressful to manage operations because we are having sometimes lots of surprises etc. So I just to avoid it.
Speaker A
Um then yeah that's that's it on my side. I tried to keep it shorter.
Speaker A
So thank you very much and we are actually as mentioned looking forward to support Uzbekistan market and we already work with two airports and looking forward to support the rest of the airports in the region.
Speaker A
Um and if any questions feel free to ask. Rakhmat thank you. Thank you. [applause] Please keep up your good work, Aythan.
Speaker A
Uh, so your professional support, your company's professional support is very much needed here, not only in Uzbekistan, but across Central Asia. So, we would love to see more success stories coming from uh, Uzum Technologies. Thank you.
Speaker A
Uh, with this, let me move on to well, I guess the uh, the only truly, genuinely uh, local company, uh, which would be Uzum. Uh, I think a bit of work I think in last year, Uzum has become
Speaker A
the first technological unicorn uh, originating from Uzbekistan, and we have all been rooting for you guys. Uh, we are happy that you are continuing your path to success.
Speaker A
And um, Kevin uh the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, it's an honor to be here and welcome all of you here and to speak for you.
Speaker A
Thank you very much once again. So, uh, well, as I see a lot of uh, new faces, a lot of international people coming to Tashkent, I will briefly say a few words about Uzum.
Speaker A
Uh, so Uzum is a digital ecosystem combining both e-commerce and fintech in a single company.
Speaker A
And uh, we have reached more than half of the population of the country within our MAU, monthly active users. So, like most of the country are already using our services, and our goal is now to penetrate even more into the lives and
Speaker A
lifestyles of our citizens. So, uh, yeah, actually, we became a unicorn, I think, in 2023 or 24.
Speaker A
And uh, this year, we have already become a duocorn. So, our our last valuation was around 2.3 billion US dollars.
Speaker A
And we are the only locally raised unicorn. So Yep. And like it's actually great to see how Uzbekistan is rapidly growing. Like 4 years ago when we started to Zoom, we were spending like 70% of our pitch decks and investment pitches
Speaker A
about discovering the country itself. And now we see like the other way around. So people and investors and funds that are do know about Uzbekistan. So they're coming towards us to discuss the opportunities within any other spheres of Uzbekistan. So this is really has
Speaker A
as it was told by the IT part by any other presentations here before. It's really really astonishing how it's developing.
Speaker A
So now according to AI, so as a Zoom as a digital ecosystem, we are highly AI adopted because especially in fintech part because AI is the core of the fintech. It's like just one of the spheres of the whole machine
Speaker A
learning with the scoring, fraud detection and so on and so on. And what we see as the main like advantage and the main challenge for governments for sovereignty and so on is that it should be built such way the the AI adoption
Speaker A
itself not only on like B2C level when consumers are using ChatGPT or any other tools, but also on the level of the companies. And this is very important that we are now only on the tip of an iceberg in terms of AI adoption within
Speaker A
the companies because AI adoption should lead not only to the software challenge. Yeah, because most people do think that the main challenge about AI is in within the software. It is not. It is within the infrastructure, within the
Speaker A
electricity energy data centers, and so on and so on. So, and actually there are two ways on how the governments should compete uh with in the race of AI. So, first one is to build the top-tier models, but it as it
Speaker A
was already said by the previous speakers, it requires like trillions of dollars of investments.
Speaker A
And there is also there is also another way how to deal with that is by bringing the infrastructure, by bringing the cheap electricity, and so on, and building this so-called combination between local capabilities, local data centers, local talents with global partnerships.
Speaker A
Because as we already see in Uzum, we have a lot more um nation-specific data. And this data won't be available anytime soon to all of the global AI models or companies or so on.
Speaker A
This means that when we are combining global models with local expertise, we bring more value to the customers and to the citizens of the country itself. And this will happen in any other country as well.
Speaker A
So, that's why the next competition will come within the infrastructure itself and the access to data. And I think that the best combination of local expertise and global expertise in terms of partnership should be the best way for governments to compete and to
Speaker A
companies, of course. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] But uh Kevin, let me ask you a question.
Speaker A
Uh You know, Uzum has already become the largest uh you know, the country's Uzbekistan's largest uh e-commerce and fintech ecosystem, right? Uh well, I guess soon enough you will have 100% penetration here in Uzbekistan.
Speaker A
Are you guys considering moving elsewhere? Cuz you got technology, got infrastructure, you got all the processes and systems lined up already.
Speaker A
Are you ready to move on and expand elsewhere? Well, actually, that's a great question.
Speaker A
So um let me tell you that we are always open to opportunities. So, like we're not like closing ourself only within one country, you know?
Speaker A
But, we see that even if we are high in terms of penetration through the population, we see that in terms of our services, we have a like a way to grow.
Speaker A
Like to increase the penetration from a single service to two plus services within all of our customer base. And actually, this is our main focus right now. Our main focus is within Uzbekistan. We understand that the economy is growing, the population is
Speaker A
growing, and there is still much more to do here. And maybe we will also combine it with some kind of partnership with the foreign companies which are working in a closely uh in a in a close and sim- sim- similar
Speaker A
uh markets as well. But for now, we are like strongly focused on Uzbekistan. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin.
Speaker A
Um Well, uh now let's move last but not least, of course. Let's move uh to a company that has grown extensively in its home market in Russia and decided to move to neighboring countries like Uzbekistan. So, I'm giving the floor to Akhmal Pirimkulov,
Speaker A
CEO of Wildberries Uzbekistan. Good day, dear participants. I would like to share some information about the Wildberries in Uzbekistan.
Speaker A
So, that you as our consumers could feel comfortable in your actions. AI should be the supporter.
Speaker A
Our company as the company that it exists on the market for 22 2 years, this is not the advertising, this is the fact.
Speaker A
82 million consumers annually monthly use Wildberries. As we are going to have the expansion into the countries, we have uh over 150 million clients. And if we talk on that daily there are 20 million orders, it says uh it signifies that our work model
Speaker A
is uh very well used and it's really really raises the interest of the users. We work in the B2C, B2B line and in general for the consumers, for the um users, this is something that gives the proper conditions. For B2B,
Speaker A
it gives the opportunity to have the predictable system. You can transparently see where the warehouses are so that you do not have either um a low amount of goods or the high amount too high amount of goods.
Speaker A
So, we can track the good on all the path until the until the point where the the users take their orders. So, this is one of the one of such companies that allows us to see the demand of the
Speaker A
companies of the users and to harmonize this all we need to have the development in the sphere of AI.
Speaker A
So, this allows to the AI allows us to make our our professional life simpler because it takes the routine work and deal with the complex parts that are related to our everyday activity. With this I can complete.
Speaker A
Thank you very much Akmal. I have a couple of questions. I will give the question now in Russian.
Speaker A
There is a very interesting number saying that in 2025 Wildberries Uzbekistan uh the total amount of Uzbekistan products sold there is 1.5 billion and export markets are the nearest countries, neighboring countries.
Speaker A
Could you please say Wildberries Uzbekistan what's the is there uh orientation and focus to the local goods? Is this the priority for for you?
Speaker A
I think as that as any country had, my country is in priority of course.
Speaker A
But let's start in order. Yes, 1.5 billion, almost 1.5 billion is the total sales of the local goods.
Speaker A
And I need to highlight that 1.5 billion, this is the number that was increased.
Speaker A
In 2021, 418 million USD. 605 million USD the next year was the sale was the sales of the local goods. But the brand is rapidly developing and enters other markets.
Speaker A
The interest rate from the buyers and the expansion that is increasing to other countries. There is a huge growth potential and increasing demand of the from the population because people buy the products that they need including the textile products and other sector
Speaker A
sector products that are produced in Uzbekistan. Also, I need to highlight that Uzbekistan has huge potential in terms of um industry especially in textile sector as we have all needed conditions for the Uzbek producers to enter the global market and thanks to such
Speaker A
platforms as we are, they get this opportunity. We have the complex program of entrepreneur support that provides training. Firstly, secondly, they have the preferential terms of for the use of the platform and they also they have advertisement. And
Speaker A
thanks to this, I can tell that over 100 Uzbekistan brands in the period of 2025-2026 have already left the standard sales at the local level to the global level.
Speaker A
So, we see the demand. For example, there is Bonito Kids, Uz Leader, and some other textile companies.
Speaker A
And also the producers that produce metal products, that is Davr Metal. So, people who were who used to sell their products at bazaars, at the local markets, they enter now the digital platform and enter the global market.
Speaker A
And they can get rid of the over-distribution. As As for me, this is a wonderful opportunity, and we have the wonderful opportunities to scale up the business.
Speaker A
So, I believe that thanks to such correct way of collaboration with Uzbekistan Uzbekistan and us, we can reach colossal results in terms of e-commerce and sales.
Speaker A
Thank you very much, Akmal. Uh so, we have I mean um this is the end of our panel uh speeches, and we have about 8 to 9 minutes, and I'm looking around the audience.
Speaker A
If the audience has any questions, just please feel free to raise your hand, ask your question either in Russian, Uzbek, or English language uh to any of the panelists.
Speaker A
Yeah, please just raise your hand and uh get the microphone. Uh The team, can you please just pass the microphone? I I see a one hand up there.
Speaker A
Okay. Uh Just uh yes, we have uh let me let let let me move uh let's move Q&A to a bit later time, cuz we have I believe David Melikidze from Uzcard, CEO of Uzcard.
Speaker A
David, we've been waiting for you. We were supposed to give you the floor in the first place. Uh but uh We are happy to see you.
Speaker A
Uh thank you. Yeah, please feel free. Yeah. Yep. [snorts] Uh we knew that it's our panel starts at 4:00, so it's it's been rescheduled today morning. So, we I had a unfortunately very important meeting today morning. So, uh
Speaker A
that's why I'm late. I'm sorry for being late. Uh the the So, in few words regarding Uzcard and how we see the development of the payment infrastructure on the market um let's split the phases, right? So, the first phase on the market was what we
Speaker A
call open banking infrastructure, and it allowed disruptive players as a fintech players to to uh to find Uzbekistan as the as the most attractive market. So, and what what open banking is giving to the market is a bank
Speaker A
agnostic approach. So, and all the clients can use their financial products in every banking app, in every fintech. So, this is this was the first phase. So, what we see in the in the future and uh how we
Speaker A
what what's our kind of key pillars in development of the payment infrastructure is the AI product such as given that we have a lot of data, um we think to focus on propensity scoring uh based on the spending behaviors.
Speaker A
Uh we uh focus on anti-fraud modules. We will focus on AI agents such as collections and we will resell these modules to the banks. So, this going to be our the next focus items. Many items, but in terms of
Speaker A
the if we talk about the AI modules, it's going to be our the next next focus items for the next 2 3 years. So.
Speaker A
Thank you, David. Uh So, uh let's move to Q&A part. I saw one person had a question.
Speaker A
Anyone? Questions? Yeah, okay. Thank you. Please, yeah, get the microphone to the Thank you, everyone. I would like to ask a question to the marketplaces. As you know, one of the key barriers for the businesses was setting up their own
Speaker A
website, their own infrastructure, their own shop. With AI, this has become increasingly easier. Do you guys feel threatened by it, or do you are you benefiting from this?
Speaker A
Uh let me please ask answer the question. Yeah, so uh I think that for any merchant, it is a good combination of having their own direct sales uh combining with the marketplaces. But, marketplaces gives more than only uh website and uh
Speaker A
like the the the basic web infrastructure. So, we also give warehouses, we go we we're giving logistics, we're giving traffic, and which is like very important because for most direct channels, it's very hard to find the traffic. So, even AI with the
Speaker A
combination of AI just to build like the basic web infrastructure or even the app of infrastructure, it might be hard for to later on distribute it. And this is actually the problem not only within the marketplaces, but with all the spheres
Speaker A
where AI is applied as a product. Because now you have a lot of creativity and builders, but they are facing the problem of distributing their app after they built it. So, right now I can like spend 15 minutes to build an app that I
Speaker A
want to build. But in general, like the the question is how to distribute it. And marketplaces are solving this question very successfully right now.
Speaker A
Thank you. If you allow, I will add. Recently in Instagram I saw the reels the reel with advertisement of some application which says "Why do you need marketplace? Create your website for 50 minutes." Just make your website for 50 minutes.
Speaker A
It's like there will be payment there won't be any payment for storage and so on and so forth.
Speaker A
But this is a big fail, I can say. And we started having sellers coming from the different platforms and they started asking and how is it about this?
Speaker A
And around in one week this page was deleted. Maybe not deleted, but uh um Marketplace is not just two people. Behind marketplace there's there's always huge work on going, logistics, and many other things, technologies, services.
Speaker A
So, if behind each of such initiative you If you if you try to seek for such initiatives, you can become paranoid.
Speaker A
Because there is something that there will be always something that you you won't be sure about.
Speaker A
All right, thank you. Uh okay, one more okay, two more questions. Yeah please. Yes.
Speaker A
Thank you for your discussion. My name is Alexander. I'm from company Trend Micro. Uh previously we named it Trend Micro. We are a Japanese company. We're a top 10 cybersecurity company in the world.
Speaker A
Now, after 38 years, we changed our name to Trend Micro because AI now changes the world, changes the IT technology.
Speaker A
And I want to say ask you, do you change do you see on AI security use secure AI, but what about security for AI?
Speaker A
Uh we have two way. AI for security. AI for security and security for AI. How do you think about this? We are on the first step of AI deployment in our system, in our organization, but what about security?
Speaker A
Who else would like to answer? Maybe. Yes, if somebody have answer. Yeah, yeah, okay, I will answer. So, for us, as we are of course highly adopting the AI internally and like uh AI deployable strategies and so on. So,
Speaker A
we have two main policies for our internal staff. First one is that there should always be a human in the loop for now. Well, at least until we are not like 100% sure that models that are currently existing won't
Speaker A
like make harm to our business, to like personal data and so on and on. So, this is the first stage. And the second stage is that AI specific software like AI AI sec, so-called AI sec, is now becoming a part of our software
Speaker A
development like life cycle. So, it also included as a stage in terms of the life cycle of the software to check on the potential threats and to signal these threats for our employees. Again, back to the human in
Speaker A
the loop. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin. And I saw one more hand right there. Yeah.
Speaker A
Front row. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Muhammad Akil. I'm from India, but from last 10 years I'm living in Russia. And last year, with the help of IT Park, we established a company in Uzbekistan as well.
Speaker A
Our company is Akasoft Akakua Global Tech here. I have one question for IT Park and one question for Uzcard to Mr. David. For IT Park, when we established the company, there were few things which have been changed in the
Speaker A
course of time. We were very like it was very attractive to come to Uzbekistan.
Speaker A
As a founder, there were founder visa strategy. And at the time in the beginning, there were no specific rules. Then there was a rule introduced that there should be at least $10,000 of investment.
Speaker A
Within 2 to 3 months, it was changed to $30,000. And as a foreign investor, when the rules are changed very frequently, it becomes critical.
Speaker A
Is there anything when we can specifically say that there could be some specific room established and it will be staying for a bit longer time for maybe 2 to 3 5 years.
Speaker A
This is one of the question for you. And to Mr. David, I would like to ask if Uzcard is planning to support international payments because we have clients from different countries and we are facing for subscription based payments from our
Speaker A
clients abroad. We approached to Capital Bank and for API there were some some kind of difficulties to receive the API. Is there any any flow within Uzcard or banks integrated with you? Which which banks have good infrastructure in this
Speaker A
space? Thank you. Yes. Thank you very much for your question. Regarding the IT visa provided by IT Park Uzbekistan, so it was previously introduced firstly introduced in 2022.
Speaker A
And we have been working to four years this program and it was changed minor changes has been included to the requirements of the program as you mentioned. Last year it was made after the two and a half a years after
Speaker A
the establishment of the program and the reason was the security. Because the world is changing and some situations are happening in the world.
Speaker A
That's why this decision was taken due to the security. But if we say about the stability of our programs, about their or their flexibility, we are trying to stay stable in incentives and opportunities that we provide. The only things that
Speaker A
are changing mostly are the expanding of these programs and making them more attractive for our foreign business representatives and our resident companies. We will take into consideration the your comment, but overall the situation was that we had to
Speaker A
do this after these two years of introduction of this program. Thank you. Thanks for the question. For the question indeed.
Speaker A
When we talk about the Uzcard, it's a local payment scheme. Right. And regarding the international expansion, so there are there is three three products. So the first one is Uzcard to be accepted internationally.
Speaker A
And we are working on that. And as you know, so you cannot do it like immediately and we are integrating country by country. And how we select country where our citizens have some operations import export trading partners. They visit as a tourist. So we
Speaker A
started in Turkey region, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan. So one product is accepting. So you can pay with the Uzcard.
Speaker A
The second is P2P. And the third is receiving payments from on on the Uzcard. So and we are developing all of these three products. And that's that's I mean, if you talk about the using Uzcard internationally, that's these
Speaker A
three products that we So Turkey will be launched in coming months. We already doing Kyrgyzstan and P2P product. So and we will also launch the Kazakhstan in the in the following in the next few months. So And that's that's
Speaker A
what we what we are doing. I mean, when we talk about the international expansion. Yeah.
Speaker A
Um Thank you so much. We are almost on time. We're finishing up almost on time. Uh, have been receiving signals that we should now cut short. Uh, I would like to thank the audience for your interest and your questions, and I
Speaker A
would like to also thank our panelists for very informative speeches. Thank you all. We're done. Thank you.
Speaker A
[applause]
Topics:Artificial IntelligenceDigital GovernanceInnovationAI InvestmentUzbekistanAI InfrastructureGeopolitics of AIAI in HealthcareAI in EducationTechnology Transformation
