Uzbekistan Aims to Become an IT Hub, Says Minister

Photo: uzbekistan.org

Uzbekistan aims to transform the country into an IT hub, the Minister of Digital Technologies of Uzbekistan Sherzod Shermatov said at a high-level roundtable on green digital actions in Baku today, The Caspian Post reports.

“We are striving to transform our country into an IT hub, to create a competitive environment for IT companies so that they can come and develop their business with us. We try to make them feel at home in Uzbekistan.

Simultaneously, we are using digital technologies to improve people's lives. For instance, more than 80 percent of all government services are already provided online. This also helps to reduce the digital footprint of citizens and businesses, as they do not need to move from one office to another to receive services.

At the same time, given the growing demand for artificial intelligence for data center capacity, we are initiating a fully carbon-neutral data center in collaboration with our Saudi partners. This will effectively leverage our digital energy potential for AI services,” he emphasized.

The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), which will run until November 22, opened at the Baku Olympic Stadium on November 11. It is the largest event organized by Azerbaijan to date, and the first time in the region that it is being held in Azerbaijan.

Within COP29, the highest level event - the summit of world leaders on climate action – was held on November 12–13.

The main expectation from COP29 is to agree on a fair and ambitious New Collective Quantitative Goal (NCQG) on climate finance. The COP29 chairmanship has launched 14 initiatives that include linkages between climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals, including green energy corridors, green energy storage, harmony for climate resilience, clean hydrogen, methane reduction in organic waste, action on green digital technologies, and other topics.

In addition to being a top priority that creates the conditions for action, creating climate finance will also help fulfill the 1.5°C pledge by bringing everyone together.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is an agreement signed at the Rio Earth Summit in June 1992 to prevent dangerous human interference in the climate system. The acronym COP (Conference of Parties) stands for “Conference of Parties” and is the highest legislative body overseeing the implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change.

A total of 198 countries are parties to the Convention. Unless otherwise decided by the parties, COP is held annually. The first COP event was held in March 1995 in Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.