In recent years, Uzbekistan has entered a period of economic and institutional transformation in which technology is no longer merely one component of development policy. It is gradually becoming one of the principal instruments for reshaping the economy, the state and the country’s relationship with global markets. In this context, the Technology Diplomacy Institute examines this transformation not simply as a process of digitalization, but as the emergence of a broader governance architecture and technology ecosystem. What distinguishes this transformation from conventional digitalization programmes is the simultaneous development of digital infrastructure, economic reforms, specialized technology institutions, startup and venture-capital support, artificial intelligence, foreign investment, technology-services exports and regulatory sandboxes for emerging technologies. These developments are being pursued within the broader framework of the Uzbekistan–2030 Strategy, which seeks to strengthen the country’s role in global production chains, develop human capabilities and expand opportunities for citizens.
The significance of this transformation for external observers lies in the fact that Uzbekistan is building a technology ecosystem from a relatively earlier stage of development than some regional technology hubs. As a result, many of its rules, institutions and infrastructures are still taking shape. This creates both opportunities and risks. On the one hand, the government can establish new institutions and mechanisms relatively quickly. On the other, institutional coordination, regulatory predictability, access to capital, human capital and the ability to translate announced policies into tangible outcomes remain issues that require close monitoring. The available evidence suggests that Uzbekistan should not be viewed simply as an “emerging technology market.” The country is building a “technology ecosystem” in which the government, regulators, technology companies, investors, universities, innovation centres and international partners are gradually forming a new network of economic and technological relationships.
This analysis examines that architecture and addresses a central question: How is Uzbekistan designing its governance environment for technology development, innovation, investment and international engagement, and to what extent can this architecture enable domestic and foreign actors?
From Digitalization to Technology Governance
In the early stages of digital transformation, government policy generally focuses on infrastructure development, internet connectivity, digitization of public services and the growth of information technology services. Uzbekistan has followed this path, but recent developments indicate that its technology policy is moving beyond this stage. The Ministry of Digital Technologies is now not only responsible for digital infrastructure and services, but has also become an important actor in industrial policy, technology exports, human-capital development, startups and artificial intelligence. At the national level, technology is increasingly connected directly to economic development objectives. According to an official government statement in 2026, gross value added in the digital sector grew by an average of 24.8 percent annually over the previous five years, approximately 3.5 times the overall GDP growth rate during the same period. The government has also set a target of reaching US$5 billion in IT services and software exports by 2030 and creating employment for 300,000 young people in the sector.
These figures should not be interpreted merely as export targets. They indicate a shift in the position of technology within national development policy. When the government sets a multi-billion-dollar target for software and IT-services exports, technology is no longer simply the subject of limited support for technology firms. It is becoming an expected source of foreign-exchange earnings, employment, regional development and integration into the global economy. This shift is also visible institutionally. Uzbekistan’s technology policy is gradually moving from a collection of separate programmes toward an architecture consisting of a ministry, technology parks, startup-support mechanisms, investment funds, regulatory sandboxes, skills-development programmes and foreign-investment policies.
The UNDP’s analysis of Uzbekistan’s digital economy likewise examines the links between ICT-sector growth, export potential, digital entrepreneurship, startups and artificial intelligence, while highlighting regulatory and institutional challenges. From this perspective, one of the defining features of Uzbekistan’s emerging model is the active role of the state in market formation. The government is not simply regulating an existing market. In many areas, it is building infrastructure, designing incentives, attracting investment, establishing institutions and generating demand for technology.
Uzbekistan–2030 and the Position of Technology in the Development Model
The Uzbekistan–2030 Strategy provides the broader framework for the country’s transformation, with technology appearing across several of its priorities. The strategy is not simply about increasing technology use. It also seeks a more competitive economy, greater productive capacity, stronger human capital and deeper integration into the global economy. Within this framework, digital government has particular importance. Uzbekistan has set the objective of improving its position in the UN E-Government Development Index and entering the world’s top 30. At the same time, the government is linking digital public services with artificial intelligence and computing infrastructure.
This approach matters because e-government is not being treated solely as an administrative project. Digital-government infrastructure can function as part of the broader infrastructure of the digital economy, ranging from data and digital identity to payments, public services, cloud infrastructure and corporate access to government markets. UNDP work on Uzbekistan’s digital economy and digital transformation likewise highlights the connections among digital policy, entrepreneurship, institutional capacity and technology adoption. This development has governance implications. Technology growth without the ability to measure policy outcomes can lead to an accumulation of programmes and parallel institutions. Efforts to establish monitoring and evaluation mechanisms therefore indicate a gradual movement from programme-oriented technology policy toward a more outcome-oriented approach.
IT Park: From Technology Park to Industrial Policy Instrument
One of the most important components of Uzbekistan’s technology architecture is IT Park. In recent years, its role has gradually expanded beyond providing an operating environment for technology companies to become an important instrument for technology-export development, foreign-company attraction, human-capital development and the internationalization of the ecosystem. Data for the first half of 2026 illustrate this transformation. Between January and June 2026, 608 export-oriented companies joined the IT Park ecosystem, representing a 178 percent increase compared with the same period of the previous year. During the same period, 297 foreign-capital companies became IT Park members, representing annual growth of 154 percent. Newly established foreign companies also announced plans to create more than 3,000 jobs across the country.
The significance of these figures extends beyond the number of companies. A more important development is the changing geography of the ecosystem. During the first half of 2026, 138 foreign-capital companies began operations outside Tashkent, while 257 new export-oriented companies were registered in regional areas. IT Park should therefore be viewed in the analysis of Uzbekistan’s technology policy as an “intermediary institution between policy and market.” It connects government and the private sector, the domestic and export markets, and domestic companies and foreign investors. This position is also relevant to foreign technology companies. A technology company entering Uzbekistan’s ecosystem does not necessarily encounter only an administrative and tax environment. It also encounters a set of services, incentives, relationships and market-entry facilitation mechanisms, some of which are organized through IT Park.
Incentives and the Changing Logic of Government Support
An important indicator of policy maturity is the type of incentives offered by the government. In Uzbekistan, these incentives have gradually moved from general support toward more conditional and targeted forms of support. Legal documents published through Lex.uz indicate that, for certain IT Park categories, including export-oriented companies, extensions of tax and customs incentives through 2040 have been envisaged. In some cases, criteria such as the share of exports in company revenue or links between training activities and export-oriented companies have also been taken into account.
This is significant from an industrial-policy perspective. Rather than granting benefits simply because a company is “technology-based,” the government is increasingly linking some forms of support to export performance, employment and human-capital development. In 2026, additional mechanisms for startup support were also introduced. For example, eligible startups registered with StartupBase and without tax arrears may transfer up to US$500,000 per year to foreign accounts. From April 2026, venture-capital funds can also obtain IT Park residency irrespective of their place of registration and legal place of operation.
Startup Policy and the Emergence of an Innovation Capital Market
Uzbekistan’s startup ecosystem remains young compared with major global hubs, but its growth has been significant. In January 2026, the government stated that the total value of Uzbekistan’s startup and venture ecosystem had reached US$3.9 billion in 2024–2025. The number of domestic startups had exceeded 750, 15 venture funds were operating, and total venture capital had surpassed US$180 million. The government set 2030 targets of increasing the number of startups to 5,000, raising the number of startups entering export markets to 200 and increasing venture investment to US$2 billion.
These targets are ambitious and should be interpreted cautiously. The “value of the ecosystem” is not equivalent to the economic value of companies or the amount of capital invested, and a more precise assessment requires examining the definition and methodology behind the indicator. Nevertheless, even as policy indicators, these figures show that the government recognizes startups and venture capital as part of the infrastructure of technology development.
Another important point is that government support is beginning to address different links in the capital chain. The new startup-support approach covers the path from idea formation to scaling and seeks to combine financing, training, acceleration and market access. The central challenge in the coming years, however, is unlikely to be a shortage of capital simply in terms of the volume of money. More important will be the quality of capital, investment experience, the ability of funds to select and scale export-capable companies, and their connections to global networks.
Artificial Intelligence: A New Stage of Technology Governance
Artificial intelligence is gaining an increasingly important position in Uzbekistan’s technology architecture. The government is pursuing AI in connection with economic growth, public services, education, healthcare, transport, agriculture, banking and security. Announced plans also include data centres, supercomputers and AI laboratories at universities. This trajectory suggests that Uzbekistan’s AI policy is moving beyond the stage of simply using AI tools toward the development of national capacity.
A 2026 UNDP publication on AI sandboxes in Uzbekistan identifies financial, infrastructure, human-capital and regulatory barriers alongside economic opportunities, with particular attention to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. This is important because it points to a gap between national AI policy and the actual capacity of firms to adopt the technology. Policymakers may create infrastructure and strategies, but real technology adoption depends on cost, data, skills, trust and regulation.
In the same direction, UNDP published a framework in February 2026 for initiating AI regulatory sandboxes in Uzbekistan. The document presents regulatory sandboxes as a way to test AI solutions in controlled conditions while improving regulatory clarity and supporting responsible adoption. If implemented effectively, these mechanisms could become one of the significant strengths of Uzbekistan’s technology environment for domestic and foreign companies.
Regulatory Sandboxes: From Ex Post Regulation to Experimental Regulation
One of the notable developments in Uzbekistan’s technology governance architecture is the use of regulatory sandboxes. The mechanism is significant from a policy perspective because innovative technologies often encounter regulations that were not designed for new business models. In such circumstances, a complete ban can constrain innovation, while unrestricted liberalization can create risks. A regulatory sandbox offers a third option: limited and controlled experimentation.
The Central Bank of Uzbekistan operates such a mechanism in financial technology and places it within the National Strategy for Financial Technology Development for 2026–2030. The strategy is aimed at strengthening digital financial infrastructure, attracting investment and developing human resources in the sector.
The approach becomes more significant because the Central Bank is also developing an innovation-oriented institutional environment alongside its regulatory function. Its fintech programme includes an Innovation Hub, venture-fund mechanisms and other ecosystem-development instruments. This is a clear example of a changing regulatory role in the digital economy: the regulator becomes not only an observer of market activity but also part of the infrastructure supporting innovation.
From Technology Parks to Innovation Infrastructure
Uzbekistan’s technology architecture is not limited to IT Park. UNESCO studies of Uzbekistan’s research and innovation system show that the country has been working for years to restructure its science, technology and innovation system and to strengthen coordination among actors, policy capacity and innovation intermediaries. This finding is important for assessing governance architecture. Institutions and infrastructure alone do not create an innovation ecosystem. A technology park creates economic value when it can connect research to products, products to companies and companies to markets.
For this reason, the next stage of Uzbekistan’s development is likely to depend not simply on creating new centres, but on improving the quality of connections among universities, research, industry, capital and markets. The joint UNESCO–Islamic Development Bank–Uzbekistan work on the country’s research and innovation system likewise maps the national STI system and emphasizes evidence-based policy, coordination among actors and stronger institutional capacity.
Human Capital: The Hidden Constraint on Technology Growth
As Uzbekistan’s technology policies expand, human capacity will determine how far these policies can be implemented. In the 2025 Global Innovation Index, Uzbekistan ranked 79th globally. The index reports a population of approximately 36.4 million and GDP based on purchasing power parity of approximately US$428.2 billion. Uzbekistan ranked third globally in “entrepreneurship policies and culture,” while ranking 110th in the regulatory environment and 113th in rule of law. This combination is significant. On the one hand, the country performs strongly in entrepreneurship policy and culture. On the other, some institutional and regulatory indicators remain substantially below those of leading economies.
Higher education also presents a mixed picture. In the 2025 Global Innovation Index, graduates in science and engineering accounted for approximately 32.8 percent, placing Uzbekistan 13th globally on this indicator. This human-capital base is important for technology development, but the quality of applied skills, industrial experience, language capabilities, product management, international sales and the ability to operate in global markets cannot be measured through graduate numbers alone. The UNESCO IITE report on ICT skills development in Uzbekistan examines precisely this relationship between digital transformation, higher education and labour-market requirements, with particular attention to the development of ICT skills.
The Institutional Environment: The Area That Requires the Closest Monitoring
To assess Uzbekistan’s technology governance architecture without adopting a promotional perspective, two simultaneous trends need to be distinguished. The first is the rapid creation of new policies, programmes and institutions. Uzbekistan has made notable progress in this area over the past several years. IT Park, startup programmes, AI policy, the financial-technology strategy, regulatory sandboxes and investment incentives are examples of this trend.
The second concerns the quality of institutionalization and implementation. This includes regulatory stability, coordination among institutions, transparency, data access, regulatory independence, the quality of the judicial system and the ability of private-sector actors to anticipate the business environment.
WIPO data illustrate the importance of this distinction. In the 2025 Global Innovation Index, Uzbekistan ranked ninth globally in the business environment and third in entrepreneurship policies and culture, but 104th in regulatory quality and 113th in rule of law. This gap does not mean that technology policy has failed. Rather, it may indicate that economic reforms and entrepreneurship policies have moved faster than some institutional capacities. For a foreign investor or technology company, therefore, Uzbekistan’s attractiveness cannot be measured only by the number of incentives available. The more important question is how stable, predictable and enforceable those incentives are.
International Engagement: From Attracting Investment to Integration into Technology Networks
One of the important signs of change in Uzbekistan’s ecosystem is the growing participation of foreign companies. IT Park data for the first half of 2026 show that 297 foreign-capital companies entered the ecosystem, representing 154 percent year-on-year growth. At the same time, 138 foreign companies began operations outside Tashkent. This suggests that Uzbekistan’s technology policy is gradually moving from “developing domestic capacity” toward combining domestic and international capabilities.
For a developing country, this is significant. Foreign companies can bring capital, technology, management standards, export markets and global networks into the country. But for such engagement to generate knowledge transfer and sustainable development, stronger relationships between foreign companies and the domestic ecosystem are required. Universities, local companies, human capital, startups and domestic supply chains therefore become increasingly important. The next stage of Uzbekistan’s technology policy should consequently not focus only on increasing the number of foreign companies. It should also seek greater depth of their links with the domestic economy.
Observatory Assessment
Based on the available evidence, Uzbekistan is developing a technology governance model characterized by an active state role in creating market conditions, developing infrastructure, attracting investment and shaping an innovation ecosystem. The main advantage of this model is the relative speed and coherence of its policy direction. The government has established specific objectives for technology exports, employment, AI, startups and digital government and has created specialized institutions to pursue them. A second advantage is the increasing use of enabling mechanisms. IT Park, regulatory sandboxes, fintech innovation institutions, startup programmes and investment incentives indicate an effort to move beyond conventional regulation toward newer policy instruments.
A third advantage is the ecosystem’s increasing openness to foreign participation. The growth in foreign-capital companies within IT Park in 2026 is one of the clearest indicators of this trend. Three major challenges nevertheless require attention. First, institutional and regulatory capacity needs to keep pace with market development. The gap between entrepreneurship indicators and the regulatory environment in the 2025 Global Innovation Index indicates that institutional reform remains an important agenda.
Second, human-capital quality and the ability to translate education into market-oriented skills need to be strengthened. Growth in graduate numbers and training programmes becomes a competitive advantage only when combined with industrial experience, applied research and access to global markets. Third, the ecosystem needs to move from quantitative to qualitative growth. More startups, funds and foreign companies matter, but the next-stage indicators are likely to include the scale of genuine private investment, the number of scalable companies, sustainable export revenues, the number of companies moving from domestic to global markets, and the extent of technology and knowledge transfer into the domestic economy.
Conclusion
Uzbekistan is experiencing one of the most rapid periods of technology-policy redesign in its recent development. In this process, technology is gradually moving from a specialized policy area to one of the components of the country’s broader economic-development model. The government is creating a set of institutions and policy instruments covering digital infrastructure and e-government, startups, venture capital, technology parks, artificial intelligence and regulatory sandboxes. This process can be understood as the emergence of an enabling technology governance environment, with the qualification that this environment is still evolving and that some of its challenges concern implementation quality, regulatory stability, human capital and the depth of connections among the private sector, universities and government.
For technology companies and foreign investors, Uzbekistan’s attractiveness lies partly in this transitional stage. The market is not yet fully mature, but the government is actively building the infrastructure and rules required for its growth. This creates opportunities for foreign actors capable of aligning with the country’s development priorities. From a technology-diplomacy perspective, the most important implication is that engagement with Uzbekistan should not be limited to a commercial relationship between technology sellers and buyers. The emerging architecture creates space for engagement in technology policy, ecosystem development, investment, technology transfer, research, human-capital development and regional network formation.
Uzbekistan should therefore be viewed not only as a destination for technology exports, but also as an emerging partner in Central Asia’s technology network.