In turn, Uzbekistan, which begins a new stage of digitalization, announced 2018 as the
Year of support of active entrepreneurship, innovative ideas and technologies. By adopting
a State Program for the Year of Support of Active Entrepreneurship, Innovative Ideas and
Technologies, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan has made decisions on improving
the sphere of information and communication technologies.
It should be noted that our country has already made some progress in this field: an
Innovative center with unprecedented tax benefits and preferences has been created in
Uzbekistan: e-government services have been actively developing. In 2017 over 1,5 million
citizens’ appeals were received through the virtual reception of the President of Uzbekistan.
In addition, tax reporting and customs clearance have been completely digitized. So, created
electronic system of registration via the Internet has reduced the time of launching a
business in 30 minutes 8 .
Uzbekistan and Russia can achieve all goals in this realm through the creation of a joint
platform for the development of the digital economy, technology parks, improvement of
postal services, arranging training courses for experts of public relations and IT-specialists.
In reality this can be achieved as Uzbekistan and Russia already have a solid basis for
cooperation in the field of personnel training. Uzbek youth strongly longs for getting
education in Russian universities.
The number of students from Uzbekistan getting higher education in Russia composes
more than 21 thousand people (8.6% of the total number of foreign students in Russia). It is
no coincidence that by the number of applicants Uzbekistan today occupies the 1st rank
among the CIS countries. 9 Branches of leading Russian universities in Tashkent, including
branches of Moscow State University named after M.V.Lomonosov, Gubkin Russian State
University of Oil and Gas, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics are also popular among
Uzbek students. The number of students in these higher educational institutions already
exceeds 2 thousand Uzbek citizens.
Supporting our youth’s desire for being educated in Russian, this year Tashkent and
Moscow agreed to open new branches of the National research technological University
“Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys”, Bauman Moscow State Technical University,
I.M.Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow University of Architecture,
Russian University of Technology.
The close partnership between Uzbekistan and Russia is one of the most illustrative
examples of coordination of efforts in fields of national, regional and international security.
The expert on Central Asia of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS) I.Ippolitov
assures that “Uzbekistan, as the largest and “core country” in Central Asia, is a kind of
“keystone in the arch”. In this regard, the stable political system and public peace in
Uzbekistan are extremely important not only for maintaining balance of power in the region,
but also for ensuring Russia’s vital interests”. 10
Today, Tashkent and Moscow actively cooperate in a wide range of areas including
maintaining peace and stability; tackling terrorism and extremism; nonproliferation of
weapons of mass destruction; combating drug trafficking and etc. As the experts of the
Russian Institute for Strategic Studies mention, “Uzbekistan is the most protected state in
the region in relation to the drug threat and therefore the country is considered to be a
natural partner of Russia and a regional leader in the fight against this threat”. 11
It is not surprising why the topic of the increasing cooperation in the field of security
was one of the key issues on the agenda of Sh.Mirziyoyev and V.Putin’s talks on April 4,
From the speech of Uzbek Prime Minister A.Aripov at the forum «Digital agenda in the era of globalization» / 4 April of 2018. Almaty.
https://ru.sputniknews-uz.com/politics/20180204/7420594/Aripov-uzbekistan-vstupil-v-etap-tsifrovoy-ekonomiki.html
9 Uzbekistan and Russia: the contours of a strategic partnership" // 10. August of 2017. http://www.ut.uz/ru/politika/uzbekistan-i-rossiya-
kontury-strategicheskogo-sotrudnichestva-/
10 Uzbekistan will cover Russia from the South" / / 2016. 6 Dec. http://svpressa.ru/politic/article/162016/
11 Kukol S. «Experience of Uzbekistan in the fight against drug trafficking in Central Asia» / Problems of national strategy. RISS. No. 1 of 2018.
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