Page 38 - bne magazine July 2022_20220704

38 I Cover story bne July 2022
Since launching an aggressive drive to develop its IT sector, Uzbekistan's IT export revenues have ballooned from a few million in 2017 to $100mn last year, but the government is targeting $1bn in only a few more years time. Wiki
our graduates would be able to speak English.’’ Shermatov said. “Then there’s IT Nation, where we have a comprehensive approach on changing the curriculum from the idea that school graduates would be able to
not just be users of ICT, but also the developers who can earn money in IT... We even encourage our workers to speak with an American accent, as that is already our biggest export market.”
High stakes
The stakes are high for the double- landlocked Central Asian republic
of 35mn, whose main exports are gold, copper, textiles and agricultural goods. Uzbekistan is dependent on nearby Russia's demand for its exports, and it relies on the Russian railway network for access to markets further afield. That’s a matter of growing concern for the country’s leadership and business community, analysts
say, after seeing the Russian military cut off Ukraine’s access to the sea and close its most vital export routes.
IT exports offer a unique solution to the country’s geographic challenges. All you need is English-speaking, digital natives and a good and inexpensive internet connection. The cost of a
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quality connection in Uzbekistan has plummeted over the last couple years thanks to tens of millions of dollars
in government investment, according
to Nodir Ruzmatov, the CEO of New York-based business process outsourcing company RevoTech and Uzbekistan’s largest entrepreneur in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and IT outsourcing.
“When we started the park in 2017, it was almost nothing. It was only the tax benefits,’’ said Farhod Ibragimov, CEO of IT Park Uzbekistan. “There have been huge changes over the last three or four years in Uzbekistan's IT sphere. 58 universities now have IT specialised courses, 20 of them are wholly focused on IT. We already have over 20,000 high qualified specialists right now, and that is going to increase by at least 10,000 annually.’’
The conflict in Ukraine has provided an unexpected windfall for Uzbekistan in more ways than one. Besides prompting an influx of IT talent, it has also severely restricted the outsourcing businesses of Russia and Belarus,
two of the biggest competitors in the region. Ukraine is another big player in the IT outsourcing business and has also suffered extreme disruptions.
Open arms
Uzbekistan continues to woo IT specialists, introducing special three- year multiple entry IT visas, simplifying the process of obtaining residency permits, taking IT specialists looking
at moving to Uzbekistan on tours to
the ancient city of Samarkand, the heart of the ancient Silk Road, and plying them with plov, the country’s signature dish of rice pilaf.
Uzbekistan IT park’s website provides testimonials from IT professionals
who have made the swap, and has just commissioned a mini-documentary introducing would-be IT immigrants to Uzbekistan. And this may just be the beginning. The Russian Association of Electronic Communications, a lobby group, said in March that 50,000 to 70,000 specialists had left Russia
and as many as 100,000 more might follow them in the coming month.
Cue operation “Tash Rush.” On February 25, the day after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Uzbekistan’s IT Park launched its relocation programme backed
by local businesses. Within weeks, Uzbekistan had sent 12 chartered flights to the Belarusian capital, Minsk, to ferry some of the world’s