About the Technology Park of Software and IT (IT-Park)

IT Park was established under the Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan by the resolution No. 17 of January 10, 2019, of the Cabinet of Ministers “On measures to create a Technological Park of software products and information technologies”.

Thereunder, LLC “Technology Park of Software and IT” (hereinafter referred to as IT-Park) was registered (certificate of the state registration No. 665836 of January 11, 2019).

One of the best specialists of Software Technology Parks of India was involved as a consultant for applying the best practices of India in the development of technology parks and supporting software developers. Indian consultant J. Parthasarthy began his work in IT-Park on March 18, 2019.

Reconstruction and overhaul of the first building (Block C) were completed at the beginning of July 2019, and on July 24, 2019, the official opening ceremony of the Technology Park of Software and IT was held.

The Regulation on the procedure for organizing the activities of the Technology Park of software and IT was approved, which determines the procedure of registration of legal entities as the residents of IT-Park, including the regulations of tax and customs benefits, and regulation on supporting the promising “startup projects” and venture investments (Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers dated July 15, 2019 No. 589).

Link to a video: https://youtu.be/rwcHOJyCm5g

In the IT-Park, residents are provided with tax and customs benefits, modern infrastructure and equipment. Moreover, marketing, legal and other consulting services are provided. Today, the activities of IT Park include the following main areas:

1. Support for IT companies (Residence).

Currently, 355 IT companies have received the resident status.

Residents of the IT-Park carry out activities in the fields of computer programming and consulting, placement and processing of data and web portals, software release, IT trainings. The main sales markets are the United States of America, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the CIS countries.

For now, the volume of services provided by the residents is more than 491.5 billion soums, of which 65.5 billion soums are export figures.

Tax exemptions for the residents of IT-Park:

• all types of taxes and mandatory payments in state trust funds, as well as a single social payment;
• customs payments (excluding customs duties) for equipment, components, parts, assemblies, technological documentation, software, not produced in the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Also, residents of IT-Park have the right:

• to the provision of services for the export of goods (works, services)
  in the Republic of Uzbekistan in a foreign form in international payment cards;
• to carry out within the borders the flow of goods (work, services) with
  the payment of wages to foreign specialists in international payment cards, opened abroad;
• to export contracts and online services.

Revenues in the form of remuneration received under employment contracts with residents are taxed on personal income at a fixed rate of 7.5%
and are not included in the total annual income of individuals determined for tax purposes. Residents can be legal entities located on the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan that has one of two types of activities according to the National Classifier of Types of Economic Activities of the Republic of Uzbekistan (version 2), approved by the management of the Uzstandard Agency dated January 28, 2011 No. 05-268:

• “Computer programming, consultations and other related services”;
• “Services for the placement and processing of data, web portals”;
• “Software”;
• “Other types of education not included in other categories” - strictly based on the results of IT training.

To register as a resident of IT-Park, a legal entity must submit to the Directorate a statement of the approved form with an appendix of a business plan proposed for implementation as a resident and a constituent document. Consideration of applications is free of charge. One of the conditions of residency in the IT Park is monthly basis deductions to the deposit account of the IT Park Directorate in the amount of one per cent of the net proceeds, the provision on a quarterly basis of information about its activities, as well as the annual mandatory audit of financial and economic activities and a copy of the audit conclusion to the Directorate.

2. Startup support and development of the startup-ecosystem.

In order to provide comprehensive support in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the field of information technology,
the development of the local startup ecosystem, IT-Park carries out incubation and acceleration programs aimed at transforming a startup project idea into a full commercial product.

As part of the first cycle of these programs, 15 projects out of 103 applicants were selected, of which 9 were added in the incubation program and 6 in the acceleration program. The following are the working areas of the selected startups: 

• E-commerce - 8 projects;
• Medical Technologies (Medtech) - 3 projects;
• Financial Technologies (Fintech) - 1 project;
• Agro Technologies (Agrotech) - 1 project;
• The Internet of Things (IoT) - 2 projects.

Currently, the first cycle of programs has been completed, the period of which was from August 15 to November 15 this year. During this period, teams received office space at no cost and also were provided with the following support: training, seminars, and mentoring in order to enter the market. 

Along with this, IT-Park is actively working on the organization of hackathons, competitions, programs, specialized exhibitions, as well as other events for the development of startup ecosystems and entrepreneurship in the field of IT, including:

• mGovAward 2019, together with the UAE's Minister of Cabinet Affairs  and the Future, with a prize fund of 950 million soums;
• One Million Uzbek Coders (One million Uzbekistan programmers), together with the UAE's Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, with a goal to provide annual grants (950 million soums) for the best 150 students;
• Open data development project (including conference and hackathon) in Uzbekistan, jointly with the OSCE, with a prize fund of 95 million soums;
• Ucell Mobile Challenge 2019, together with Ucell, with a prize fund of 600 million soums;
• Youth Support Program “Startup Initiatives”, jointly with the Ministry of Labor, CCI and UNDP, with a prize fund of 330 million soums;
• Startup hackathon UzAuto Market, together with Uzavtosanoat JSC, with a prize fund - 60 million soums.

Also, with the support of IT-Park, several local startup projects became winners of international competitions, such as Fintech Abu Dhabi & TIP Summit (UAE) and Seedstars Summit CEE (Kazakhstan).

3. Investment activity.

IT-Park is cooperating with the foreign venture and investment funds to attract investments for start-up projects, as a result, 750 thousand US dollars were attracted in the following projects:

Arzon Apteka - a unique platform in Central Asia for the registration, search and delivery of medicines - attracted investments of 350 thousand US dollars from the venture fund “Astron ventures”, Russia;

Fastago - a platform for the delivery of postal products - attracted investments of 100 thousand US dollars from the venture fund “Sturgeon Capital”, Great Britain;

Marta.uz - acquiring platform (mobile application, web service and equipment for working with bank cards) - attracted investments of 300 thousand US dollars from the syndicate of individual venture investors together with the Orient Finance Bank.

In addition, IT-Park is working to attract grants for the following projects:

Renovation and development of the IT-Park infrastructure, jointly with the Gyeongbuk Technopark (Korea), the Korean Association of Technoparks and Korea International Cooperation Agency - $4,5 million grant;

The project aiming to encourage more women in technology and to promote the value of diversity, inclusion and equity in technology – “Women in Tech”, jointly with the OSCE - 700 thousand US dollars grant;

“Capacity building for women and young generation in the field of information and communication technologies”, together with ITU - 100 thousand US dollars grant.

4. Education in the industry of information technology.

IT Academy was established on August 1, 2020. The main activity of the IT Academy is the organization of IT courses (both short-term and long-term).
At the same time, the IT Academy is the main executor of the One Million Uzbek Coders project. Currently, the localization of the One Million Uzbek Coders portal and the Udacity platform training courses into the Uzbek language has been completed. So, within the framework of the project, it is planned to train at least 2,000 students until the end of 2020.

Along with this, in order to popularize the field of information technology, to increase the digital literacy and other IT competencies among the population, 22 Digital Competency Training Centers (hereinafter IT-Centers) have been opened in all major cities of Uzbekistan.

These Centers provide access to online and offline IT training, and all the rooms are equipped with the necessary technological equipment.

The main educational programs consist of courses in the field of digitalization (outsourcing of information technology services, business skills, customer service and more), the basics of computer literacy and programming (programming from basic to advanced level, MS Office, programming languages ​​C ++ / Java / Python / Android and others), as well as international programs in robotics, cybersports and IT-English. In 2020, it is planned to open an additional 100 Centers
in all of the regions of Uzbekistan.

5. Partnership.

According to the decrees of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as to fulfil the decrees of the Ministry for the Development of Information Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the field of international cooperation, active work is ongoing in this direction. One of the main tasks of the IT Park is to establish partnerships with foreign countries with the aim of promoting IT products to foreign markets, as well as attracting foreign investors.

The IT Park has agreements and memoranda of cooperation with more than 20 partners from 8 countries, 6 local organizations and 3 universities. Among them:

The Republic of Uzbekistan:

1. The Ministry of Innovative Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan;
2. Venture Capital Fund “Astron”;
3. ООО «COSCOM» (Ucell);
4. The Association of E-Commerce of Uzbekistan;
5. Coworking Center «GroundZero»;
6. Coworking Center «C-Space».

The Russian Federation:

1. IT-Park Kazan;
2. «RB Partners».

The Republic of Belarus:

1. « Exadel Belarus»;
2. «Aleinikov & Partners»;
3. High Tech Park Belarus.

The Republic of Kazakhstan:

1. «Astana Hub»;
2. «Qaztech Ventures»;
3. «Fintech Hub»;
4. «TechGarden».

The Republic of Tajikistan:

1. Institute of Economy and Trade of Tajik State University of commerce in Khujand city.

The United Kingdom:

1. «Tech Nation»;
2. «Sturgeon Capital LTD».

The Republic of Georgia:

1. «Georgia’s Innovation and Technology Agency» (GITA);
2. «Future Laboratory».

The Republic of India:

1. «Software Technology Parks of India»;
2. «GESIA IT Association»;
3. «Dev Information Technology»;
4. «iCreate: Technology Business Incubation center».

The Swiss Republic:

1. «Seedstars World SE».

The Republic of Korea:

1. «Gyeongbuk Technopark Foundation».

      Universities:

1. Tashkent University of Information Technologies;
2. Inha University in Tashkent;
3. Amity University in Tashkent.