Hit by regular power cuts and with popular sites such as Twitter and TikTok blocked, the central Asian nation of Uzbekistan hardly seems a likely candidate for a tech boom.
However, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine driving an exodus of IT specialists to former parts of the Soviet Union, authorities in Uzbekistan are hoping to speed up plans to modernize an economy best known for its vast production of cotton.
It took only one day after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine for Uzbekistan to launch a one-stop government relocation program for IT specialists and companies.
Photo: AFP
Offering visas, housing and childcare support to individuals, and registration assistance and tax exemptions to companies, the program has attracted about 2,000 foreign IT specialists, the government said.
One of those specialists is Anastasia Markova, a Russian citizen who recently became a public relations manager at Uzbekistan’s state-run IT Park in the capital, Tashkent.
Markova, 22, had been due to be married in Russia in April, but left Moscow with her fiance — an employee of a company registered at the park — and the two are now seeking permanent residency in Uzbekistan.
Markova said she feels comfortable in the city, where Russian is still widely spoken three decades after Uzbekistan gained independence during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“The country accepted us as one of their own. The people are so friendly and hospitable,” she said.
Markova was more keen to speak about her new home than the country she left behind, saying only that her decision to leave Russia had been “rushed, as it was for many people” and due to “a number of social and economic factors.”
Several other Russian citizens contacted by Agence France-Presse after moving to Uzbekistan and neighboring Kyrgyzstan refused to talk, saying they feared the consequences of potentially being seen as critical of Russia.
The IT Park in Tashkent is home to about 550 companies, and is at the heart of plans to increase Uzbek IT exports to more US$1 billion by 2028, a 25-fold rise from last year’s figure.
The park’s motto, “START local and GO Global,” is emblazoned on a wood-panel facade at the entrance. Inside, young support staff in casual attire and headsets work at desks.
The park is benefiting from the relocation program, dubbed TashRush, a name that “seemed most suited to the phenomenon we are witnessing,” IT Park deputy director Bakhodir Ayupov said.
About 50,000 to 70,000 specialists had left Russia, and up to 100,000 more might follow them out of the door this month, the lobby group Russian Association of Electronic Communications said on March 22.
For the moment, Uzbekistan is a less popular destination for departing Russian IT workers than Georgia, Turkey or Armenia.
Uzbekistan has lagged behind other ex-Soviet nations in developing the sector. The country lately has battled winter energy shortages, while power cuts are not uncommon, even in Tashkent.
However, Internet speed has “improved greatly” in Uzbekistan, driving a doubling of IT exports last year in comparison with 2020, Ayupov said.
In an apparent nod to business, Uzbek officials last month lifted a block on the Skype communications platform.
However, Twitter, the video-sharing platform TikTok and Russia’s most popular social network, VKontakte, remain blocked in the authoritarian republic of about 35 million people.
Despite these difficulties, some of the Russians who left said they would rather stick it out in Uzbekistan than return home.
Olga, a 42-year-old who moved to the historic Uzbek city of Samarkand with her husband immediately after the invasion, said she had fallen in love with the former Silk Road citadel and hoped her experience as a content curator for digital museums would help her find work.
“To begin with, we thought we would be here for a few days, but we decided to stay longer. People who were complete strangers have been so good to us,” said Olga, who asked to not be fully identified.
She has no plans to return to Russia, where “the flywheel of repression is spinning and may be spinning for a long time to come,” she said.
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