Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has issued a decree to create the Mirzo Ulughbek Innovation Center in Tashkent to support development and introduction of information technologies, according to Sputnik Uzbekistan news agency.
The new structure is reportedly dedicated to unite economic entities working in the IT sphere and developers of software products.
The main objective of the center is to create a favorable environment for citizens, first of all gifted youth having realistic projects in the sphere of information technologies that could be introduced into life. The Coordination Center has been set up as the highest management body of the Innovation Center.
Residents of the center will be exempted from paying taxes until January 1, 2028 and they will be able to export their work and services for foreign currencies through online-shops in Internet.
Recall, Russian state-run news website Sputnik in February this year cited an official with the IT and Communications Development Ministry as saying an innovation center could be set up within a free economic zone at the Inha University in Tashkent — an affiliate institution of South Korea’s Incheon-based Inha University.
As the ministry representative envisions the proposed center, it would serve as a hub for high-tech and locally developed IT products.
“Our idea is for Inha University in Tashkent to become the birthplace of a Silicon Valley in Uzbekistan,” Sputnik’s source said.
Uzbekistan is reportedly drawing on the experience of Belarus as a model.
