Innovation and Digital
With smart phone penetration due to reach 77% by 2025, and more than 27 million internet users, Uzbekistan is a digitally literate society whose young population are building the leading tech businesses of tomorrow.
Central to the economy's growing tech leadership is the IT Park in Tashkent, a dedicated digital business ecosystem which has grown exponentially over the last four years – from 411 businesses in 2020 to 1552 in 2023. Attracted by a skilled workforce and a total exemption from corporate tax, constituent businesses of the IT Park exported $344 million in IT products and services in 2023.
A burgeoning IT sector runs in parallel to a constellation of fintech startups which are capitalising on Uzbekistan's rapidly evolving digital payments and online retail markets. Leading the country's fintech charge is Uzum, an e-commerce business and, with a market value of more than $1 billion, the first Uzbek "unicorn".
But with more than a thousand start-ups active in Uzbekistan, Uzum will not be the last!