Experience of development of digital technologies in Uzbekistan

. The Republic of Uzbekistan made the digitalization and development of information-communication technologies (ICT) priority yet in early 2000s. For the digital strategy determines out five priority areas for development: digital infrastructure; e-government; digital economy; national IT sector; and IT education. Moreover, digital and IT infrastructure of the country has remarkably improved, considerable amount of resources were invested which built solid foundations for better ecosystem of the ICT. Meanwhile, Uzbekistan has achieved visible results in the sphere of digitalization and ICT development in a relatively short period of time. The great progress has been observed in introducing e-government and ICT in public sector for the last few years, when in 2013 was launched “Single portal of interactive government services” – central e-government service of the country. This article is devoted to the information on the basic principles of the digital economy, increasing efficiency and creating “digital enterprises” as well as information and other high technologies have become an integral part of everyday life, almost the entire world population in Uzbekistan. In this regard, it studies the digitalization process, stimulating economic growth and its opportunities for achieving various social goals, including in the labor market.


Introduction
In the modern economy, the issues of revealing the new growth factors are becoming relevant. In this regard, the foreground is the study of the digitalization process, stimulating economic growth and its opportunities for achieving various social goals, including in the labor market [1].
At the same time, the number of mobile communication users of the third fourth generation exceeded 16 million subscribers [2]. During the digital transformation of regions and regions in 2020-2022 it is expected from 78 to 95 percent of the level of connected points to the Internet, including by increasing to 2.5 ports of broadband access, laying 20,000 km of fiber-optic communication lines and developing a mobile communication network [3]; introduction of over 400 information systems, electronic services and software products in various areas of socio-economic development of regions; training 587,000 people in the basics of computer programming, including the attraction of 500,000 young people in the framework of the "One Million Programmers" project; implementation of over 280 information systems and software products for management, production and logistics processes at enterprises of the real sector of the economy [4].
The implementation of over 220 priority projects providing for improvement of the egovernment system, the further development of the domestic market of software products and information technologies, is certainly taking into account the experience of the developed countries of the world, including the USA, Israel, India, China and a number of European countries [5].
From 2020, it is planned to widely introduce mechanisms in agriculture, its full digitalization, in order to increase the interest of farmers in the abolition of state orders for cotton and procurement based on market principles. In this regard, it is a programmatic mechanism for the implementation of consistent reforms in this area [6]. The main area of economic activity is economic development. The development of the digital economy in all sectors and levels of production allows for significant economic benefits, including an increase in labor productivity in both the public and private sectors of social production.
Among expected results of "Digital Uzbekistan -2030" Strategy are high-quality and inexpensive Internet and mobile communications, the reduce of the digital divide between cities and villages. The strategy considers approval of two programs: digitalization of regions and digitalization of industries [7]. Thus, two approaches are considered as territorial and industrial. Undoubtedly it will provide the most comprehensive coverage and effective implementation of the document.
In the future, it is planned to increase the share of public services provided in electronic format up to 60% by 2022 and to 80% by 2025, as well as to raise it to 50th place in the e-Government Development Index by 2025. The long-term plans for the development of the digital economy provide for the implementation of over 280 projects for the digital transformation of regions and sectors of the country's economy in the next two years.

Materials and methods
In the next two years, it is planned to attract about $2.5 billion for the development of digital infrastructure. It is planned to launch three large new data centers in the cities of Tashkent (expanding by 5 Pb and bringing it up to 10 Pb), Bukhara and Kokand (by 50 Pb each), as well as further expansion of the fixed telecommunications network and modernization of the mobile network [8]. As a result, households will have access to the Internet at a speed of at least 10 Mb/s in each settlement.
The most important conditions and guarantees for the successful implementation of the Strategy is to ensure funding and increase the digital literacy of the population. So, according to the document, the Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan, together with other relevant governmental bodies will take measures to complete the digitalization of preschool education, health care and secondary schools by the end of first stage of the implementation period [9].
The implementation of the Strategy will ensure the provision of high-quality digital services to the population, reduce corruption, increase the level of citizen involvement in government decision-making processes, modernize the system of higher and secondary education in order to ensure the competitiveness of citizens not only within the country, but also in the regional and global labour markets [10,11]. The Strategy contributes the implementation of other national strategic documents and programs and, first of all will be important for achieving the national goals and objectives in the field of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for the period up to 2030, as well as the Development Strategy of New Uzbekistan for 2022-2026.
The Development Strategy of New Uzbekistan for 2022-2026 which has been adopted on January 28, 2022 covers seven priority areas of further reforms regarding a good governance, public administration, the rule of law, economic development, social policy, spiritual enlightenment, security as well as an open, pragmatic and active foreign policy. In turn, the seven priority areas identify hundred target goals to be achieved by 2026.
Digitalization of several important spheres such as public services both at central and local levels by improving "e-government"; the judicial system; law enforcement; the traffic control system; healthcare system; social services as well as social protection, banking and agriculture sectors and other main spheres of the national economy have been targeted in the new Development Strategy.
In particular, improvement of the e-government of Uzbekistan and bringing the share of electronic public services to 100 %, implementation of "Mobile ID-identification" system of a person in the provision of public services, introduction of "digital passport of citizens" and "digital authority" project have been prioritized to digitalize public administration and optimize administrative procedures at central and local levels.

Results and discussion
In the near future, the task was set to double the share of digital services in the country's GDP.
By maintaining stable growth rates of it is planned to reach 4,000 US dollars GDP per capita and join the group of countries with "upper-middle income" by 2030. In this regard, the development of the digital economy is also defined as the main "driver" with an increase in its share by at least 2.5 times by the end of 2026. Moreover, it is planned to expand the volume of the software products industry 5 times, and software export -10 times, up to 500 million US dollars, the level of digitalization of production and operational processes in the real sector of the economy, in the financial and banking sectors to 70% by the end of 2026. Moreover, digitalization of urban planning and construction, development of cities in accordan ce with the concept of "Smart City" has been prioritized ( Table 1). Nowadays the service sector in the republic is one of the intensively developing one of the economy of Uzbekistan. The share of the service sector in 2018 amounted to 36% of GDP, 146836 billion UZS. The volume of communication and informatization services for 2018 amounted to 9744.1 billion UZS, or 6.6% of all services.
Significant progress has been made in many of these indicators in Uzbekistan since 2016, so the gross value added created in the sphere of services in the field of "information and communication" has doubled since 2016 from 4.4 to 8.8 trillion. UZS (Table 2), and the volume of services rendered by the type of economic activity "information and communication" doubled from 6.3 to 12.9 trillion UZS. The digital economy is the provision of a digital space for all spheres of the country's life. The main objective of the program is to create legal, technical, organizational and financial conditions for the development of the digital economy in the country and its subsequent integration with the digital economies of foreign countries.
Telecommunication services (wire and mobile communication services, Internet networks, satellite communication services, etc.) in communication and informatization services occupied the largest part (84.5%), and the remaining 15.5% belong to other ICT services. Currently, a dynamic expansion of the mobile communication network of Uzbekistan has been noted. The lion's share of mobile communication services is used by individuals, whose share is 97.5%. Despite the fact that in Uzbekistan there is a development and growth in the indicators of communication and informatization services, according to some such indicators of the CE, as the activity of users in social media, mobile social media.
The number of mobile subscribers has grown by 30% since 2016 to 30.2 million people, and the number of Internet users has almost doubled to 27.2 million people since 2016 (Table  3). More than 120 universities operate in Uzbekistan, each of which is introducing a digital learning module and opening incubation centers. A program for the development of IT education was adopted, aimed at creating a new system of vertical education. In 2020, the One Million Programmers program was launched, providing free training in programming skills, under which more than 130,000 students are trained.
The experience of foreign countries shows that the digital economy is developing simultaneously in a wide range of areas and cannot be built by a limited number of companies, even if they are endowed with special powers and resources. Therefore, the main role in the digital economy should be played by private business with a strong entrepreneurial and innovative approach, and the state should create the infrastructure and conditions for private initiative." At present in Uzbekistan much attention is paid to the digitalization of the agrarian sector. Agriculture is one of the leading and important sector of Uzbekistan's economy.The Government actively supports its expansion, seeking to transit farmers from traditional cotton and wheat production to higher-value fruit and vegetable crops.
Today, a number of agricultural clusters and farms of the republic use modern agricultural machinery and technologies of the smart agriculture system. At the same time, there is still a high need for a wider implementation and use of such technologies.The digital transformation of the economy based on the latest technologies ensures not only the creation of new workers, but also the achievement of a higher level of relations between economic entities for the formation of new norms of their social behavior. The postindustrial economy plays an important role in setting financial standards, supporting research and innovation. Therefore, the modern digital revolution to a large extent is driven by market and technological innovation. Formation of a digital market space for increasing competitiveness, in the industrial sector, through the creation of new products and services, expanding this market. In other words, the digital market is essentially a modern mechanism that provides a rapid transition from limited national markets to a single world market.
One of the most important reforms in the agricultural sector in 2016-2020 was the introduction of a system of agricultural clusters and cooperatives -a modern and efficient production method to ensure the systematic introduction of market relations in the industry, further development of the value chain in agriculture.
Also, for the first time, the practice of state reimbursement of part of the costs for the introduction of smart water-saving technologies in cotton fields, as well as new intensive orchards, vineyards and greenhouses, has been introduced. In 2016, agricultural products were exported in the amount of $560 million, and by the end of 2020 this figure increased 1.8 times to $1 billion (Table 4). According to the results of January-April 2022, the volume of exports of fruits and vegetables amounted to $239.9 mln, in physical terms -403.2 thsd tons. The growth rate compared to the same period in 2021 amounted to 28.9%.
Vegetables (64.2%), fruits and berries (14.0%) occupy the largest share in the export of fruit and vegetable products in value terms. In January-April 2022, 320.8 thsd tons of vegetables were exported in the amount of $154.0 mln, as well as 31.1 thsd tons of fruits and berries in the amount of $33.6 mln.
A fully functioning digital market can provide a high rate of return in the real sector of the economy, while simultaneously creating a large number of new jobs. The digital single market strategy includes institutional initiatives ranging from copyright to national cybersecurity. It is based on free access of consumers and producers to digital goods and services; creating a level playing field for digital networks and innovative services, ensuring the growth of social production.
In Uzbekistan the Center for Digitalization of Agro-Industry was established under the Ministry of Agriculture in 2020 by the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers "On measures to develop a digitalization system in the agro-industrial complex and agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan". This institution functions as an organization responsible for maintaining the "Digital Agriculture" information system in the agro-industrial complex. The basic trends of its development are ensuring the smooth functioning of software products in the information system "Digital Agriculture" and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan; implementation of geographic information systems in agriculture and collection of information on the state of lands, crops, water resources and ensuring the uninterrupted exchange of information on land and water resources by installing licensed ArcGIS software; creation of a database of agro-industrial and food sectors; designing a data transmission network for all ministries, departments and organizations and business entities in the agroindustrial complex; implementation of e-commerce in the process of growing and selling agricultural products; assistance to ministries, agencies and organizations in the agroindustrial complex in the use of interactive public services, in particular, a personal account on the Internet; creation of technological conditions for the introduction of "Smart Agriculture" technologies; implementation of special software products in the field of information security; determination and adoption of measures to prevent information security risks when using the internal information systems of the Center and the information system "Digital Agriculture".
It is important to note that the desire of the Republic of Uzbekistan for food independence is largely determined by the successful implementation of measures for further modernization and intensification of agriculture in the Republic. The study showed that in recent years, the country's land use and crop production system has seen significant changes related to the structure of acreage and methods of processing grain and cotton crops. Despite the positive results, there are a number of problems hindering the development of the agricultural sector in Uzbekistan. Measures are proposed to increase crop rotation, create interconnected chains with the participation of low-power farms and the state, export-oriented production of products with additional cost, which will eliminate a number of these obstacles and increase the dynamics of the agricultural sector and transform it into a competitive industry that works in the interests of the private sector, citizens and the state.
Thanks to the implementation of the Concept, labor productivity in the sphere will increase by 30 percent, and the cotton harvest will be achieved with full equipment. The creation of stress-resistant, high-yielding, transportable, bioactive varieties of agricultural crops is 100 percent guaranteed. The use of satellite data and remote sensing technologies will make it possible to quickly and accurately assess the condition of agricultural land and crops grown on them. This will help identify all types of crops in the country and estimate the area.
Another important area is that the number of facilities designed using the "smart greenhouse" technology will be increased to 500. An automated production system will be introduced in animal husbandry, as a result of which the cost of production will decrease by 15 percent.
The transition to digital agriculture in Uzbekistan is being carried out in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Bank. The high rates of innovation and introduction of new technologies adequately reflect modern realities in the development of society. The best companies use proactive training strategies for their employees and various social and economic measures to adapt them to digital transformation. Statistics show that 90% of high performing companies invest in improving the digital skills of existing and new hires.
Today, the digital revolution is creating entirely new professions (such as SEO and social media account managers), new types of organizations (high-tech product providers and social media agencies), and even new sectors of the economy (such as digital security). Digitalization acts as a catalyst for employment growth in many sectors of the economy. The adopted Development Strategy of the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2020 -2030 set program tasks to be implemented in agriculture in the nearest future. One of the most important reforms in the agricultural sector in 2016-2020, the herd is introduction of a system of agricultural clusters and cooperatives -a modern and efficient method of production to ensure the systemic introduction of market relations in the industry, further development of the value added chain in agriculture. Also, for the first time, the government introduced the practice of reimbursing part of the costs when introducing water-saving technologies in cotton fields, as well as new intensive orchards, vineyards and greenhouses.
In 2016-2020, on an area of 1.5 million hectares, there were organized: 122 cotton-textile clusters, 35 rice clusters, 152 fruit and vegetable clusters, 7 clusters for the production of medicinal plants, 64 grain clusters and 11 cotton-textile cooperatives. Water-saving technologies have been introduced on 291.2 thousand hectares, 280 thousand hectares of land have been introduced for reuse.
Mechanisms have been introduced to subsidize 10% of the established interest rate on bank loans and leasing for the purchase of agricultural machinery, 15% of the cost of machinery for the purchase of machinery and 30% of the cost of using cotton pickers The degree of provision of agriculture with equipment 85% in 2016 reached 92% in 2020. The processing capacity of agricultural products reached 2.5 million tons, storage capacity -According the research and outcomes of the stages of digitalization process we need emphasize that fulfillment of the task of digitalizing the economy will improve the business processes of agriculture, increase its productivity and establish sales of products. All this together will give a tangible increase in GDP and have a beneficial effect on the country's economy.
At the same time, the main thing is that the development of ICT in the country, including affordable high-speed Internet, should keep pace with the interest of businesses to introduce digital technologies into various production processes in order to increase labor productivity, reduce costs, as well as increase production and profits.
Meanwhile the government needs to stimulate the digitalization of economic processes by the following actions: • acts as an organizer of common technological platforms that unite various organizations, • as a regulator that directively establishes requirements for the use of certain technological solutions, since without synchronization of the implementation of standard technological solutions in entire segments of the economy, their wide distribution is impossible; • constantly improves the existing regulatory framework governing the development of the digital economy, and do this in a dialogue mode and taking into account the opinions of users, developers and service providers who in practice will encounter new types of objects and subjects of information legal relations that require legal registration; • becomes a participant in the overall process of digitalization of relations, including by developing the egovernment system and the list of public services provided in electronic format; • stimulates and encourages the introduction of information systems, e-services and tax incentives for the development of digital technologies, as well as cross-border online trade in organizations; • trains in the required quantities personnel both IT-specialists and programmers themselves, as well as qualified users who are able to use constantly updated digital technologies; • ensures security against cyber threats, as well as confidence for all entities involved in the digital economy to some extent that the data they collect, store and use is protected from possible criminal acts; • expands international cooperation and create attractive conditions for the inflow and introduction of advanced information technologies in all areas of economic activity.