ICT Week Uzbekistan 2025 - the IT hub of Central Asia - Key Takeaways

Our team, dedicated to our business and recruiting activities in Central Asia, participated at the end of September 2025 in an impressive event - ICT Week 2025 held in Tashkent.

The regional ambition is to bring a new era of innovation and technology to Central Asia together with businesses, investors, and talent from all over the world, and it’s working.

What are the unique opportunities? And what are the angles Europeans might not be considering yet? Here are our key takeaways and observations.

ICT Week as Part of a Big Vision

The region of Central Asia is extremely interesting and enriching. Let’s leave its amazing culture and history aside for a moment and focus mainly on business and development vision.

Uzbekistan is a country full of specifics. It’s one of the safest countries in the world; its population is extremely young and grows by approximately one million a year. It’s also double landlocked (even its neighbors have no access to the sea. The only other country like that is Liechtenstein), which makes exports a bit more difficult. Yet, it has strong foundations in engineering and mathematics, disciplines that were deeply rooted here even during the USSR era.

After opening its economy to the world, Uzbekistan’s ambition is to use these strong foundations and traditions to build a new IT hub - not just for the region, but for the whole world. Ambitious? Definitely. Possible? Why not? It’s actually happening.

Ambition meets investment

Uzbekistan is treating IT as a primary sector of focus — not only among developers but mainly at the government level. Through the Ministry of Digital Technologies and IT Park, the government has been deeply involved in shaping regulatory and incentive frameworks. ICT Week was a strong reflection of this activity:

• A strategic agreement between IT Park Uzbekistan and DataVolt to build a green, high-capacity data center on the IT Park campus (a multibillion-dollar project).
• Incentive programs open to IT Park members: tax exemptions, “Zero Risk” support, streamlined office and HR provisions, and soft-landing packages.
• Expansion of regional branches of IT Park, new infrastructure, improved connectivity, and support for outsourcing/BPO operations.

The message is clear: it’s not a cautious experiment - it’s a bold push for global integration.

Uzbekistan as an intersection of global markets

The location of Uzbekistan is more convenient than it might seem at first glance. It’s not close to any one superpower, but its distance to all of them is roughly equal.

• Central Asia, the Caucasus, and CIS regions were strongly represented, with the Eurasian Technoparks Pavilion uniting Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan (Astana Hub), Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan.
• Asia’s major tech powers (including Korean firms) were active partners: the Uzbek/Korean BPO Forum alone produced six agreements, three pilot outsourcing projects, and several memoranda linking Korean and Uzbek institutions.
• Gulf states such as the UAE and Qatar, along with their investment arms, were also visible, for instance, Invest Qatar served as a strategic partner of ICT Week.

Perhaps surprisingly, Europe’s presence was modest. Apart from the Baltic states, European companies were few, even though the potential for cooperation in software, cloud, and outsourcing is enormous.
Uzbekistan is becoming a meeting ground for global IT flows; east, west, north, and south converge here.

The networking is more than supported

ICT Week was much more than talks and panels. The organizers built real mechanisms for deal-making, collaboration, and actionable follow-ups. The official program featured Investor Rooms, the Clash of Startups, and workshops like Investor Readiness. Participants were eager to learn and connect - and they did.

Beyond the official agenda, networking was encouraged everywhere. Uzbek hospitality and the genuinely welcoming atmosphere were contagious. Everyone we spoke to - from the USA to Qatar - was open, friendly, and ready to collaborate. We left with many valuable contacts.

Operational Maturity vs. Human Capital Potential

The enthusiasm, youth, and energy of the Uzbek tech ecosystem are among its greatest strengths. But, as in many emerging markets, there are still gaps to bridge.

• Many startups and service providers are still building mature operational processes: quality assurance, governance, compliance, and financial controls.
• International clients and large contracts bring complex demands that local players are still learning to handle - fast, but not yet with years of depth.
• Talent is abundant (Uzbekistan graduates thousands of IT professionals each year), yet matching theory with enterprise-level skills, especially in cybersecurity, cloud operations, and regulated industries, remains a work in progress.

This is not a weakness, it’s a transitional stage, and a perfect opportunity for partners who can bring global standards, mentoring, and best practices. We also noticed that many foreign companies are leveraging Uzbekistan’s infrastructure and incentives, hiring local talent, and keeping operational burdens elsewhere; which is both smart and pragmatic.

The Future: Connecting Local Momentum with Global Discipline

Moravio has years of experience in global custom software development, so we can’t speak for infrastructure providers, startups, or investors. But our perspective is becoming clearer with every interaction in the region.

We can:

• Bring mature development practices, product management discipline, quality assurance, and security expertise to local teams or joint ventures.
• Serve as a bridge to international markets, helping Uzbek-based teams scale globally while maintaining compliance and quality.
• Structure partnerships that combine capital, mentorship, and institutional know-how to help local firms grow sustainably.
• Ensure that growth is ethical and secure - with proper IP practices, compliance, and customer trust.

Combining what the local ecosystem offers: speed, cost leverage, passionate talent, and a supportive government with what we bring -  global standards, delivery methodologies, market access, risk management, and insurance - can create meaningful impact.

We’re genuinely happy that this region found us. Through excellent developers we discovered via global recruiting platforms, we’ve been introduced to something big, and it’s getting bigger. The ambition, capital, and energy in Uzbekistan are very real.

I’m excited to double down on relationships, projects, and partnerships in this dynamic moment, and connect the values of the worlds together. 

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