Uzbekistan Digital Inclusion Project — World Bank-Backed Rural IT Skills and Infrastructure Programme

The Uzbekistan Digital Inclusion Project is a national programme run by Uzbekistan's Ministry of Digital Technologies and IT Park Uzbekistan, co-financed by a $50 million concessional loan approved by the World Bank's Board in November 2023. It aims to broaden access to digital skills and IT-enabled employment for young people, women and persons with disabilities in rural and remote areas, alongside targeted infrastructure upgrades.

Before rolling out training, the project conducted 2023 assessments of existing IT infrastructure in rural areas, the digital-literacy levels of rural school students and teachers, and the digital capacity of rural civil servants — a diagnostic step ahead of implementation. Four rural schools in pilot regions then received digital smartboards, 60 computers and local-area-network equipment. In its first regional training sessions, organised jointly by the Ministry of Digital Technologies, IT Park Uzbekistan and the World Bank, more than 450 participants aged 18–30 (including women and persons with disabilities) completed soft-skills training across 9 of the country's regions. The project's stated ambition, by its 2029 conclusion, is around 25,000 people employed in IT-enabled services and roughly 15,000 more in related industries.

As of the most recent public reporting, the project is still in an early implementation stage: the 450-participant cohort and four-school pilot are real, documented outputs, but the large 2029 employment targets are projections rather than demonstrated outcomes, and no independent impact evaluation has yet been published.

Read the full analysis: https://www.outsource.gov.uz/en/media/uzbekistan-digital-inclusion-results-over-450-participants-from-9-regions-completed-soft-skills-training