President orders annual digital skills training for 1 million young people

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed plans to develop Uzbekistan's digital education ecosystem, which would cover every stage from training and certifying young people's professional skills to employment.

The country created 300,000 IT jobs this year, a target originally set for 2030. The government now aims to create another 500,000 jobs within four years through new digital economy areas. The plans envisage training 5.5 million young people by 2030 in traditional and remote formats.

The president ordered that 1 million young people be trained each year in robotics, computer game development, startups and other promising fields. To do this, a corps of national trainers will be formed and online platforms and short-term digital skills courses will be launched faster. A proposal to create iOS programmer training centres based on Fergana's experience was approved. Global technology companies provided $22 million in grants last year; the target is $60 million by the end of this year and $100 million by 2030.