Central Asian states and other member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization have discussed prioritized areas of cooperation in digital transformation.

Experts highlighted that partnership is important in order to increase the global competitiveness and investment potential of every SCO member state.

“Our country has great prospects to lead and promote various initiatives in digital transformation and telecommunications among the SCO member states. As part of the SCO, we will be able to establish mechanisms of student exchange programs,” said Deputy Chairperson of Kyrgyz State Committee for Information Technologies, Kubanych Shatemirov.

Every state should create the necessary infrastructure in order to continue cooperation in information and communication technologies. Experts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Russia, China, India and Pakistan have shared their experience in the industry.

“We are working on lowering the cost of the Internet in Uzbekistan. Since the beginning of 2019, the cost has been reduced by 26%,” said Chairperson of Uzbek Ministry for Development of Information Technologies, Akmal Arifdzhanov.

Leaders of the SCO member states signed the cooperation concept on digital transformation in June 2019 as part of the SCO Summit in Bishkek. The step by step implementation of this cooperation has begun.

“We need to trust each other in order to make progress. The implementation of a common information platform is one of the important priorities of our team’s activities. Each country can share its experience in prevention and detection of destructive effects,” said Referent of Department of Information and Analysis of SCO Secretariat, Bauyrzhan Imandosov.

Information security, the electronic government and the digital infrastructure have been prioritized by the SCO member countries.