The visit of the ITU Secretary-General Mr. Houlin Zhao to the Republic of Uzbekistan was organized at the invitation of the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan to participate in the ICT Week Uzbekistan 2017 as a guest of honour, and in particular in the meeting of the RCC High-level Working Group on Information Society, organized within the framework of ICT Week Uzbekistan 2017. During the visit, Mr. Zhao expressed his wish to have a meeting with Beeline Uzbekistan, which was included in the program of the visit.
At the meeting with Dmitry Shukov, Director General, Beeline Uzbekistan, Mr. Zhao got acquainted with the work of the company. Mr. Zhao highly appreciated the initiative on the implementation of domestic internetwork roaming, which will allow the subscribers, when leaving served area, use another communication provider services without replacing the SIM card. Mr. Zhao also encouraged Beeline Uzbekistan to support SMEs and universities. After the meeting, Mr. Zhao gave an interview to Uzbekreport.TV, in which he, in particular, told of the prospects of entering global market by Uzbekistan software developers, appreciated the Beeline Uzbekistan support of start-up projects and expressed hope that Beeline will continue its cooperation with SMEs. Mr. Zhao also evaluated the possibility of implementation of the roaming between telecommunications operators as an achievable goal, noting the necessity to make some efforts: simplify the system and facilitate communication between people.
Within the framework of the visit, Mr. Zhao also had a meeting with H.E. Mr. Abdullah Aripov, Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan, at which Mr. Zhao conveyed to the Prime Minister the appreciation of Beeline Uzbekistan to the new market environment. Mr. Aripov highlighted some spheres of possible cooperation between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the ITU, such as: ITU Telecom, smart cities, empowering women, cybersecurity. Mr. Zhao shared with Mr. Aripov some information on ITU cooperation with UN Agencies: UNESCO, WHO, FAO, UNIDO, UN Women and suggested, that ITU would be pleased to take Uzbekistan as a candidate of case study.
Also, Mr. Zhao participated in the meeting of the RCC High-level Working Group on the Development of Information Society, held within the framework of ICT Week Uzbekistan 2017. The meeting, attended by high level representatives of communication administrations of Republic of Azerbaijan, Kyrgyz Republic, Russia and Republic of Uzbekistan, discussed topical issues of further development of ICT and software industry, prospects and possible systems of e-government and digital economy. Mr. Zhao shared with the RCC heads of communication administration some information on ITU activities and preparations for WTDC-17, and PP-18. Mr. Zhao encouraged heads of the communication administrations to be more active in ITU work and invited them to be more open and effective to improve their markets to attract investments.
