TASHKENT (Xinhua) – Uzbekistan’s central bank said Wednesday that it has been implementing three major projects to upgrade the current payment system in the country.

The first project to be completed in a few months will result in transferring the inter bank payment system to the 24 hours a day, 7 days a week banking system, Botir Zakhirov, deputy chairman of the central bank, told Xinhua.

Currently, inter bank payments in the country are carried out until 17:00 (1200 GMT) on weekdays and it is not possible to make any transactions during weekends and state holidays that create inconvenience to both state organizations and businesses.

The bank will launch another project by the end of this year, which will allow clients to use online payment, Zakhirov said.

According to the deputy chairman, under the third project the central bank is introducing a new national payment system named Humo. From May 1, the bank will start issuing Humo payment cards, and a limited number of Humo cards have been issued to test the payment infrastructure, Zakhirov said.

The projects are aimed at developing and regulating the stability of the payment market of the country, which has been opening up its economy and financial market to the world in recent years.