TASHKENT (Trend News Agency) – Uzbek Cabinet of Ministers instructed State Committee for Communication, Informatization and Telecommunication Technologies to accelerate the development of the concept and comprehensive program for the creation of “electronic government” to introduce electronic delivery of interactive public services to businesses and individuals.

The Government of Uzbekistan has taken a number of steps to accelerate its own e-government initiatives. To ensure to meet its objectives and timing, it has asked to be assisted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in four priority areas, namely: property registration, business registration, public procurement and public access to information. ADB provided technical assistance (TA) to Uzbekistan for the creation of e-government to the sum of $1.1 mln. The proposed TA will focus on:

1. developing a government-public and government-business interface strategy;
2. phased strategies for the Government’s four priority areas;
3. action plans for piloting e-government applications
4. piloting e-government applications.

The ADB will provide the following outputs:

• A strategy, prioritized action plan and financing plan to improve government-to-public and government-to-business electronic interface.
• Phased implementation strategies, action plans and financing plans for priority e-Government applications.
• Pilot implementation strategies, action plans and financing plans for priority e-Government applications.
• Prioritized e-Government applications piloted.

According to the UN’s 2010 e-Government Readiness Index, the only Central Asian country in the top 50 is Kazakhstan, ranked 37 (index: 0.6844).