Innovatsions in Uzbekistan

Innovatsions in Uzbekistan

he development and implementation of innovations in public administration remains the prerogative of the government; citizens, non-governmental organizations and other actors are not sufficiently involved in this process»,- mentioned political economist Bakhrom Radjabov, in his article for CABAR.asia.

At the center for the provision of public services. Photo: teletype.in

In Uzbekistan, 2018 was declared as the year of entrepreneurship and support of innovative ideas and technologies,[1] thereby launching the introduction of innovations in all spheres of the economy and society, became as a priority for the government. Administrative reform of the general government sector, aimed at enhancing the role and status of public servants, as well as introducing innovations in public service and administration, were identified as priorities for economic, political and civil development. Accordingly, Uzbekistan began to introduce “best practices” of management, including through the introduction of new, innovative methods of providing public services.

During previous years, Uzbekistan has already taken several steps in this direction. Of these, electronic public services, public service centers, public (including online) receptions of the president and prime minister.

However, despite these efforts, numerous problems still impede the dynamic development of the public sector in terms of accessibility of public services. This sector is managed in the old way, and changes are introduced quite slowly. The article discusses recent changes in public policy and the introduction of innovations in the public sector, as part of the development strategy of Uzbekistan for 2017-2021.  

New Government Initiatives: Are the Innovations Real?

The government of Uzbekistan is gradually introducing e-government services for citizens. One of the main tools of e-government is the interactive public service portal,[2] which provides 308 services from 2,437 government organizations.[3] Also, there is a system of “one window” centers on the portal through which, in the beginning, the state began to provide 16 services for entrepreneurs, and now public services are available for all citizens through the same platform.[4] In addition, the government of Uzbekistan launched a portal to discuss legislative acts,[5] increasing the level of consultation with citizens. Another example is the utilities and housing portal.[6] The portal was created in order to exchange information between the owners of private apartments (houses) and government agencies more efficiently regarding the provision of housing and construction services, as well as housing legislation.

Website of the unified portal of public services. Screenshot from my.gov.uz

Nevertheless, according to UNDP, the participation of the public and citizens in government decision-making in Uzbekistan remains between the second (consultancy) and third (involvement) levels, in accordance with the developed methodology of the International Association for Public Participation.[7] UNDP encourages citizens and the government to collaborate and to further enable citizens to participate in government decision-making process. This will allow Uzbekistan to rise in the index of activity of citizens to the fourth (cooperation) and fifth (empowerment) levels.  

To enable citizens to participate in government decisions, data on government activities and public services should be available. In this regard, although the open data portal of Uzbekistan is functioning, it does not contain enough data, and the available data is not updated in a timely manner. Moreover, specific data on the activities of various government agencies are still difficult to obtain.