Anatoly Motkin, President of StrategEast took part in the discussion was led by American companies and Central Asian officials on advancing more robust regional integration of digital infrastructure.

Delivering his remarks, Mr. Motkin expressed conviction that U.S. companies will bring the best practices and Western corporate culture and values ​​such as the rule of law and private property protection to the region once they enter the Central Asian market.

According to Mr. Motkin, to stimulate U.S. companies to enter this market for production purposes, an integrated approach to building an ecosystem with the engagement of all actors is needed. “We have already applied this approach in Georgia, where during the pandemic, with the help of the government; we’ve built an IT industry from scratch, integrated into the global industry. To achieve this we took several steps: trained personnel within our project IT HUB; advocated enabling legislation, which resulted in tax reduction to 5% for IT companies; attracted global companies EPAM, Exadel to enter Georgian market; engaged universities created an environment for startups with USMAC, united the industry into an ICT association and now we are developing a strategy jointly with the government.” Anatoly assured that this experience can be fully replicated in Central Asia.

Other speakers of the discussion included Shaya Tavaf and Cristen Bauer, U.S. Department of Commerce; Vladlen Valuev, John Deere; Cristina Doros, Visa; Sayed Khodadad Mousavi, Digital CASA Project, Ministry of Communication & IT, Afghanistan; Dilshod Sharifi, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic of Tajikistan.

The webinar was organized by the American-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce.