Tashkent, September 18: At the forum “Digital Government: Prospective Plans and Obstacles” during the ICTWeek Uzbekistan 2024, Ministry of Digital Technologies proudly announced that the Republic of Uzbekistan has joined the global 50-in-5 campaign and is committed to implementing digital public infrastructure (DPI) in a safe, inclusive and interoperable manner.

This groundbreaking campaign marks a transformative chapter in DPI development as a critical accelerator of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Uzbekistan joins other countries including Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Lesotho, Malawi, Moldova, Norway, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Togo.

The campaign brings countries together to help radically shorten DPI implementation journeys by sharing learnings, best practices, and built-for-purpose technologies – including digital public goods (DPGs) – that can ultimately reduce costs and maximize impact. The goal of the campaign is for 50 countries to have designed, implemented, and scaled at least one DPI component in a safe, inclusive, and interoperable manner in 5 years, by the end of 2028. The campaign underscores participant countries’ unified commitment to work together toward this goal.

50-in-5 is country-led advocacy campaign in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure, Co-Develop, the Digital Public Goods Alliance, and the United Nations Development Programme and is supported by GovStack, the Inter-American Development Bank, UNICEF, USAID and UN Women.

“The sustainability of our economy, the quality and effective activities of all sectors, the convenience of life for the population depend on information technology”. – Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

For Uzbekistan being a part of 50-in-5 means embracing digital cooperation. Learning from others, while sharing our own experiences, will help fulfill our own digital public infrastructure ambitions while supporting other countries. Through the campaign we will foster more innovative and inclusive economies, and make available frameworks, learnings and technologies that all countries can benefit from. 

Digital public infrastructure–a secure and interoperable network of digital payments, ID, and data exchange systems–is essential for countries to improve their economies and the well-being of people. It is the foundation on which citizen services are built. It is essential to bring about improvement across sectors, including food security, financial inclusion, social protection, and women’s economic empowerment for whole populations.

The essence of 50-in-5 is collaboration. Participating countries span different geographies and income levels and are united in their commitment to best practices in building their DPI, including sharing learnings and technologies as part of the process and piloting novel approaches to digital cooperation.