Eastwind presents National Messenger project for Uzbekistan
16 january 2018
The company’s executives presented the platform, which was originally intended for messaging, and demonstrated how it can become the key element and backbone of the country's digital economy.
Information technology has become indispensable for the life of the world community. According to Harvard Business Review, every day we generate more mobile connections than there are people on Earth. Not surprisingly, this progress has not only changed our everyday lives, but also demanded the renewal of the governing model. Uzbekistan is also undergoing a digital transformation: In 2014, the country launched its Electronic Government Development Center. The Center was established at the Ministry for the Development of Information Technologies and Communications, where Eastwind experts have recently held a meeting with Olimjon Umarov, First Deputy Minister for Development of IT and Communications of the Republic.
The concept of the project looks at China’s experience. At the International Internet Conference in December 2017, CACS reported that China's digital economy accounts for 30% of the country’s GDP. The WeChat messenger serves as the main communication tool within the country, allowing people to communicate, make payments and remit money. In 2018, the messenger will allow access to the government services, hotel reservation and ticketing services. Eastwind also kept in mind the popularity of instant messengers in Uzbekistan, with Telegram being the most popular communication platform, and proposed a project to efficiently and painlessly digitalize the Republic's economy.
National Messenger is an ecosystem to unite the state, business and citizens in one mobile application. The functionality will enable the users to communicate via the Internet along with giving them a number of advantages as a government platform. Here are only the key benefits:
– Access to useful services: It’s easy to enroll your child in a kindergarten, or pay fines from your mobile.
– Using the messenger as an electronic wallet to make payments by QR code: It’s easy to transfer money to other users, pay for services and purchases.
– Buying railway and air tickets: It's easy to find and pay for tickets without traditional queues.
– Single access to media entertainment: It’s easy to watch movies, listen to music and read user and business channels.
– National social network: It’s easy to find any person as long as they are registered in a messenger.
A single mobile platform will drive digital progress in other areas. For one thing, it will motivate telecom operators to finally modernize their networks: today the average speed of Internet connection in Uzbekistan is 10 times lower than in other CIS countries. Not only telecommunications: businesses, content providers, and transport networks – with the introduction of the "National Messenger" no one will be able to ignore the most accessible and simple way to users. As for the government, the project guarantees:
– Transparency and safety of data: All information will be stored in government servers.
– A single environment for interaction between business, government organizations and the public: Regular data monitoring will detect and prevent fraud.
– Systematization of data and access to BI and predictive analytics: You can not only collect and upload national statistics, but also analyze and predict the sentiments and needs of citizens.
– Platform monetization: The minimum annual revenue from transaction fees and channel subscription fees is estimated at $ 175 million.
"The introduction of such a mobile ecosystem will allow Uzbekistan to make a quantum leap into the digital economy," commented Boris Bubnov, director of Eastwind, who presented the project in Tashkent. – “The negotiations showed that National Messenger largely meets the needs of the "Electronic Government" Development Center."
The meeting on December 22 resulted in the preliminary agreement to start a pilot project; the discussion will continue in 2018.