COVID-19 AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION CHALLENGES: EXPERIENCES FROM UZBEKISTAN AND JAPAN

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit many sectors of the economy but has contributed to the development of the IT and digitalization endeavors. This pandemic also showed the importance of introducing information, communication, and digital technologies into the work of government bodies, private enterprises, and public organizations. This paper sheds light on Uzbekistan’s response to the digitalization which is mainly an emerging area of development in the state programs explaining how it managed to deal with digitalization challenges during the pandemic. This report also highlights the experience of Japan, in the context of its rather conservative, but very systematic approach to the digitalization. As a final remark, author proposes a summary and challenging issues of digitalization development in Uzbekistan. This paper was presented at the International Scientific and Practical Conference “E-justice: Challenges and Opportunities in the Digital Era” (September 26-27, 2022, v. Sary -Oi, Issyk-Kul region, Kyrgyzstan) and published with support of Volkswagen Foundation (Germany).