Uzbekistan Positions Itself as Tech Hub at ICT Week 2026

Uzbekistan is shifting its economic focus from the mere consumption of foreign technology to the development of indigenous intellectual property. The upcoming ICT Week 2026, themed "Land of Startups," serves as a metric for this transition, moving beyond a traditional trade show toward a functional venture capital ecosystem. The scale of the event has expanded three-fold in the last three years. This year, the exhibition expects 25,000 visitors, including 2,000 foreign guests. More than 200 organizations will occupy the exhibition space, with international participants now comprising over half of the total exhibitors. National pavilions will represent a diverse group of economies, including the US, China, Japan, Turkey, Oman, and Russia. The presence of global giants—Apple, NVIDIA, OpenAI, IBM, Oracle, and Huawei—alongside domestic players like Uzum and IT Park Uzbekistan, indicates a shift in how the country interacts with the global tech sector. Rather than acting as a peripheral market for software licenses, Uzbekistan is attempting to integrate its local startups into global supply chains and investment cycles.