Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - Institute for Forecasting and Macroeconomic Research (IPMI) experts analyzed the readiness of Uzbekistan to develop freelancing and switch to online outsourcing.

At the present stage of economic development, employment problems can be solved through a new, progressive form of employment - remote work. This type of modern employment has many names: Internet work, remote work, or freelancing. The Institute for Forecasting and Macroeconomic Research (IPMI) studied global trends in the development of freelancing, the existing legislative framework in Uzbekistan and assessed the change in the country’s readiness index to enter the freelancing market for 2015-2020, calculated on the basis of the World Bank methodology.

In 2015-2020, the Readiness Index of Uzbekistan to enter the freelance market increased from 45.7 to 56.6. The greatest impact on this was made by improvements in the indicators of block 3. Thus, the average indicator for the “Infrastructure” block increased from 40.5 to 61.6.

The greatest growth was noted in terms of such indicators as the throughput of the international data transmission network - an increase of 74.7 times, the number of users (individuals) of remote banking systems - 14 times, the number of fixed broadband Internet subscribers - 2.4 times, the provision of the population with the Internet - 2.2 times, and others.

For 2017-2020, the country took measures to create conditions aimed at stimulating the development of freelancing in Uzbekistan: regulatory and legal acts were adopted to stimulate the activities of self-employed (freelancers), providing them with benefits; programs to improve computer literacy and advanced training in IT professions among young people have been adopted.

The assessment was carried out using the World Bank’s Assessing Country Readiness for Online Outsourcing methodology. This technique has been adapted to the current available indicators.

Thus, to assess the readiness of Uzbekistan to enter the freelance market, 27 indicators were used, which were divided into 4 blocks: the availability and quality of talent, costs, infrastructure and the creation of favorable conditions.

In order to bring the data to a single format, a standardization process was carried out using the Z-transform method. However, the presence of negative values in the converted data makes it difficult to interpret the calculations; therefore, special methods of linear transformation of z-values can be used to translate them into a set of positive integers, for example, conversion to a T-scale. This scale allows to get rid of fractional and negative values only if the z-scores are in the range of -5 to +5.

After the standardization procedure, the average value is calculated for each year for all indicators included in the block. The index of readiness to enter the freelance market is the arithmetic mean of all the resulting indicators for 4 blocks.

Thus, as a result of the measures taken in the country, the Index of Uzbekistan’s readiness to enter the freelance market increased from 45.7 to 56.6. The greatest impact on this was made by improvements in the indicators of block 3. Thus, the average indicator for the “Infrastructure” block increased from 40.5 to 61.6. The rest of the blocks also showed growth: block 1 “Availability and quality of talents” - from 47.7 to 54.2; block 2 "Expenses" - from 45.8 to 56.5; and block 4 "Creation of favorable conditions" - from 48.8 to 54.3. In these blocks, significant growth is observed in terms of such indicators as the enrollment ratio in higher education - an increase of 2.6 times, the total number of Internet users in the country increased 2.2 times, the cost of tariffs for Internet services (external channel) for providers decreased by 47 , 1 time (US$259.3 in 2015 and US$5.5 in 2020).

The study showed that Uzbekistan is undergoing positive changes aimed at supporting freelancers and creating the conditions necessary for them. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated these processes through a sharp increase in the digitalization of the country’s economy.

The Institute for Forecasting and Macroeconomic Research, in turn, will continue this study by conducting a deeper analysis and comparison of Uzbekistan’s readiness with the countries of Central Asia.

Kostyuchenko Anton, Chief Researcher, IPMI