Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Today, on 19 November, a trilateral meeting was held with representatives of the Agency for Public Services under the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the UN Development Program and the Delegation of the European Union in the Republic of Uzbekistan.

During the meeting, issues related to the implementation of the joint project "Improving the provision of public services and raising the level of governance in rural areas of Uzbekistan", funded by the EU, were discussed. In particular, the achievements of the project for 2019-2020 and further plans of the project with a focus on improving the quality of the provision of public services during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and the digitalization of public services in the near future.

UNDP Resident Representative in Uzbekistan Matilda Dimovska noted in her speech that the role and importance of digital technologies has increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, high-quality and sustainable digital solutions are critical to ensure effective delivery of public services and remote interaction of citizens with the state during the quarantine period.

Also, within the framework of the trilateral meeting, an official ceremony of awarding the participants of courses in accordance with international standards ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 with certificates of successful completion took place. The implementation of an integrated management system in the Public Services Agency, in accordance with the international standards ISO 9001 and ISO 27001, is aimed at improving the quality of public services and increasing the productivity of the organization, as well as contributing to better personnel management, and generally increases customer satisfaction and citizens’ confidence in government agencies.

To train the requirements of international standards ISO 9001 and ISO 27001, training courses were organized for the employees of ASU and its territorial divisions from 5 to 20 October 2020. Upon completion of the training, all 29 participants successfully passed the qualification exam for the course.

QUOTE of ASU

To support the efforts of the Government of Uzbekistan to develop e-government and digital economy, the Joint project helps equip the Agency and its territorial divisions with modern digital tools aimed at improving the quality and availability of electronic public services for the population. In particular, 12 sets of V-shaped scanners, servers and other IT equipment were purchased and installed for a total amount of US$1.2 million to digitize the archives of the registry office throughout the country. Blockchain-based civil registry solutions are also being implemented in tandem to ensure the integrity and security of archived data. The goal is to transform all paper archives into electronic records in a single database that enables automatic retrieval and processing of data.

QUOTE of EU

Also, the Joint Project, in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On additional measures for the accelerated development of the national system for the provision of public services" (No. 5278 from 12 December 2017), assists the Public Services Agency in the creation and equipping of the Situation Center with remote monitoring of the provision of public services in real time. This initiative has mobilized resources totaling about US$300,000. To ensure real-time monitoring of the provision of public services in all 201 Public Service Centers, as well as to automatically collect, process and visualize data for more efficient decision-making, a business intelligence system of the Business Intelligence class is being developed.

To equip the Public Service Centers with modern equipment in Surkhandarya (Sariosiyo district), Kashkadarya (Dehkanabad district), Jizzakh (Bakhmal district), Syrdarya (Khavast district) and Tashkent (Nurafshan city) regions, the Joint project purchased and provided the Agency with 200 units of IT equipment ( servers, PCs, network and telecommunication devices, video surveillance devices, user feedback mechanisms, etc.) for a total amount of about 178 thousand US dollars. Also, at the moment, the purchase of furniture and equipment for air conditioning for the above 5 pilot centers is underway.

By building the technical capacity of at least 5 new public service centers in the pilot regions, UNDP and the EU will contribute to demonstrating an exemplary public service delivery model aimed at increasing public confidence and ensuring the sustainability of public service delivery mechanisms through the CSU, especially in rural areas.

I would like to note that the Joint Project also supported the initiative of the Government of Uzbekistan to develop the information system "License", which will be introduced in 2021 to automate licensing and permitting procedures in the Republic of Uzbekistan. As part of this initiative, the Joint Project is actively promoting digital transformation in Uzbekistan.