Requests for startups

The problem

Most of Uzbekistan's water goes to irrigation, and most fields are still watered by flooding furrows. The water usually arrives through open, often unlined canals, and part of it seeps away or evaporates before it reaches a plant.

Farmers rarely know how much water a field receives or how much it actually needs — water is almost never measured at the field. Over-watering speeds up soil salinisation, and salty land yields less every year.

Why now

Water is getting scarcer. The mountains where the Amu Darya and Syr Darya begin are warming, and the Qosh Tepa canal being built in Afghanistan will draw more water from the Amu Darya. The state subsidises drip and sprinkler irrigation, so a farmer now has a reason to pay for water-saving technology.

Meanwhile sensors have become cheap, satellite imagery is free and refreshed every few days, and almost every farmer carries a smartphone with Telegram on it.

The problem

Uzbekistan is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world: anything it ships must cross at least two borders to reach a seaport. The cost and time of moving goods decide whether its products can compete.

Today loads and trucks are still matched through phone calls and Telegram groups. Carriers cannot be verified, a shipment is hard to track, and the paperwork — CMR, TIR, phytosanitary and origin certificates — often travels on paper. A small producer of dried fruit, textiles or crafts cannot fill a truck on its own, let alone reach a buyer abroad.

Why now

Trade routes are being redrawn. Construction of the China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan railway has begun, and freight on the Middle Corridor through Kazakhstan and across the Caspian has grown sharply since 2022. Since 2021 Uzbekistan has been part of the EU's GSP+ scheme, so thousands of product lines can enter Europe duty-free — provided the exporter gets standards and paperwork right.

The problem

A shop, a workshop or a small manufacturer can have steady sales and still no credit history and no property to pledge. Banks lend mostly against collateral, so such businesses fund growth from relatives or from expensive informal sources. The books are often kept in a notebook.

Millions of people from Uzbekistan work in Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Korea and Europe and send money home — remittances are a significant share of the economy. Most of that money goes to daily spending and to building houses: families have almost no convenient way to save, insure themselves or invest.

Why now

Money now leaves a digital trail. Uzcard and Humo cards, QR payments and payment apps are everywhere; online cash-register receipts, electronic invoices and marketplace sales show a small business's real turnover. Digital banks and payment apps are growing fast, and local fintech companies have shown they can serve millions of users.

The problem

Specialists, modern diagnostic equipment and good clinics are concentrated in Tashkent and the regional capitals. A patient in a district travels for hours to see a cardiologist or get an MRI, and some go abroad for treatment.

Medical records are often on paper or in systems that do not talk to each other. Chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes are caught late, because regular check-ups and follow-up are hard in a village.

Why now

State health insurance is being introduced step by step, which changes who pays for care and how. Mobile internet now reaches the districts. AI tools that read X-rays, retinal images or ECGs have reached clinical use, and they help most where specialists are scarce.

The problem

Uzbekistan is a young country: a large share of the population is under thirty, and a big generation enters the labour market every year. But a diploma often does not mean the skills an employer asks for. IT companies, factories, hotels and clinics say they cannot find the people they need, while many young people leave to do unskilled work abroad.

Good training — especially English, programming and modern trades — is expensive in Tashkent and often simply absent in the regions.

Why now

IT services exports are growing fast and IT Park keeps adding resident companies, so the demand for skilled people is real. Remote work lets a graduate in the regions work for a company abroad without leaving home. AI has made a tutor that adapts to every learner cheap. And legal labour-migration programmes with countries such as Korea, Germany and Japan open a path for workers who have the language and the trade.

The problem

Most small and mid-sized businesses still run on notebooks, Excel and Telegram. The business software that exists was mostly built abroad for another market: it is not in Uzbek, it does not fit local tax, e-invoicing and product-labelling rules, and it is too complex and too expensive for a small shop or clinic.

So the owner does not know the stock on hand, who owes what, or the real profit, and staff spend their time on manual bookkeeping.

Why now

Mandatory electronic invoices, online cash registers and the Asl Belgisi digital product labelling are pushing businesses to digitise — they need software now anyway. Every seller and storekeeper has a smartphone. And AI has made it simple to read data automatically from documents, receipts and voice messages.

The problem

More than thirty million people speak Uzbek, yet the strongest AI models work far worse in Uzbek than in English or Russian. Latin and Cyrillic scripts live side by side, there are many dialects, and there is little high-quality Uzbek text online.

So the call centres of banks, telecoms and public agencies, teachers and ordinary users cannot make full use of modern tools — or are pushed into Russian.

Why now

Fine-tuning open models on your own data has become cheap. Uzbekistan has adopted a strategy for developing artificial intelligence. Banks, telecoms and public services already want voice assistants and chatbots that speak Uzbek.

The problem

Starting and running a business still takes many permits, licences, reports and inspections. Many public services are online at my.gov.uz, yet many processes still require knowing which office to go to, which document to bring and which clause of which law applies.

Legislation changes often. A small business owner cannot track every new requirement alone and cannot always pay an accountant or a lawyer — the result is fines and lost time.

Why now

The state has made digitisation a priority: the Digital Uzbekistan 2030 strategy is in place, electronic signatures are widespread, the laws are on lex.uz, open data on data.gov.uz, and public procurement runs on electronic platforms. That is data and infrastructure a product can be built on. And large language models can now turn legal text into plain language.

The problem

Gas and power shortages in winter are familiar to many households and businesses — the severe cold of January 2023 made that especially plain. Much of the housing stock is old panel buildings with poor insulation, and new private houses are often built without any. Heat escapes through walls, windows and worn-out heating networks.

Construction is booming, but energy efficiency is rarely considered: a buyer does not know how much energy a home will use, and a developer has little reason to improve it.

Why now

Energy tariffs are being moved step by step towards real cost, so every cubic metre of gas and every kilowatt-hour saved is now money. The state encourages rooftop solar, and large solar and wind plants are being built across the country. Smart meters, heat pumps and solar panels have become cheaper.

The problem

Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva draw travellers from all over the world, yet planning a trip is still hard. Tickets for the Afrosiyob high-speed trains sell out fast and are awkward for a foreigner to buy, small guest houses and guides are hard to find and book online, and paying with a foreign card does not work everywhere.

Outside the famous monuments there is little information in English or other languages. Most hotels and guest houses manage bookings by hand, over the phone and messengers.

Why now

In recent years visa-free entry and e-visas have been extended to citizens of many countries, and tourist numbers are growing fast. New flights keep opening, and Samarkand now hosts international summits and conferences. People in Uzbekistan are also travelling more inside their own country — to the mountains and the old cities.