Ashgabat, 19-23 November 2018: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organized a five-day seminar on development and introduction of digital economy in Turkmenistan.  This seminar is part of the UNDP technical assistance to the Government of Turkmenistan in the area of digitalization and preparing the national programme “Digital Turkmenistan”. The workshop was facilitated by experts of the Moscow School of Management “Skolkovo”.

“Today, more than half of world's population uses the Internet; in 20 years, many of the jobs will be performed by technologies; such fast change underscore importance of digitalization of the economy. This requires the cadre of well-prepared people, strong communication systems and up-to-date infrastructure. We, therefore, welcome the efforts of the Government of Turkmenistan to prioritize the digitization agenda and looking forward to support it in this process”  stated Natia Natsvlishvili, Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in Turkmenistan.

Developing specific practical methods of the introducing digital economy in Turkmenistan was on the agenda of the event. Over 24 key government officials were exposed to the concept of digital economy and had a chance to learn the international experience and new digitalization trends. During the seminar, the participants discussed the topics of e-government services, personal data protection and identification of individuals, and the role of partnership of public and private sectors in the development of the national programme on digital transformation.

Turkmenistan is willing to strengthen the SDGs implementation by building digital economy capacity, which is planned to be implemented in three phases.  It is expected that in December of this year, UNDP expert from the Moscow School of Management will facilitate a round-table to  discuss recommendations to preparation of the national programme “Digital Turkmenistan”, and provide a roadmap to develop  the digital  economy of Turkmenistan.