Our Uzbek office acted as a co-author and a driving force behind the country’s resolution to recognize electronic documents as legally effective.
This March, the President of Uzbekistan signed a resolution aimed at facilitating favorable conditions for providers of digital services, especially for residents of IT Park. The essence of this landmark document is that from now on businesses can sign electronic documents (contracts, agreements, invoices, etc.) connected with the export of digital services and such documents will be accepted as valid. The main prerequisite to enjoy this update is that the amount of the contract must not exceed 100,000 USD.
The circulation of the main documents in the export market is carried out through international platforms. But until now, there were bureaucratic obstacles that limited the participation of companies in this process, as only paper records had legal force. In other words, the fact that the documents on such platforms were not considered valid by Uzbekistan had a negative impact on the export process. Now these obstacles have been removed.
Another major point here is that our company was behind the advocacy campaign to introduce this legal act. Qulix UZ communicated with Uzbekistan’s public authorities, underlining the importance and the need to introduce e-document management for external contractors. We also took part in discussing its draft. So we pride ourselves in saying that we are co-authors and initiators of this measure.
In an interview for O‘zbekiston 24, a 24/7 TV national channel, Sherzod Almatov, Qulix UZ CEO, shared his thoughts on the role and economic effect of this decision in speeding up export processes.
“Imagine that it takes one second to sign a document in Uzbekistan using an electronic digital signature. But if it takes months to sign a paper document with a foreign partner, we had to wait for a very long time. The president’s decision gave us a solution to this problem.
Previously, we had to contact courier services several times a month in order to receive paper forms, sign them, and send back signed copies. This procedure consumes time, money, and effort. Now these expenditures will be cut off of our list,” stipulates Mr. Almatov.
“This is not all,” he continues, “the most important thing is that exporters will be prevented from halting their work processes for months while waiting for signed hard copies to arrive. If our work stops for one month, it may cause a delay in the schedule, and this loss accumulates in time. This is why we are confident that this decision will have a very positive impact on our operations.”
As of now, the implementation of the resolution is qualified as a legal experiment to last one year, but we are sure it’ll take root as this new system will further increase the interest and confidence of foreign partner companies in Uzbekistan. In addition, it allows business entities to further expand the range of partners in the export of software and services.
If you wish to watch the original interview in the Uzbek language, feel free to check it below.
