Dmitry Grigorenko meets with Russian businesses seeking to tap Tajikistan’s IT market
Russia’s Digital Attache in Tajikistan Maxim Maksimov
Dmitry Grigorenko meets with Russian businesses seeking to tap Tajikistan’s IT market
Deputy Prime Minister – Chief of the Government Staff Dmitry Grigorenko held a meeting with Russian businesses seeking to gain a foothold of Tajikistan’s IT market and are eager to expand their operations there. The agenda focused on exporting more Russian IT solutions to CIS countries, including Tajikistan. Russia’s trade mission to the Republic of Tajikistan served as the venue for the meeting.
Participants in the meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister included Russian IT and telecommunications companies which have set up their operations in Tajikistan and have been exporting their solutions for several years now. Their representatives talked about what makes the local IT market special, presented their key achievements and discussed the challenges they face, while also sharing their vision of enabling Russian companies to expand their operations in Tajikistan moving forward.
In his remarks, Russia’s Digital Attache to Tajikistan Maxim Maksimov, said that infrastructure projects to develop telecommunications and data processing centres were among the most promising sectors for promoting digital cooperation. In addition to this, mobile applications and QR-code payments are becoming increasingly popular in Tajikistan, which means that Russian fintech exports have a lot of potential, especially solutions developed using artificial intelligence and offering a tailored customer experience and higher service quality. The Digital Attache pointed to public administration services as a promising avenue for expanding IT exports to Tajikistan, and called for the digital transition in the public services sector. Authorities in Tajikistan have also demonstrated a growing appetite for Russian cybersecurity solutions.
“Russian IT businesses have built a track record of success and achievement on the international market, demonstrating that homegrown solutions have a lot of export potential. Let me note that in terms of their quality and competitiveness, these solutions have been so effective that government agencies abroad are already using them, in addition to private foreign companies. We can see this in Tajikistan, where Russian solutions power government-run services in education and the Smart City geoanalytical platform. In fact, Russian IT businesses have a lot to offer to their partners abroad. The Government believes that Russian solutions have great potential, and views effective efforts to promote IT exports on a regular basis as an imperative,” Dmitry Grigorenko pointed out.
Russian IT companies are already present in Tajikistan’s market. According to the Trade Mission, the demand for this kind of cooperation has also been on the rise. For example, solutions by Security Code enjoy high demand for preventing cyberthreats. Tajikistan’s key institutions, including major state-owned banks, have already adopted these products.
MegaFon Tajikistan has also been carrying out ambitious joint projects with its partners in Tajikistan. Today, it is the leading mobile operator on the local market in terms of the number of subscribers. The company is working on expanding the country’s telecommunications infrastructure by upgrading the cell towers, laying fibre-optic cables and launching VoLTE, an advanced voice-call solution.
There is also ERA Group. Founded by Russian entrepreneurs, it focuses on infrastructure development in Tajikistan. The main undertaking for this company in Tajikistan consisted of building an e-map of Dushanbe as the first stage in the Dushanbe Smart City project, a major initiative which includes seven stages and is expected to be completed by 2029. It provides for integrating cutting-edge digital technology into urban infrastructure so that government institutions in Dushanbe can access city-related data in real time. Russian software developers have already completed the design phase for this digital system, created a software shell and digitised data pertaining to some of the city’s institutions and agencies. During the subsequent stages, they will integrate the system with other public and private platforms, and the project also provides for regularly updating the mapping information about the city using geodesic drones.
Wildberries, an online marketplace, has been quite successful in expanding its operations in Tajikistan. Having entered this market several years ago, it became one of the leading digital platforms. The company offers a complete package of cross-border delivery services and logistics, and has deployed an entire network of pick-up points in the country’s main cities. Tajikistan’s manufacturers will be able to join this platform before the end of the year so that they can export their goods to all the countries where this marketplace is present.
