Uzbekistan creates new ICT Ministry

Uzbekistan has created a new Ministry of Development of Information Technologies and Communications via a presidential decree, replacing the State Committee for Communications, Information and Telecommunication Technologies (CCITT). The new agency is intended to improve oversight of the ICT and telecoms sectors, to accelerate the introduction of modern ICT and e-government systems and to modernise the nation’s telecoms infrastructure. The new ministry has a broad remit, covering the regulation and licensing of telecoms services, including the management of spectrum resources and the development and implementation of policies to expand access to broadband, transition to a fully digital system for TV and radio broadcasting. The presidential decree establishing the new ministry also invalidated Presidential Decree UP-4475 of October 16 2012, which had established the CCITT, itself the successor to the Uzbek Agency for Communications and Information (UzACI), which had governed the sector from 2004.