Uzbekistan is steadily strengthening its position in the global technology outsourcing market. In recent years, the sector has evolved from a predominantly domestic IT industry into an export-oriented ecosystem covering software development, BPO, KPO, creative industries and professional services.
The scale of this transformation is reflected in market growth. IT outsourcing exports increased from $3.2 million in 2019 to $716.4 million in 2025. Over the same period, the number of IT companies rose from 369 to around 3,400, while the total volume of IT services reached $2.8 billion.
More importantly, Uzbekistan’s role in international service delivery is changing. The country is moving beyond individual technology-related tasks toward hosting broader corporate, operational and professional functions.
A young population as a competitive advantage
Outsourcing depends heavily on the ability to build and scale teams. In this respect, Uzbekistan’s demographic profile remains one of its main advantages.
The country’s population is approximately 38 million, with around 60% under the age of 30 and a working-age population of about 21 million.
This creates a substantial talent reserve, but demographics alone are not enough. Sustainable outsourcing growth requires specialists with both technical expertise and foreign-language skills.
More than 220 universities operate in Uzbekistan, including 145 offering IT-related programmes. Specialized IT universities graduate around 25,000 specialists annually, while more than 350,000 people study foreign languages each year. The country is estimated to have around 500,000 IT specialists, including developers, data engineers, DevOps professionals and UI/UX experts.
As a result, Uzbekistan’s competitive advantage is gradually shifting from affordable labour toward the ability to assemble and scale qualified, multidisciplinary teams.
From software development to broader outsourcing
The market is also becoming more diversified.
Technology outsourcing is no longer limited to programming. The BPO segment is expanding into customer support, data processing, administrative services and operational functions. More than 540 companies and 14,500 specialists now operate in this segment, compared with only 136 BPO employees in 2020.
This allows international companies to consider Uzbekistan not only as a source of developers, but also as a location for broader internal business processes.
KPO and professional services are developing in parallel, including logistics, accounting, auditing, recruitment, marketing, consulting and staffing.
The significance of this diversification is clear: the wider the range of functions that can be localized within one market, the easier it becomes for foreign companies to expand gradually — from a small support team to development, analytics, finance or other operations.
Exports as a sign of market maturity
Uzbekistan’s technology exports are increasingly integrated into major international markets.
North America currently accounts for 54% of exports, while the European Union and the United Kingdom represent 17%. The CIS and Asia-Pacific markets account for 22%, and the Middle East and North Africa for around 7%.
The export structure is also becoming more diversified. IT services account for 45%, BPO and KPO for 35%, creative industries and GameDev for 13%, and SaaS for 7%.
The next stage of development should focus not only on increasing the number of exporters, but also on improving the complexity and value of exported services — moving from standardized processes toward analytics, engineering, product management and other higher-value activities.
Foreign companies are becoming part of the ecosystem
More than 4,000 companies currently operate within the IT Park Uzbekistan ecosystem, including over 1,100 companies with foreign capital. Businesses from 75 countries are represented, while more than 56,000 jobs have been created.
This matters because there is a major difference between a foreign company purchasing services remotely and one establishing its own local team or operational center. The latter creates stronger and more sustainable ties through employment, local contracting and long-term investment.
Uzbekistan has introduced mechanisms to facilitate such market entry, including the Soft Landing framework and the Zero Risk programme, which provide support with office space, equipment, recruitment and initial operations.
Beyond cost competitiveness
Operating costs remain an important advantage. Potential savings in professional services can reach approximately 40% compared with Eastern Europe.
However, cost alone cannot support long-term competitiveness.
As the sector matures, greater importance is placed on intellectual property protection, personal data regulation, commercial law, international payments, recruitment of foreign specialists and the predictability of the business environment.
In this context, the establishment of Enterprise Uzbekistan reflects a broader shift toward creating a comprehensive legal and institutional environment for international technology companies. Its special legal regime covers commercial and civil disputes, intellectual property, personal data, banking and public services, tax and customs matters, as well as regulatory sandboxes.
Uzbekistan has already developed several of the key conditions required to compete globally: a young talent pool, a growing IT sector, expanding BPO and KPO capabilities, access to major export markets and infrastructure supporting foreign companies.
The next stage will be measured less by the number of companies and more by the size of export contracts, complexity of services, number of international teams operating in the country and share of high value-added activities.
It is this transition from rapid quantitative growth to more sophisticated and knowledge-intensive exports that can transform Uzbekistan’s current momentum into a sustainable position in the global technology outsourcing market.
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