Uzbekistan has officially ended its digital isolation, removing strict data localization requirements that kept global technology companies out of the Central Asian nation for years.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed legislation amending personal data laws to allow Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal to operate in the country of 35 million people. The new law eliminates the requirement that financial and cloud data be stored on domestic servers—a major regulatory hurdle that prevented international IT giants from entering the market.
The reform follows commitments Mirziyoyev made during meetings with U.S. business leaders in Washington last year, according to local technology news outlet YEP. While biometric data must still be stored domestically, the liberalization of payment and cloud data marks a massive shift toward integrating Uzbekistan into the global digital economy.
In Central Asia's heartland, ancient Silk Road cities navigate modern challenges of water, borders, and development. For Uzbekistan, this digital opening represents the latest phase of economic reforms that began after Mirziyoyev took power in 2016, following the death of longtime authoritarian ruler Islam Karimov.
The data localization requirements were originally implemented as part of broader cybersecurity and sovereignty concerns, similar to policies in Russia and China. However, these restrictions severely limited foreign technology investment and left Uzbek consumers without access to widely-used international payment platforms.
"This is about economic competitiveness," said Ravshan Nazarov, a technology analyst at Tashkent-based Digital Economy Institute, in comments to YEP. "Without these platforms, was essentially cut off from the global digital marketplace."
