On the Youth Day, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a large meeting with young citizens of the country, presenting state awards to distinguished young men and women. The event became a platform for presenting a new strategy to support the young generation and strengthen its role in the country's socio-economic development.
The key content of the meeting was dozens of new initiatives aimed at unlocking the potential of young people and strengthening their contribution to science, economy, entrepreneurship, IT and creative industries. The President noted that the high rate of economic growth is due not only to progress in technology and infrastructure, but also to the active participation of educated and purposeful young people.
According to the head of state, Uzbekistan has achieved record success in international education rankings in recent years. The country ranked first in Central Asia in terms of the number of students enrolled in the world's top 500 universities. These students include young Uzbek students currently studying at Harvard, Oxford, MIT, Yale, and Columbia University. In total-more than 2,000 people, including 30 - in the top 10, 500 — in the top 100 and 1,500-in the top 300 universities of the world.
The development of sports and cultural potential is also on the agenda. The President recalled the achievements of the national football team, which won a ticket to the World Cup for the first time in history. According to him, today young people born in ordinary families are achieving success that seemed impossible until recently.
Training and technological education are central to the new youth strategy. The One Million Programmers program has trained 325,000 young professionals. 150,000 young people passed international language exams, doubling the figure of the previous year. Tashkent, Samarkand, Namangan and Bukhara are the leaders in foreign language proficiency.
New sites are being created, such as the Beruni Harvard International School, where 60 eighth-graders will start studying this year. In total, 3,000 students will be selected annually to prepare for admission to the world's leading universities. At least 300 of them will be representatives of socially vulnerable families.
The El-Yurt Umidi Foundation is launching an updated system of compensation for tuition costs at top 300 universities, with priority for STEM, architecture, energy and water management areas. The bank will provide soft loans of up to $20,000 for students enrolled in these universities.
Among the technological priorities is artificial intelligence. A plan for implementing 100 projects in priority sectors was approved: banking, healthcare, energy and agriculture. The development of a national AI model based on the country's cultural and value codes has begun. In cooperation with the UAE, a training program for one million leaders in the field of AI is being implemented. This year, 100,000 young Uzbek citizens will be trained on the AI Study platform.
The school system should also be updated. The Ministry of Education will implement educational programs on AI developed according to MIT standards. 100 computer science teachers from each region will be trained at the University of New Uzbekistan, after which they will transfer their knowledge to colleagues in the cascade system. In five years, every graduate of the school will have a basic knowledge of AI.
Support for women is also becoming systemic. As part of the Digital Generation-Girls project, 50,000 schoolgirls will be covered by training programs in the areas of AI, climate and green economy. Last year, 120 startups of participating girls were selected based on the results of the competition.
A full-fledged startup support ecosystem has been created. $ 145 million of venture capital investments were attracted. The President set a goal to increase this volume to $1 billion. Pupils and students will be able to participate in competitions, the prize fund of which will be up to 100 billion soums. The winners will receive grants to implement their ideas. R&D centers are being created with the participation of the IT Park and the Innovation Agency. The best projects will be able to receive up to $50,000 from the Youth Venture Fund. Once a year, Startup Expo will be held — an exhibition with the participation of investors and corporations.
The state systematically develops industrial employment of young people: 1 million young people are already employed in the mining, agricultural, textile, chemical and construction industries. New personnel are being trained for investment projects worth $35 billion, which will create 292,000 jobs. Additional projects are planned for $83 billion — with the potential to create another half a million jobs.
Each ministry and large company will annually select 100 young specialists and send them to foreign internships, allocating 10 billion soums with tax benefits. Republican competitions in professional skills among young people are planned, in which both representatives of the public sector and business participate.
The President urged not to limit themselves to campaigns and create conditions under which young people will feel real changes in their lives on a daily basis-from mahallas to universities and large-scale industries.
"In the era of new technologies, the winner is not the one who has more resources, but the one who can think creatively, has modern knowledge and professions. It is you, the young people, who will manage these enterprises and introduce innovations. You are the golden generation that can create a new history of the country, " the President said.
