en.Wedoany.com Reported - Sherzod Shermatov, Minister of Digital Technologies of Uzbekistan, recently met in Shanghai with a delegation led by Harry Xian, Head of International Business Innovation and Solutions at China's Ant Group. The two sides discussed cooperation in areas such as artificial intelligence, data centers, digital infrastructure, and financial technology.

The meeting took place during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC). Representatives of Ant Group introduced the company's AI development strategy, indicating that AI has become a long-term priority for the enterprise. During the meeting, Ant Group showcased digital solutions covering financial services, healthcare, and e-commerce, as well as products such as deepfake detection technology, digital identity systems, cloud services, and AI agents. The Uzbek side, in turn, presented the development of its national AI ecosystem, including improvements in computing power, data center infrastructure construction, and plans for the digital industry.

Shermatov stated that Uzbekistan is actively building modern digital infrastructure and, leveraging its low electricity prices, renewable energy development potential, and continuously improving investment environment, is creating conditions for the construction of large data centers. He invited Ant Group to participate in the construction of Uzbekistan's AI infrastructure and to consider the capital, Tashkent, as a location for the company's regional headquarters. Representatives of Ant Group expressed the company's willingness to further study opportunities for phased expansion of its business footprint in the Central Asian market.

In recent years, Uzbekistan has continuously promoted the transformation of its digital economy, prioritizing artificial intelligence, cloud computing, data centers, and financial technology as key development directions. This exchange between Ant Group and the Uzbek side, covering not only AI technology applications but also computing power infrastructure and digital service ecosystem development, is expected to encourage further participation of Chinese enterprises in the development of Central Asia's digital economy.