Uzbekistan’s central bank is pushing for deeper digital and financial connectivity across Central Asia, according to a report by Zhanna Shayakhmetova for The Astana Times.
Speaking at the opening of the Silk Road Finance and Technology Forum 2026 in Tashkent on 24 August, Central Bank of Uzbekistan Governor Timur Ishmetov called on global investors and innovators to help build infrastructure and standards linking markets across the region and beyond. He noted that regional venture capital funding totalled only around $320 million in 2025, calling this a sign of the scale of untapped opportunity given the region’s young population and growing digital adoption.
Ishmetov framed connectivity as central to a sustainable fintech ecosystem alongside regulation, infrastructure and investment, arguing that stronger cross-border payment corridors and financial services could reduce the economic weight of physical distance. A report by the Astana International Financial Centre and Uzbekistan’s Institute for Advanced International Studies noted the region’s shift from a peripheral economy to a more dynamic node in Eurasia, with inward FDI stock reaching $220.5 billion by 2024, per UNCTAD data.
Otabek Nasirov, chairman of the Central Asian Fintech Association, said the region does not need identical regulation across its five countries but rather interoperability — compatible digital identity frameworks, shared data-exchange principles and interoperable payment infrastructure. He pointed to cross-border payments, QR interoperability, digital KYC and open banking as practical starting points, with the aim of building connected regional infrastructure rather than a single regulator.
The forum, co-hosted by the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, the Global Finance and Technology Network and Ant International, is running in Tashkent from 24–26 August and has drawn more than 6,000 participants from 74 countries.
