On September 6, 2022, the Scientific and Expert Forum of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Information Security kicked off in Tashkent.

Addressing the event, the Director of the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of Uzbekistan Eldor Aripov spoke about the importance of the event taking place within the framework of Uzbekistan's chairmanship in the SCO.

According to the ISRS representative, putting forward the initiative to hold the current Forum, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev stressed that in the conditions of rapid digitalization of all spheres of society, ensuring information security is of particular importance and requires the SCO member states to develop coordinated mechanisms to combat modern challenges and threats in the information sphere.

“Today’s Forum is dedicated to the search for such approaches, mechanisms and tools for complex counteraction to threats and challenges in the information sphere”, Eldor Aripov stated.

It was noted that in the modern digital era, information-communication technologies are experiencing an unprecedented rise in their development in all spheres of human activity, society and the state.

“Information-communication technologies strengthen the material-technical base and stimulate socio-economic development, increasing the competitiveness and production potential of the economy and, most importantly, endowing people with new knowledge, new skills”, concluded the ISRS Director.

It should be noted that the forum is held as part of the practical implementation of the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, put forward at the Dushanbe SCO Summit on September 17, 2021.

The event, organized by the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan with the support of the Ministry for the Development of Information Technologies and Communications together with the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, is attended by more than 30 leading experts from among representatives of relevant ministries and agencies, scientific, academic and analytical circles of the SCO member states.

UzA