Uzbekistan is again planning to attract PayPal, Alipay, UniPay, Apple Pay and Google Pay payment services. The government included these plans in its resolution of 18 September on the effective use of the country’s tourism potential.
The document instructs the Central Bank, together with the Ministry of Digital Technologies and Tourism Committee, to negotiate with international payment companies until the year end.
The goal is to establish integration with these payment systems and banking services in Uzbekistan in order to create favorable conditions for tourists and businesses.
If necessary, revisions to the national legislation to facilitate this process can be proposed, the document states.
Additionally, the Ministry of Transport, in collaboration with the Tourism Committee, has been tasked with creating favorable conditions for local and foreign car rental companies (such as Hertz, Avis, Sixt and others) to operate at airports and railway stations in the country.
Shukhrat Kurbanov, head of Humo payment system of Uzbekistan, noted that tourists with cards issued in countries where these payment systems are already in place could already use Apple Pay and Google Pay in Uzbekistan since late 2019.
“Unfortunately, this is not the case for our citizens. The reason is simple — article 27−1 of the law „On personal data“ has special conditions for processing the personal data of Uzbekistan’s citizens. The issue is that neither Google nor Apple are willing to set up servers in Uzbekistan just to make these services functional here. In fact, the law doesn’t even need to be changed. We simply need to clarify that Google Pay and Apple Pay payments do not require additional servers because no more personal data is transferred than what is already transferred when opening an email account,” he wrote.
In February 2019, the Central Bank chairman Mamarizo Nurmuradov said that the adoption of the law 'On payments and payment systems' would allow electronic payment systems such as PayPal to operate in Uzbekistan with a license.
Despite this, Uzbekistan remains the only country in Central Asia where PayPal does not operate. In 2020, the Central bank clarified that PayPal had independently restricted its operations in Uzbekistan without discussing the decision with any government body.
Minister of ICT Sherzod Shermatov suggested in late 2021 that PayPal might have excluded Uzbekistan due to past issue with the currency conversion system and other artificial barriers existing in the country. He emphasized that PayPal’s inclusion was a priority for the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank.
In October 2022, Shermatov acknowledged that “PayPal has no big plans for expansion”, as the company was focused on its existing markets.
In 2021, Uzbekistan restricted operations of several platforms, including Twitter, Skype, Telegram, Facebook and YouTube, under article 27−1 of the law “On personal data”. Following public backlash, the head of Uzkomnazorat, state inspection for telecommunications, was dismissed, and access to social networks was restored within hours.
