Transforming Tajikistan

Introduction

What will it take for Tajikistan, a country with an annual GDP of just $10B, to catapult past its current economic condition to create a healthy, vibrant & modern economy? How might the country’s government, businesses and civil organizations leverage artificial intelligence to ensure more young Tajiks reach their full potential and have opportunities for global leadership? In early 2023, as Azizjon Azimi marched briskly through the glass halls of the TajRupt AI Academy, his mind raced with these questions. 

Here, nestled within a wooded oasis in Khujand, Tajikistan, Azimi and his dedicated team of educators and computer scientists rapidly grew the not-for-profit TajRupt, launched the fintech start-up zypl.ai, and established the AI Council, the country’s first national public-private consortium on advanced technology. Through these three pioneering organizations, Azimi had a hand in improving education for young people, creating a potential “unicorn” private enterprise, and crafting government policy. Azizjon now pondered how these three organizations could, together, spark an economic revolution in the small land-locked, Post-Soviet nation.