Google has announced the launch of its Google Pay payment service in Uzbekistan on October 19, according to Marcin Krasuski, Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy for Google Cloud in Central and Eastern Europe. The announcement was made during a Digital Technologies panel session in Samarkand, held as part of the C5+1 meetings between Central Asian countries and the United States.
A video of the announcement was published on the Telegram channel of Uzbekistan's Ministry of Digital Technologies.
"I am very pleased to announce that today, Google is launching its GPay service—Google Pay—in Uzbekistan," Krasuski stated.
The session was attended by representatives of government agencies and leading companies.
In late July, Jamshid Usmanov, Head of the Payment Systems Development Department at Uzbekistan's Central Bank, told that Apple Pay and Google Pay could launch in Uzbekistan in the coming months. According to Usmanov, following amendments to personal data legislation, the Central Bank, together with commercial banks, Humo and Uzcard, began negotiations with Apple and Google, as well as technical integration of the services.
Usmanov also noted that banks were working on card tokenization. The Central Bank aims to ensure that cards from the national payment systems Humo and Uzcard can be added to the services alongside Visa and Mastercard cards.
On March 26, Uzbekistan's President signed a law repealing the mandatory requirement to store all personal data on servers located within Uzbekistan. The requirement remains in effect for biometric and genetic data, as well as data belonging to telecommunications subscribers. Other types of personal data may be processed abroad, provided that established conditions are met.