Ranked 32nd out of 32 countries, Tajikistan’s IT sector barely exists. Recent digital governance initiatives at least suggest ambition.
Tajikistan occupies an unenviable position: dead last in Reinvantage’s IT Competitiveness Index, ranking 32nd out of 32 countries and trailing Belarus by 2.99 points. This is not entirely surprising for a landlocked, underdeveloped Central Asian nation where high unregistered employment, emigration, and reliance on remittances constrain formal economic activity. What is surprising is that Tajikistan has launched genuinely ambitious digital governance initiatives despite possessing virtually no tech sector to speak of.
The start-up ecosystem consists of precisely four start-ups, with notable players including Alif Sarmoya, zypl.ai, and Somon.tj. This is not an ecosystem as we know it.
The government, however, has not been idle. The Concept for Digital Economy, adopted in 2019, sets out Tajikistan’s ambition to transition from a rural, agriculture-based economy to a modern, service-oriented digital economy, focusing initially on data centres, digital platforms, and foundational systems. In December 2022, Tajikistan approved the Law on E-Commerce. In August 2024, the Agency for Innovation and Digital Technologies launched two significant initiatives: the e-government portal ehukumat.tj and Bonoor, Tajikistan’s first AI assistant trained in spoken Tajik.
The ehukumat.tj portal, launched in beta in March 2024, has attracted 1.5 million users and processed 280,000 online service requests, integrating 45 government institutions and offering 20 services including vehicle management, e-signatures, and permits, with plans to expand to 50 services by year-end. Bonoor addresses challenges faced by global AI tools with low-resource languages. These are creditable achievements for a country with Tajikistan’s limited resources.
While Reinvantage’s index places Tajikistan last overall, it does perform relatively better in Economic Impact (27th) and Talent (29th). Nevertheless, the underlying metrics confirm the sector’s near-total absence. Average gross ICT salaries stood at an estimated 410 euros in 2024—the second-lowest after Egypt—representing 79 per cent growth since 2020, above the average but from a negligible base. Economy-wide wages grew 61 per cent over the same period, meaning ICT commands a modest premium.
ICT employment exceeded 12,000 in 2024, representing a slight 1.3 per cent decline since 2020, whilst total employment grew nearly 7.2 per cent. ICT’s share of employment fell from 0.49 per cent to 0.46 per cent—roughly one-sixth of the already-low average of 3 per cent. High unregistered employment and emigration distort these figures, though not in Tajikistan’s favour.
Students in ICT-related fields grew an estimated 12.7 per cent between 2020 and 2024. Graduates surged an estimated 83 per cent. Many are anticipated to emigrate, as domestic employment cannot absorb them. ICT services exports comprise just 0.01 per cent of GDP—effectively non-existent. Value added declined from 1.78 per cent in 2020 to 1.33 per cent in 2024—the lowest among all countries. Both metrics fluctuated strongly in absolute terms.
Tajikistan’s digital governance initiatives deserve recognition. Building e-government platforms whilst lacking an IT sector to maintain them, however, creates dependencies on foreign expertise that may prove unsustainable. Last place in the rankings is neither unfair nor unexpected.
You can find out more about Tajikistan’s tech sector, as well as those of 31 other countries, in the Reinvantage Future of IT 2026 report.
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