Uzbek Government Speeds Up Switch To Domestic E-Mail System

The government of Uzbekistan has begun to switch all official correspondence to a domestic electronic-mail system called umail.uz.

An unnamed source in the Uzbek government told RFE/RL that the cabinet met on June 4 and decided to speed up the transition.

The cabinet said the move is part of an effort to develop a domestic Internet system and to harmonize communication between government organs.

All state bodies and organizations have been instructed to open accounts at umail.uz and to only use that site for all official electronic correspondence.

Umail.uz was launched in April 2013 but has only 55,000 e-mail accounts registered so far.

Uzbekistan's Education Ministry said all universities and colleges have been urged to transfer their correspondence to umail.uz by June 15.