On 19 October 2026, ABACUS Law Firm partners Rustam Akramov and Umidjon Olimjonov took part in the C5+1 business programme in Samarkand. The programme ran alongside the ministerial meeting in the Central Asia–United States format, which was attended by the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The C5+1 format has been in place since 2015, and its first ministerial meeting was also held in Samarkand. This time the talks were accompanied by a large business delegation: according to the US Department of State, it included more than 200 American business representatives. On the same day, Samarkand hosted the second meeting of the US–Uzbekistan Business and Investment Council.
The business sessions brought together representatives of the region’s governments and the business community. ABACUS partners took part in the ‘Digital Technologies’ and ‘Energy and Transport Infrastructure’ sessions. The discussions focused on attracting American companies and investment, developing joint projects and expanding economic ties between the United States and the countries of the region.
At the digital technologies session, a Google Cloud representative announced the launch of Google Pay in Uzbekistan. The launch followed a legislative update: on 26 March 2026, Law No. ZRU-1125 was signed, amending the rules on the storage and processing of personal data. Biometric and genetic data, as well as telecommunications operators’ subscriber data, must now be stored in Uzbekistan. Other data may be processed abroad, provided that data protection requirements are met. For foreign digital services, this is one of the first issues to resolve when entering the market. ABACUS has already worked on such matters – for example, on a project concerning personal and banking data in IPS Gateway’s payment infrastructure.
In energy and transport infrastructure, large projects are usually structured around investment agreements and public–private partnership mechanisms. The key legal issues here are project structuring, risk allocation and investment protection.
ABACUS Law Firm advises foreign investors and international companies on doing business in Uzbekistan and Central Asia: choosing a market-entry structure and registering a business, corporate law and M&A transactions, investment projects and public–private partnerships, digital business regulation and personal data protection, tax matters and dispute resolution.
