UC Berkeley (B.A.)
Harvard University (M.S.)
David is a professional investor with over 30 years of experience as an analyst, fund manager, and family office investor. Since 2008, he has lived and worked across Asia, primarily in Singapore and Indonesia. He believes the best way to evaluate investments in any market is through firsthand experience—by visiting countries, walking the streets, exploring supermarkets, riding public transportation, and engaging with local communities.
David has been fortunate to invest early in several of the region’s most successful companies, including five unicorns. He has had the privilege of working with exceptional individuals from around the world. His academic engagements include guest lecturing at institutions such as NYU, Cornell Tech, Arizona State University, Nanyang Technological University, and the Singapore University of Social Sciences.
His insights have been featured on CNBC, CNN, and Bloomberg News, and he has presented at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Twelve policy suggestions for the government of Uzbekistan towards greater national technology sovereignty (Digital Decolonization) by David Halpert
Uzbekistan stands at a pivotal moment in its journey towards full technological sovereignty and economic independence. The following recommendations aim to strengthen the nation’s strategic autonomy and foster a vibrant, homegrown innovation ecosystem.
1. The single greatest weakness of the Uzbekistan VC ecosystem is the capital market, which is not yet deep enough to supply local exits for good start ups and is not deep enough to finance a strong domestic VC industry. Consequently, state owned banks are major players in VC; while this is better than nothing, the lack of exits will likely constrain the recycling of capital and decrease the power of ESOP for the ecosystem. With this inmind, we recommend a 3-year plan to boost the capital market, including the formation of a private sector advisory board under ministerial sponsorship, a high-quality annual capital markets conference, and regular global appearances by high quality government representatives. Foreign institutional interest in frontier markets is still not what it used to be, but Uzbekistan is off the map for most allocators.
2. Technology policy should be transparent and open for public debate, not “top down” decisions by government. Create a public-private committee to discuss important decisions (i.e. TikTok, privacy laws, drone banning etc) and post the minutes of the meetings up on a website. Sunshine is the best disinfectant.
3. Strengthen the national pension system to mobilize savings. Local UZS bonds, local stocks, and eventually also VC. The people of Uzbekistan should own these companies, not local ultra- high net worth entrepreneurs or foreign investors.
4. Copy the Indian “Aadhar” program and “India stack” to build an “Uzbekistan stack” (or perhaps a Central Asia stack). Reach out to the Indian leaders behind that program. Have Uzbek coders include a line of code “made in Uzbekistan with Pride” in each program.
5. Leverage digital government to improve the lives of the people, following models such as Estonia and Singapore. But allow for discussion along the way – live and on television if possible.
6. Host an annual Registan Forum in Samarqand near the monument, like the Bohai forum in China or the WEF in Davos. Get private sector sponsorship, good media coverage, timely and relevant speakers. Get it on to calendars for world thought leaders. Your ICT week, creative economy forum, and whatever capital markets days you plan can be scheduled around this event. The world should come to Uzbekistan once a year and the world should have a great time.
7. Embrace next generation technologies as you plan your energy transition. Uzbekistan is a manufacturing powerhouse; Uzbek engineers and Uzbek entrepreneurs should play a role in this process, not just Russians or French people. Nuclear power is at the beginning of a fascinating technology shift; Uzbekistan can be a leader in Central Asia.
8. Adopt a public policy goal of 85% home ownership over the next 10 years, financed by local savings and built by local contractors. Study the Singapore model.
9. Visit Rise Up Cairo as a model for a Central Asia VC forum (timed close to the Registan Forum). Invite Afghans, Kyrgyz, Mongolians etc. You can do better than CEVF Almaty.10. Reach out to the ministry of agriculture to work on next generation AgTech start-ups, together with partners from around the global south. Uzbekistan is an agricultural country; you should be leaders in AgTech innovation.
11. Copy the Indonesian “yayasan modernizator” program to leverage foreign educated professionals to work for the bureaucracy. I can introduce the people behind this excellent policy in Jakarta
12. Study the Indonesian “hilarisasi” policy for down streaming mineral wealth, in partnership with your neighbours in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan can be the rare earth refining superpower of the global south.
And finally, and most importantly, believe in your own people! You are no longer a Russian colony; you are a sovereign state and you can do great things!
Yours Sincerely,
David Halpert
