BLING

Uzbek delegation visit to Groningen and the Hague

15 December 2021 - Published by Evite van Winkoop
On November 9th 2021, Groningen municipality welcomed an Uzbek delegation. The visit was part of the Uzbek’s delegation study tour in the Benelux to learn more about new technologies and digital transformation. In Groningen we highlighted the BLING project and visited the International Welcome Centre North and the department of Civil Affairs.

undefined

The visit to Groningen was part of a study tour to the Benelux countries. Next to Groningen a visit to The Hague municipality was on the programme. The Uzbek delegation (and in particular the Public Services Agency under the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan) participates in a  United Nations Development Programme in Uzbekistan “Improved public service delivery and enhanced governance in rural Uzbekistan”. This project is being financed by the European Union. Aim of the project is to improve the quality of life of vulnerable populations in rural areas, such as women, youth and children, the elderly and people with disabilities, by expanding their access to the public services and improving the quality of service delivery.

High level delegation

The Uzbek delegation wanted to learn about digital transformation projects, amongst which projects which make use of blockchain for public services delivery. The Uzbek delegation consisted of people from the Public Services Agency (4 persons), Ministry of Justice (2), Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications (1), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1), State Cadaster Agency (1) and UNDP Uzbekistan (3).

BLING project presented

undefinedDuring the 1 day visit to Groningen a delegation from the BLING partnership highlighted several BLING use cases. These were presented by Jeroen Wester and Danny Dreves from the Blockchain Lab Drenthe (on behalf of the Province of Drenthe), Ali Amin Rezaei from Oldenburg University presented their Health Certificate use case and Evite van Winkoop from Groningen Municipality held a general introduction of the BLING project. The Blockchain Lab Drenthe presentation was divided in three: the blockchain Basics were explained, the “Attendancy App” and the “E-Knip” of Emmen were both highlighted. We had interesting questions and lively discussions with the Uzbek delegation members. The visit was concluded with a visit to the Groningen Forum.

Several days later the Uzbek delegation brought a visit to the Luxemburg Token project where they learned about their approaches around blockchain for government.