ASTANA – The upcoming Astana Think Tank Forum, set for Oct. 15–16 in the Kazakh capital and convened by the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies (KazISS), reflects a growing ambition to turn expert debate into actionable policy blueprints.
Zhandos Shaimardanov. Photo credit: KazISS
The Astana Times sat down for an interview with Zhandos Shaimardanov, the institute’s director, to discuss how the forum aims to bridge research and policy, reinforcing the role of think tanks in shaping reforms. Shaimardanov also explains why data is vital as Kazakhstan advances its digital transformation, making it central to reform, governance, and long-term economic strategy.
Q: My first question focuses on a major upcoming event – the Astana Think Tank Forum. Could you tell us what we can expect from the forum and what key themes will be on the agenda?
Yes, of course. This year, we are holding the second Astana Think Tank Forum. Last year’s event sparked strong interest and generated a wide range of discussions.
This year, the forum is built around the theme “From Polarization to Partnership.” It features nine sessions covering a broad spectrum of issues, ranging from diplomacy, international security, and nuclear disarmament, traditionally among the core topics of our institute, to areas such as investment attraction, transport connectivity, and socio-economic development.
Last year, the forum brought together 45 experts from 22 countries. Photo credit: Aida Dosbergenova/ The Astana Times
There is quite a diverse agenda. This time, we have made the forum more practical. Instead of just holding roundtables, we will discuss specific reports. For example, we have prepared a joint discussion paper on demography and migration with UNFPA and IOM, which will be presented at the forum.
We are also launching concrete market studies. In partnership with KPMG, we have prepared a report on the future of energy, focusing particularly on green hydrogen, which has drawn significant attention globally and in Kazakhstan.
To ensure continuity and structure in our research efforts, we are also launching a digital platform called Insights Central Asia. This platform will feature analytical reports on Central Asia, particularly on Kazakhstan, all available in English. Why are we doing this? The idea came from our conversations with international experts who often note the lack of in-depth, English-language analytics about our region.
At the first stage, this will serve as a global repository of analytical studies on Kazakhstan in English. It will include reports on various themes, including one dedicated to Afghanistan. Another report will focus on the future of cities, exploring how urban spaces of tomorrow should look.
Our goal is not to promote our institute, KazISS, but to raise the visibility of Kazakhstan and highlight the vibrant think tank and expert community that exists in our country today.
You can think of it as somewhat similar to the model of the World Economic Forum in Davos, which regularly produces analytical papers presented during its annual gatherings. We are following a comparable approach, producing and showcasing our own analytical work.
In short, we expect this year’s forum to go beyond dialogue and discussion. We aim for tangible outcomes, research-based reports that can contribute to policymaking and inform concrete decisions by government bodies.
Q: In his September state-of-the-nation address, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev directed the government to attract $1 billion in investment to high-tech industries. What needs to change in the system to ensure that this $1 billion, once invested, truly benefits the economy?
Good question. Investment is indeed one of our top national priorities right now. Across the government, much work is being done in this direction. The President devoted a special section of his latest address to this topic, emphasizing that the Prime Minister himself will personally oversee investment policy.
In recent years, several institutional platforms have been established to advance this agenda. For example, the Foreign Investors’ Council operates under the President, and there is also an Investment Headquarters chaired by the First Deputy Prime Minister, which focuses on resolving challenges faced by specific investment projects.
Zhandos Shaimardanov and Assel Satubaldina during the interview, which is the first big interview since Shaimardanov assumed the role in June 2025. Photo credit: Fatima Kemelova/ The Astana Times
As for this particular $1 billion, the key is to build a system that makes it attractive for private and large-scale investors to channel funds not into our traditional extractive industries, but into high-value, technology-driven sectors.
In this regard, we already have several strong platforms, such as the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), which has created an institutional framework conducive to investment. However, beyond this, we must move from a reactive to a proactive approach, not just waiting for investors to come to us with proposals, but actively identifying promising niches and presenting them to potential partners ourselves.
A good example is the Alatau City project recently announced by the President. It is not merely about building homes, roads, or infrastructure; it is envisioned as a smart city. The President made it clear that its development will be largely driven by private investment, with minimal public spending.
During the President’s recent visit to China, several agreements and memorandums were signed to attract investment into the development of Alatau City. This is one of the flagship projects capable of drawing new investments into the country.
Another area of focus is artificial intelligence and digitalization, both of which the President has placed strong emphasis on. Significant investment is expected in supercomputers and data infrastructure, including data centers and related facilities.
But beyond that, there are other promising sectors, such as education, which is increasingly attracting private investment. There is plenty of potential here. Kazakhstan is experiencing a continued demographic boom, which strengthens its position as one of the few growing markets in Central Asia. While many regions face population aging, Kazakhstan remains one of the rare countries where the population is still expanding, which is a significant advantage for investors.
Q: What kind of transformation can we expect to see from the new technologies in the next 5 to 10 years, and which sectors, in your view, will be affected first?
You ask me about 5 to 10 years, I would say the transformation will likely happen much sooner. Take ChatGPT, for example, it has only been about three years since its introduction, yet the world has already changed dramatically. The model was launched at the end of 2022, and by 2023, the technology had already begun integrating into our daily lives.
That is why the President has set an ambitious goal: within the next three years, Kazakhstan aims to become a fully digital nation. We already have a solid foundation for this. Over the years, several national programs, such as Digital Kazakhstan and, before that, Information Kazakhstan, have laid the groundwork, particularly in the area of public services. Kazakhstan now ranks among the top countries in UN ratings for e-government and digital public services. That’s an undeniable fact.
But now the focus has shifted. The task is not just to digitize the front end of interactions between government, citizens, and businesses, but to transform the entire system of public administration. The goal is to make back-office processes less bureaucratic and more transparent, and here, artificial intelligence can play a decisive role in simplifying the system.
To achieve that, however, it is not enough to simply digitize existing procedures. We need to build a proper system for data exchange, establish sound data management processes, and train people, especially civil servants.
In his remarks at the AI Council meeting, the President spoke about training 440,000 students. According to the Minister [of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development], around one million Kazakh citizens, including public officials and students, will receive training in artificial intelligence. Essentially, this involves all segments of society.
Once this critical mass is reached, we will start seeing substantial, visible changes in how the technology is adopted and applied. The next three years, therefore, will be decisive.
You also asked which sectors are likely to transform first. Beyond public administration, AI should primarily be applied in the real economy, particularly in industrial sectors, where it can deliver a significant productivity boost and optimize resource use.
Kazakhstan may not yet be a major technological power capable of competing with global giants like Microsoft, Amazon, or Tencent. But what we can compete on is the speed of adopting and applying these technologies.
Our legislation and regulatory framework are relatively flexible. As the President mentioned in his recent address, Kazakhstan is among the first countries to develop a Digital Code and a dedicated Law on Artificial Intelligence.
This creates a unique institutional environment that enables us to deploy new technologies rapidly. We may not invent them, but we can adapt and scale them faster than others and that, in turn, can translate into a tangible economic advantage.
Q: And when we talk about artificial intelligence more broadly, data, of course, is the foundation. How ready do you think Kazakhstan’s overall digital and data infrastructure is for our rather ambitious goals?
I might be somewhat biased here, since I previously headed the Bureau of National Statistics, and your question is about data. Data is undoubtedly one of the most critical elements for introducing artificial intelligence.
When we build digital infrastructure or develop national language models, neither can function without data. Models are trained on one set of data, but they operate with different data later, when they start generating recommendations or assisting in decision-making. So, it is vital to establish stable data pipelines. That’s the first point.
The second is about structuring data. Without that, what we get is not a data lake, but a data swamp, where information is stored chaotically and unstructured, making it unusable and degrading its quality.
This is a challenge we devoted a great deal of time to when I worked in statistics, and it’s not unique to Kazakhstan. Every country struggles with it. Establishing data quality standards and ensuring they are consistently upheld is a long and painstaking process. Once those principles are violated, you risk losing public trust in the entire system. And trust is key. That’s the foundation of everything.
Another crucial issue is ensuring a balance between the use of data and the protection of privacy. In recent years, there’s been growing concern about personal data protection and cybersecurity. In the context of AI, one of the most pressing challenges today is precisely data protection.
As AI models grow larger and absorb more data, safeguarding citizens’ personal information becomes paramount – ensuring confidentiality, data security, and ethical compliance.
A high-quality data pipeline means having a fully established, automated system, one that can be audited at any time to ensure data integrity and reliability. Only then can such a system be trusted.
Q: Initiatives sound good on paper, but some are hindered during implementation. The President himself and many experts often say that what we really need is a reform of the entire system of public administration. What’s holding us back?
That’s the million-dollar question or perhaps the billion-dollar one. There’s no simple recipe for it. From my perspective and I say this as someone working in a think tank, one of the key solutions lies in improving our evaluation system. This applies not only at the implementation stage but also earlier, at the design stage of reforms.
Every reform that is proposed should be based on solid research, on an evidence base. That is justified, difficult to dispute, because the evidence is there, in your hands.
Why is this so important at the design stage? Because when you return to the reform later, during its implementation, it becomes much easier to evaluate its effectiveness. Just as importantly, this approach reduces the risk of rollback. We all know that any reform inevitably encounters resistance on the ground. There is always a risk that it can be slowed down, diluted, or steered off course. That’s why establishing a strong, transparent system for evaluating reforms is essential.
We already have an evaluation system in place. But what needs improvement is the evidence base and the research foundation on which reforms are built.
That is why we are organizing the Astana Think Tank Forum to present not just reports, but concrete policy recommendations grounded in evidence-based policymaking.
When every reform is backed by research and data, it becomes, first, well-founded and second, irreversible. In that case, it is not only the government that oversees the reform’s progress; the entire expert community becomes part of the accountability process. That, in turn, helps consolidate the professional and expert community around the country’s key policy transformations.
