ASTANA — Kazakhstan’s services exports approached $13 billion in 2025, with transport remaining the backbone of the sector. But while logistics continues to generate nearly half of the country’s services export revenue, the fastest growth is increasingly coming from digital industries, pointing to a gradual shift toward higher-value exports.
Photo credit: Kazakhstan Business Directory.
According to Energyprom.kz, Kazakhstan exported $12.8 billion worth of services in 2025. Transport services remained the country’s largest export category, generating $5.7 billion, or 44.8% of total services exports, up 5.2% from a year earlier. Freight transportation accounted for $4.5 billion of that total.
Travel-related services ranked second, increasing 12.4% to $2.9 billion, driven largely by spending by foreign visitors traveling to Kazakhstan for tourism, education, medical treatment and personal visits.
Sustaining that growth, however, will also require continued investment in logistics infrastructure. In a report, the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) identified modern warehousing as one of Central Asia’s biggest untapped opportunities, estimating demand for nearly 2 million square meters of new warehouse space and investment needs of up to $1.5 billion.
EDB Chief Economist Evgeny Vinokurov said in an interview with The Astana Times that Kazakhstan is particularly well positioned to capitalize on the trend due to its location at the intersection of major Eurasian trade routes.
“Kazakhstan is particularly well-positioned. Where North-South and East-West routes intersect, synergies emerge. We see at least three major logistics nodes: Almaty, Astana and Shymkent with strong potential for warehouse development,” he said.
But transport is no longer the whole story
Among the major service categories, telecommunications, computer and information services recorded the fastest growth, rising 35.6% to $1.4 billion. Together with transport and travel, the three categories generated nearly 78% of Kazakhstan’s total services export revenue.
The biggest breakthrough came from computer services. Their exports climbed 36% to $1.1 billion, surpassing the $1 billion mark for the first time. Even excluding digital asset mining, which accounted for $367.6 million, computer services exports reached $775.1 million, reflecting continued expansion of Kazakhstan’s technology sector.
The milestone also fulfills a strategic objective set several years ago. In his 2023 State of the Nation Address, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called for Kazakhstan’s IT services exports to reach $1 billion by 2026, identifying digital industries as one of the country’s future growth engines. The latest figures indicate that the target has effectively been achieved ahead of schedule.
Much of that growth has been supported by Astana Hub, whose resident companies exported IT services worth $681 million in 2025 to 111 countries, underscoring the expanding global footprint of Kazakhstan’s technology sector. According to previously reported data, the innovation hub is now home to more than 1,700 companies and continues to serve as the country’s primary platform for technology exports. Maintaining that momentum, however, may prove more important than reaching the milestone itself.
Computer services exports also remain highly concentrated geographically. Astana accounted for more than 90% of the country’s total, exporting around $1 billion worth of computer services in 2025. The concentration reflects the capital’s growing technology ecosystem, centered around Astana Hub and the newly launched International AI Center Alem.ai. Together, Astana and Almaty generated more than 96% of Kazakhstan’s computer services exports.
The figures suggest Kazakhstan is gradually broadening its export base. While transport continues to capitalize on the country’s strategic location at the crossroads of Eurasian trade routes, digital services increasingly demonstrate its ability to compete through innovation, technology and human capital.
The shift also reflects broader changes in the global economy. According to the OECD, services generate more than two-thirds of global GDP and attract more than three-quarters of foreign direct investment in advanced economies. Increasingly, countries compete not only by exporting physical goods, but also by selling knowledge, software, financial services and other high-value expertise.
For Kazakhstan, that transformation carries significance beyond the technology sector. Expanding services exports is increasingly viewed as a key pillar of economic diversification, reducing dependence on commodities while creating higher-value jobs, boosting productivity and strengthening the country’s long-term competitiveness.
The momentum continued into 2026. During the first quarter, Kazakhstan’s services exports increased 14.1% year-on-year to $3.1 billion, while imports rose 8.8% to $3.3 billion. As export growth outpaced imports, the country’s services trade deficit narrowed by 34.5% to $219.1 million. Transport remained the largest contributor, with exports rising 20.7% to $1.6 billion, while travel-related services increased 10% to $559.5 million.
Services are central to economic transformation
While transport remains Kazakhstan’s largest services export today, the country’s fastest long-term growth is increasingly coming from digitally delivered services. That shift mirrors broader changes in the global economy. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has described services as “the fastest growing component of world trade over the last two decades,” adding that the digital revolution has “super-charged this trend.”
“Services are now central to economic transformation in developing countries. That is why mainstreaming services into national development strategies is no longer optional. Services are a necessity for diversification, productivity and resilience,” she said.
According to the WTO’s latest forecasts, digitally delivered services are expected to grow by 5.6% in 2026, significantly outpacing transport services, whose growth is projected to slow to 1.8%.
For Kazakhstan, the trend signals that the country’s next stage of export growth may increasingly depend not only on moving goods across borders, but on exporting technology, innovation and specialized expertise. If transport reflects Kazakhstan’s geographic advantages, the rise of digital services points to something equally important: the country’s growing ability to export knowledge and compete in the global economy through human capital rather than natural resources alone.
