NUR-SULTAN – The Astana Hub international technology park for IT startups is ready for cooperation amid an increased interest in relocating among foreign IT companies, said Minister of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry Bagdat Mussin on March 29.
Bagdat Mussin
Mussin noted that a large number of companies and specialists from foreign countries have decided to relocate to Kazakhstan. “We benefit from receiving specialists and companies with an already world-class background. By giving them opportunities, we get two big advantages for our domestic specialists: an exchange of experience and knowledge with foreign specialists and an increase of jobs for Kazakh people,” he said.
Astana Hub hosts 641 IT companies including 70 companies with foreign founders. The hub currently consults 468 companies from neighboring countries about relocation to Kazakhstan.
Astana Hub offers a special tax regime, infrastructure, visa support and other benefits. “First, the companies registered in the hub do not pay taxes. We introduced this offer four years ago, while neighboring countries have made this possible relatively recently. We also provide infrastructure at below market prices. These are not only offices, but also places for meetings, brainstorming and teambuilding, where you can find like-minded people. Moreover, technopark resident startups get jobs at the hub for free. Third, the staff of the companies registered in our IT hub receive a simplified procedure for obtaining visas,” said Mussin.
The hub invests up to $40,000 in early-stage startups and hosts events to find new projects for investment. Some startups are able to receive up to $10 million for their development.
The services include access to free acceleration courses with the participation of global mentors, courses in innovative IT schools and remote registration of a company are available on the eGOV.kz website.
Overall, 69 companies with foreign participation from Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Israel, UAE, South Korea, China, Japan, Singapore, UK and USA are participants of the technology park project.
Earlier, Astana Hub CEO Magzhan Madiyev said that 35 startups received seed financing of 300 million tenge ($651,000) from Astana Hub’s own funds. “To solve the financial issue, the hub launched Kazakhstan’s first Seed Money program using the Revenue Share model. As a result of the selection, 35 Kazakh and foreign companies became participants of the program, which received from 5 to 20 million tenge (US$11,000-43,000) for the project’s development,” Madiyev wrote on LinkedIn.
