ASTANA – The global challenges facing the innovative technology industry are one of the main topics brought up at the Digital Almaty International forum, which kicked off in Almaty on Feb. 2.
Almaty Mayor Erbolat Dossaev and Minister of Digital Development, Innovations, and Aerospace Industry Bagdat Mussin attend the exhibition at the forum. Photo credit: Almaty city administration.
The program includes 29 panel sessions featuring more than 150 speakers. Some 17,000 visitors have already registered for the forum.
Bagdat Mussin, Minister of Digital Development, Innovations, and Aerospace Industry, said that most of the country’s IT companies are located in Almaty as favorable conditions have been created there.
“We are interested in creating a regional hub that will bring together the potential of the city’s best IT specialists… We are working on the digital transformation of economic sectors or general processes and business processes reengineering at all stages of the life cycle. We intend to establish an Invisible Government for the most demanding life situations among people,” Mussin said at the forum’s opening session.
Digital Ministry Cup Robotics Competition will be held for the first time as part of the forum. Photo credit: Almaty city administration.
Interaction with the government will be carried out only through online services, through the eGov mobile app.
The development of the IT industry remains one of the key priorities for the government. The local IT market includes more than 10,000 companies and 150,000 people are employed in the industry. More than 1,000 companies operate as part of the Astana Hub technology ecosystem.
Almaty Mayor Erbolat Dossaev said that the digital penetration rate in Almaty is one of the highest in Kazakhstan. Ninety-six percent of public services are provided online.
Almaty also entered the top five cities in Asia shortlist thanks to its digital development strategies for the first time in 2022, according to the ThoughtLab research company. In addition, the Almaty Data Lake Project – Unified Data Storage entered the finals of the IEEE Smart Cities Awards Contest.
Almaty Mayor Erbolat Dossaev. Photo credit: Almaty city administration.
“Almaty – Smart City is one of the seven major priorities in the City Development Program. It is planned to create a digital twin of a city, such as megacities like Singapore and Shanghai. Platform solutions for city management will also be developed. It includes a unified data warehouse and geo-analytics platform. In addition, a unified video monitoring system will cover up to 80 percent of the city this year,” said Dossayev.
The Association of Venture Capital and Direct Investment has also been established in Kazakhstan. Experts estimate that the venture capital industry stands at almost $150 million in funds.
Kazpost and Mastercard also announced plans to foster cooperation in the field of developing a cashless economy and stimulating fintech ecosystems in Kazakhstan.
The National Information Technologies company has agreed to cooperate in the field of information and communication technologies with the National Information Society Agency from Korea as well.
