The head of state spoke at the plenary session of the Digital Bridge forum.
Welcoming the participants, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev noted that the annual Digital Bridge forum has turned into a large and sought-after regional platform in four years.
The President said that, according to experts, in ten years, up to 70% of products and services in the world will be based on digital platform models. Under these conditions, Kazakhstan has set itself a strategic task - to become one of the largest digital hubs in the Eurasian space. As the Head of State emphasized, today our country is in the top 30 ranking of the most digitized UN states, ahead of many developed countries. Nevertheless, a lot of work remains to be done on the further digital transformation of Kazakhstan, the priorities of which the President outlined in his speech.
"First. The development of human-centeredness. The state needs digital technologies, first of all, to ensure the competitiveness of the economy, the development of new types of goods and services, the introduction of Fintech and Industry 4.0. However, one of the important priorities is also the area of Government to citizens, that is, the provision of services to citizens. With the help of digital technologies, we intend to make the daily life of citizens as easy as possible and achieve equality of opportunity for all. To do this, it is necessary to move to a qualitatively new format for the digitalization of public administration - Invisible Government. Its essence lies in the fact that the main focus of state policy is focused on the person, his needs and interests. A wide array of measures and decisions taken by the state is not visible to a citizen - he sees only a specific result.
According to him, in our country, more than 90% of public services are already being implemented in electronic format. This is one of the highest rates in the world. A constructive interaction with the private sector has been established. In particular, Kaspi, Halyk, BI Group and other companies provide access to public services through their platforms.
“Today, Kazakhstan is one of the few countries that have fully implemented digital documents. As a result, our citizens are not required to carry and present an identity card, a driver's license, a diploma of graduation from an educational institution, a marriage certificate and 15 other types of documents. This work will certainly continue. The state will act proactively in its relations with citizens and business. A “Digital Family Map” is being introduced, which analyzes more than 80 different parameters in real time. This allows us to quickly, without unnecessary bureaucracy, help families who find themselves in a difficult life situation. Most importantly, this tool allows you to move on to truly targeted social assistance. The government needs to put this digital service into operation by the end of the year,” the Head of State instructed.
The second priority Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called the creation of favorable conditions for the IT industry. In his opinion, very good conditions have been created in Kazakhstan for the development of the IT sector. This applies to both the regulatory framework and special platforms with unique modes and tools for the development of IT business. The international technopark of IT start-ups Astana Hub has a special tax and visa regime. More than 900 companies have already become its residents and successfully operate on the Kazakhstani and international markets.
“Recently, in the US, I held meetings with the leadership of such companies as Microsoft, Epam, Coursera. Specific agreements were reached on deepening cooperation and localization in Kazakhstan,” the President noted.
Along with this, Kazakhstan will continue a large-scale modernization of its IT infrastructure. As the Head of State informed, jointly with Azerbaijani partners, work has begun on the trans-Caspian section to connect to world centers of traffic concentration. We are talking about Southeast Asia and Europe. Also, the largest cloud computing players such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and others are attracted to the Kazakhstani market.
“For our country, where about 40% of the population lives in rural areas, an urgent issue is to provide all citizens with affordable and high-quality Internet. The Ministry of Digital Development should intensify work to cover the most remote villages with networks of low-orbit satellite systems SpaceX and OneWeb,” Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emphasized.
The development of the digital economy and Industry 4.0 will also be a priority for our country. Noting that the world and technology do not stand still, the President instructed the Government to timely adapt support measures for the further development of the digital economy.
The head of state dwelled separately on the issues of strengthening human capital. He said that two years ago the global IT market needed 30 million specialists. Today, the need is already 100 million, and by 2025 it will increase to 200 million. Therefore, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced the need to train at least 100,000 highly qualified IT specialists by 2025.
“During a recent business trip to New York, I met with our young compatriots, representatives of the Digital Nomads IT community. They work in the largest companies in the US, Europe and are globally competitive. Today, in Kazakhstan itself, there are a lot of talented people who are able to create products of international level. Therefore, I set a task for the Government: on the one hand, to support the guys, wherever they work, and on the other hand, to involve them as much as possible in the digitalization of our country,” the Head of State said.
He emphasized that in today's information society and digital economy, the seamless exchange of knowledge is more important than ever. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is convinced that new ideas and breakthrough projects can only emerge in a free and harmonious society.
“The rise of information civilization has already given rise to such a phenomenon as digital nomads. Modern digital nomads are actively exploring the global cyber and physical space, creating new products and markets. I am sure that a productive exchange of views at today's forum will help outline the contours of the digital future of the region, lay the foundations for the implementation of new breakthrough initiatives in the Eurasian space,” the President summed up his speech.
Head and co-founder of Kaspi.kz Mikhail Lomtadze, founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises and OneWeb Sunil Barty Mittal, corporate president of Samsung Electronics Ying Yong Ri, founder of inDriver Arsen Tomsky, vice president of TikTok Theo Bertram also spoke at the plenary session of the forum, the moderator was founder of Reinvention Academy Nadya Zheksembayeva.
By the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda
