The Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the WTO and International Economic Organizations, Ambassador Zhanar Aitzhan, held a bilateral meeting with the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Doreen Bogdan-Martin, DKNews.kz reports.
During the meeting, the General Secretary was informed about the country’s priorities in the field of digitalization, which were noted in the State-of-the-Nation Address by President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev from September 1, 2023. In particular, it was noted that one of the key priorities of the country is to turn Kazakhstan into an IT-country.
Thus, the President of Kazakhstan has set the Government the goal of increasing exports of IT-services from 500 million US dollars in the current year to a billion US dollars by 2026. To achieve this goal, strategic partnerships and cooperation with leading foreign IT-companies are envisaged.
Moreover, the Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan reported on the Head of State's instruction to make the country a platform for the sale of computing power to global players. To achieve the goal, the country is ready to create attractive conditions and incentives for investment in the construction of large data centers.
In addition, Ambassador Aitzhan emphasized that Kazakhstan is actively preparing for the organization of the Digital Bridge 2023 Forum, which will be held from 12 to 13 October 2023 in Astana. This forum is the largest event in Central Asia dedicated to technology and innovation, and will provide an important platform for experts to exchange views on the development of digital technologies. The theme of this year's forum will be exploring the right interaction between artificial intelligence and human capabilities.
The Parties also considered the possibility of organizing an official visit of the Secretary General to Kazakhstan to sign an agreement on the GovStack project and to launch the project in the Central Asian region. The Secretary General emphasized the importance of launching the project in Central Asia in order to provide governments with the necessary tools to create digital services, including building blocks specifications. GovStack also organizes forums for digital changemakers to network with each other and exchange their experiences on introducing eGovernment services through the CIO Digital Leaders Forum, which entails promoting Kazakh-made products in open-source format to other countries.
In conclusion, Zhanar Aitzhan pointed out the significant progress of Kazakhstan in the field of digital government, in particular, it was noted that Kazakhstan is currently ranked 28th in the UN Ranking of e-government development and 8th within its sub-index “online services” in the field of digital government services, along with countries such as South Korea, Estonia and Singapore. Considering the above, the Ambassador expressed Kazakhstan's readiness to share its experience and provide detailed presentations of various digital government products of Kazakhstan such as Smart Bridge, Smart Data Ukimet, Egov mobile and Egov.
The Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan confirmed the country’s readiness for further digital transformation and expressed her hope for continued cooperation with ITU.
