Digital Almaty Forum 2021 starts its work

Kazakhstan will create an artificial intelligence cluster. More than a billion dollars of investments is planned to be attracted within five years to develop this area. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said this in his video message at an international forum “Digital Almaty 2021 – Digital Reset: The Leap to The Next Normal”. He noted that the country mainly focused on the creation of a smart ecosystem for decision-making, which has a capability to analyze a large array of industry data.

“For these purposes, a national AI cluster is being created at the Nazarbayev University in cooperation with the World Bank. Data centers are being established to efficiently process the growing volumes of information,” said the Head of State.

President Tokayev highlighted that this is the first international event in Kazakhstan that is being held in an already forgotten offline mode. He shared his vision of the prospects for digital transformation after the pandemic. Coronavirus became a catalyst for progress in almost all technological sectors.

“The telehealth received a serious impetus for the development. Cloud technologies reached a new level, e-government services and platforms for distance learning are in high demand. For example, over 90 percent of government services are already provided in electronic format in Kazakhstan. About 6.5 million people received state support through digital systems during the crisis,” noted the president.

The tax sector will introduce blockchain technology this year. This issue was discussed by the Prime Ministers of Eurasian Economic Union member states. Belarusian PM offered the association’s members to work out a joint project “Smart City”. It will contribute to resolving issues in the utilities and transport as well as road infrastructure.

“Well, first of all, the EAEU’s experience is very important for us, because our legislation is harmonized in a single union. The experience of Russia, Belarus and our other partners is essential for us. We have our own fairly extensive experience as well. I think that we have achieved good results over the past years. We have experience that is also interesting for them,” said Anuar Akhmetzhanov, First Kazakh Vice Minister of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry.