President Tokayev is ready to supervise AI development in Kazakhstan

The IT sector is rapidly developing in Kazakhstan, according to President Tokayev / Collage by Kursiv.media

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will exercise personal control over creating the first artificial intelligence (AI) system in Kazakhstan. He said that he would meet specialists responsible for the task regularly, the press service of the president reported.

What happened? While delivering a speech at the Altyn Sapa and Paryz awards ceremony, the president said that he is deeply interested in creating an AI system in the country.

«I think that the future of Kazakhstan and its position in the international community depend on this task. That is why I am going to exercise personal control over this work. I’ll meet with foreign and domestic specialists and will demand tangible results,» he said.

As Tokayev noted, the IT sector has been rapidly developing over the past several years as Kazakhstan has put a bet on digitalization of every facet of the national economy: from big industrial manufacturing sites to small service projects. However, the country can’t afford the luxury of staying in place and resting on its laurels, he underlined.

«Our destiny is to become an attractive point for digital technologies from all over the world. Kazakhstan can and should be a harbor for regional offices of international IT giants,» Tokayev said.

The context. Earlier this month, Minister of Digital Development Bagdat Musin met with Anton Dzhoraev, regional director of NVIDIA in CIS. The two sides expressed their interest in «establishing an AI academy for spreading basic knowledge about AI within Central Asia.»

Last year, Kazakhstan opened so-called expat centers in Almaty and Astana (Astana Hub) to facilitate IT specialists’ relocation to the country. In these centers, foreigners with IT backgrounds can obtain public services through a single window with no queues. The government has even introduced a special taxation regime for residents of the country’s technology park.

As a result, companies such as Playrix (game developer), Tinkoff Bank, Nexters (game developer), inDrive, SPB Exchange, Mytona (game developer), TypeType (font studio), Level Travel (online service for tourists) and red_mad_robot_CA (IT developer) have moved their offices to Kazakhstan. In 2022, the number of IT and communication companies with foreign stakeholders rose to 462 compared to 439 in 2021.