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Companies in Central Asia (CA) and the Caucasus are considering fewer areas for IT investment compared to the global average. One of the key areas for investments in 2025 is XaaS, which is any service rendered via cloud computing, according to a tech report by KPMG, a global network of professional firms providing audit, tax and advisory services. The data for the report has been collected through a survey of more than 70 managers responsible for implementing the tech agenda in companies based in CA and the Caucasus.

According to the report, 93% of enterprises in these regions plan to...

The World Bank (WB) has issued a report on Kazakhstan’s economy, citing the budget deficit, an increase in public debt and a decline in investment inflows as key challenges for the country.

According to the bank, Kazakhstan’s economy is expected to grow rapidly this year due to increased oil output, as Tengizchevroil reported the first oil from its Future Growth Project (FGP). Authorities estimate that the launch of the FGP will boost oil production at Tengiz by 12 million tons per year.

However, after 2025, Kazakhstan’s economic growth is expected to slow down to 3% to 3.5% due to low...

Kazakhstani court orders KPO to pay hefty penalty / Photo: KazMunayGas

The economic court of Uralsk, the administrative center of the West Kazakhstan region, has partially upheld a lawsuit filed by the country’s Ministry of Energy against the Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. consortium (KPO), ordering the company to pay 543.19 million tenge (approximately $960,000) in damages, according to the Bes.media news portal.

The lawsuit was brought by Kapitalneftegaz, a company controlled by the Ministry of Energy, after an inventory check revealed the loss of 44 state-owned assets that had been provided to KPO for free use. The damage assessment was...

By October 2025, Uzbekistan will supply 16 billion cubic meters (bcm) of water to Kazakhstan, an increase of 1 bcm year-on-year, according to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation.

Nurzhan Nurzhigitov, Kazakhstan’s minister of water resources and irrigation, and Shavkat Khamrayev, Uzbekistan’s minister of water resources, held the 12th meeting of the joint task force on water resource cooperation. They agreed that by Oct. 1, Uzbekistan will increase its annual water supply to Kazakhstan to 16 bcm.

During the previous irrigation season (October 2023-October 2024), Uzbekistan provided Kazakhstan with 15 bcm of water. The neighboring country has also committed...

The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviation) has commented on the preliminary report of the investigation into Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) Embraer 190 crash near Aktau, which was released by Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport. Russian officials stressed that, unlike Kazakhstan’s investigators, the Russian side hasn’t had a chance to examine external objects found in the aircraft.

Russia’s agency also highlighted that Kazakhstan’s report is preliminary in nature and does not contain a summary of the causes of the accident.   

«The preliminary report confirms that the aircraft sustained damage caused by external interference. At the same time...

Nurlan Smagulov, the founder of Astana Group and a prominent Kazakhstani businessman, is going to invest $3.5 million in Automotive Ventures, an American venture capital fund founded by Steve Greenfield. The fund specializes in supporting promising automotive and digital projects in the U.S., Canada and Australia, as reported by Forbes.kz.

General Partner of Automotive Ventures Greenfield evaluates up to 60 startups related to the automobile industry each month. He met Smagulov last fall when the Kazakhstani businessman traveled to the U.S. Later, Greenfield visited Kazakhstan to participate in a corporate automotive forum organized by Astana Group.

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development has proposed mandatory artificial intelligence (AI) training for all civil servants, with a pilot program set to launch in March 2025. Over the next five years, the initiative aims to equip 1 million people with AI skills.

On Feb. 5-7, 2025, Kazakhstan will host a workshop as part of the International Telecommunication Union’s «AI Skills Accelerator for Girls» program. The initiative is designed to expand access to emerging technology trends for girls and women, according to the press office of the Ministry of Digital Development.

«Our goal is to integrate AI...

Kazakhstan plans to introduce criminal liability for bride kidnapping. Offenders will face fines, community service and prison sentences ranging from three to five years. The relevant legal amendments are expected to be approved in the near future.

Members of the Mazhilis, the lower house of Kazakhstan’s parliament, have already proposed sanctions for bride kidnapping to be added to the country’s Criminal Code, as reported by Vlast.kz.    

“I have proposed this. It is now being reviewed by a working group responsible for optimizing the Criminal, Penal Execution and Criminal Procedure Codes,” MP Murat Abenov said.

In January, the monthly trading volume on International Trading System (ITS) reached $670 million, marking a 7.3-fold increase from $91 million in December, the platform said in a press release available on its website. In late January, ITS attributed the rise in trading activity to a sell-off of Big Tech stocks driven by the release of the Chinese AI assistant DeepSeek.

The growing number of investors and an expanding range of financial instruments available for them have contributed to the surge in trading activity. The hub emphasized that keen market interest in new financial instruments, such as exchange-traded funds...

The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) has prepared a draft law on credit rating agencies. The regulator expects that once the law is adopted, a new national rating agency will be established in Kazakhstan.

The draft law is currently available on Legalacts.egov.kz for public consideration, which will last until Feb. 25. The document aims to:

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport has published a preliminary investigation report on the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) Embraer 190 aircraft accident near Aktau that occurred on Dec. 25, 2024. According to the data released, numerous punctures and partial-through damages of different shapes and sizes were found in the rear fuselage, empennage, rudder and elevators.

Similar forms of damage were discovered on the aircraft’s left engine and left wing, as well as on accessory units and components. Several points exhibited damage with regular rectangular shapes.

The preliminary report also includes photos showing evidence that three hydraulic systems were damaged before impact. They were...

In January, the Business Activity Index calculated by Freedom Holding Corp. and S&P Global rose to 51.3 from 49.7 in December. The index ranges between 0 and 100, with a reading above 50 indicating growth and below 50 indicating contraction.

The index is based on a single question that asks about changes in the volume of business activity compared to the previous month.

«The latest increase in service sector activity, though modest, was the most pronounced since July of last year,» Freedom Holding Corp. said in a statement on Kazakhstan Services PMI® for January 2025.

To enhance tourist safety, every foreign visitor arriving in Kazakhstan will receive a special card with a QR code at border checkpoints or airports, according to the Polisia.kz news portal. The QR code will direct travelers to the multilingual electronic portal Safetravel.kz, which provides essential information.

The Safetravel.kz system is designed to ensure the safe movement of tourists throughout Kazakhstan. The portal offers key resources, including:

Kazakhstan’s National Bank will continue buying back older-design U.S. Federal Reserve notes, commonly known as «white dollars,» from Kazakhstani banks to prevent the accumulation of unclaimed cash in the country, according to the regulator. To remove these older, unpopular banknotes from circulation, the National Bank began repurchasing them from financial institutions last year.

«At the end of last year, the National Bank facilitated the return of $48 million in unclaimed U.S. dollar cash to the U.S. Federal Reserve. This direct arrangement with the Fed, involving older banknotes accepted from second-tier banks, helped minimize transportation, insurance and...

In 2024, two Kazakhstani banks changed ownership, while two others received additional capital investments from their majority shareholders. The banks affected by these changes were Bereke Bank, Al Hilal, Home Credit Bank and ForteBank.

The state-owned holding Baiterek sold its 100% stake in Bereke Bank to Lesha Bank from Qatar for $125.7 million last year, according to Forbes.kz.

Moreover, Kazakhstan’s regulator also authorized the acquisition of 100% of Al Hilal’s common shares by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB). In October, media outlets reported that ADCB had become the direct owner of Al Hilal, renaming it ADCB Islamic Bank.

Home Credit...

Speaking at the Digital Almaty 2025 forum, Timur Turlov, president of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation (KazChess) and founder of Freedom Holding Corp., stressed the importance of chess in maintaining intellectual agility, arguing that this skill is crucial for adapting to the challenges of the digital era.

«Artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing rapidly, making it increasingly difficult for humans to compete with its latest models,» Turlov said. «But chess offers a proven way to maintain intellectual flexibility and adapt to the digital age. This ancient game sharpens our minds and develops our ability to make quick decisions...

Kazakhstan’s leading pension fund management entities have released performance reports for the past year. Kursiv.media analyzed them to see which entities outperformed their competitors.

In 2024, pension asset management companies (PAMCs) in Kazakhstan delivered solid returns for depositors. However, six major players in this review showed mixed investment results. BCC Invest had the lowest return at 15.2%, while Halyk Finance led the pack with 18.1%, according to data from Kazakhstan’s Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF).

For comparison, in 2023, the performance gap between the highest- and lowest-yielding funds was 7.1 percentage points (p.p.), whereas in 2024, it narrowed to...

On Feb. 4, World Cancer Day, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Healthcare revealed cancer statistics for 2024. Over the past year, the number of people diagnosed with the disease rose by nearly 6%.

«In 2024, over 230,000 cancer patients were under continuous monitoring, which is 5.9% more compared to 2023,» the agency said in a statement.

According to the Ministry of Healthcare, 40,000 new cancer cases are recorded annually, with over 12,000 Kazakhstanis dying from the disease each year.

«The most common types of cancer include breast cancer (5,652 cases), colorectal cancer...

Ondasyn Urazalin, ex-governor of the Aktobe region, has been appointed to the board of directors of KMK Munai, an oil company operating exclusively within the region and part of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

According to KMK Munai, the decision on the appointment of Urazalin was made by the company’s general meeting, which also voted to suspend Yessimkhan Kurmangazin from the board.

The new board consists of Li Shufeng, Zhang Baorui, Wang Jinbao, Yue Zhirong, Chen Kang, Yang Yongfeng, Sun Lei, Mansiya Babasheva and Ondasyn Urazalin.

Urazalin served as governor of the Aktobe region from 2019 to 2022. Previously...

Kazakhstan’s Minister of Transport Marat Karabayev promised to reveal the cause of the incident involving an AZAL airline aircraft from Azerbaijan near Aktau shortly. He stated that the preliminary results of the investigation will be published on the ministry’s website.

This remark followed a question from journalists about the timeline for the official investigation into the AZAL incident.

«Specialists are working hard to find the truth. As we mentioned before, experts from Azerbaijan, Russia, Brazil and ICAO are involved,» Karabayev said.

In turn, some media representatives noted that the causes of any air incident must...

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy reported that the country will take all necessary measures to meet its obligations to OPEC+ in 2025 and 2026. Debates over cuts and compensations have been ongoing since last fall.

«In light of the 58th meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, Kazakhstan confirms its commitment to the agreement with OPEC+. The country will take all necessary measures to fulfill its obligations and compensate for 2024 overproduction this year and next year,» the agency said in a statement.

During the meeting on Feb. 3, OPEC reported that Kazakhstan and Iraq have...

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has initiated an unscheduled inspection following the information leak about cyber espionage, according to the Ministry of Digital Development. Previously, it was reported that Kazakhstan’s diplomatic organizations had come under cyberattack, allegedly linked to Russia-based hackers.  

Cyberattacks on the MFA systems have been continuously recorded for over a year. Although the Ministry of Digital Development has been aware of them, the agency decided to perform an inspection after Sekoia.io, a cybersecurity software company headquartered in France, posted its report on the issue on Jan. 13.    

Baliya Kenzhebulatova, a representative of the...

Chinese AgiBot plans to establish a joint venture in Kazakhstan to manufacture robots and develop artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Digital Development reported.

The agreement was signed at the Digital Almaty 2025 forum between the Ministry of Digital Development, the Ewpartners private investment company, AgiBot representatives and Qazaqstan Investment Corporation, a subsidiary of the state-owned Baiterek holding.

AgiBot, a Chinese startup, was founded in February 2023 by former Huawei employee Peng Zhihui. The company specializes in manufacturing anthropomorphic robots designed for various tasks, including household and industrial applications. In December 2024, AgiBot’s Shanghai facility produced 1,000 robots.

This...

Kazakhstan reported an annual inflation rate of 8.9% in January, which is 0.3 percentage points (p.p.) higher than in December. The monthly price increase totaled 1.1%, reflecting a 0.2-p.p. rise compared to the previous month, according to Kazakhstan’s Bureau of National Statistics.

The highest inflation rates are observed in 12 out of 20 regions, including the city of Astana (11.2%), the Karaganda region (9.9%), the West Kazakhstan region (9.7%) and the North Kazakhstan region (9.6%). In turn, the Almaty (6.6%), Turkestan (7.5%) and Zhambyl (7.6%) regions, alongside the city of Shymkent (7.4%), experienced rates below the national average.

Service prices...