The event, held in Almaty from February 1 to 3, presents an extensive business program, revealing the topics of digital transformation in public administration, industry, agriculture and other spheres. More than 200 speakers from among international experts, industry leaders, leading innovators in IT and business take part in panel discussions.

In his speech, the head of the Government noted that today we are witnessing the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies, robotization, as well as digital transformation of human life processes.

"In such conditions, the ability to quickly adapt and almost instantly make new decisions becomes an important factor of success. Special attention should be paid to the human aspect of these changes," Alikhan Smailov said.

According to him, the first and key direction here is to build a human-centered approach in the interaction of the state with citizens and business.

"Let's remember the past. We had to spend a lot of time to get documents in paper form. Today, digitalization has optimized all these processes. More than 90% of public services are now in electronic format. Thanks to the Digital Family Card, the data of 6.3 million Kazakhstani families have been digitized. In general, 40 types of public services are provided in a proactive format," the Prime Minister said. 

He added that a successful example of cooperation between the state and business is the provision of public services in applications of commercial banks. In particular, it is online mortgage, buying/selling cars, paying taxes, receiving benefits, etc.

To improve the interaction between the state and business, the principles of regulation "from scratch" are also being introduced. They are based on automated risk management systems. This allows to increase the efficiency of control and significantly reduce the number of inspections.

As Alikhan Smailov noted, the strategic task is to integrate artificial intelligence into the sphere of public services to speed up the processing of requests and improve the quality of service. At the same time, necessary measures should be taken to protect personal data.

Head of the Government emphasized that today elements of artificial intelligence are already used in the production sphere, public security, health care, public services, etc.

"One of the successful cases of using artificial intelligence is our medical platform CEREBRA. It enables rapid stroke diagnosis through digital technologies. Last year, after a successful launch in Kazakhstan, the project also entered the Uzbek market. And today the team is ready to launch it in other countries as well," Alikhan Smailov said.

At the same time, he pointed out that for the development of artificial intelligence tools, it is critical to provide access to extensive data and computing power.

"We already have experience in consolidating and processing data from all government agencies. We are currently working on mechanisms to provide access to anonymized data to entrepreneurs and startup communities. By the end of the year we will provide our scientists, research institutes and businesses with the necessary computing power," Prime Minister emphasized. 

Turning to the issue of development of the regional IT ecosystem, Alikhan Smailov cited the example of the international technology park Astana Hub, which has established itself as an innovation cluster and a key partner for startups.

"Now we are actively scaling this experience in all regions of our country," Alikhan Smailov said. 

He reminded that Astana Hub has also become a partner of major technology giants, launching educational courses and research centers with leading global companies.

"It is important to have a global partner network of similar ecosystems in different parts of the world. Last year, we launched an IT hub in Silicon Valley. This enabled our exporters to enter the global IT market by providing access to new technologies and capital. Similar work is carried out in other regions, including South-East Asia, the Middle East and Europe," Prime Minister voiced.

According to the head of the Government, an important issue is also the availability of competent qualified personnel. To implement this task, Kazakhstan has launched a program "TechOrda", which allows young people to master IT-professions in the shortest possible time.

"As a result, more than 6 thousand people have already received IT education and started working in the industry, increasing their income level several times," Alikhan Smailov noted. 

At the same time, he reminded that the Federation for Sports Programming was created in the republic. Already in September this year Astana will host a significant event - the final of the World Championship on Programming among youth. 

Prime Minister also focused attention on the issues of application of the latest technologies in the industrial sphere.

"An important tool for the development of Industry "X" was the allocation of 1% of subsoil users' profits for research and development. One of the examples is the project on optimization of the process of gold extraction from ore with the help of artificial intelligence. Such developments have a multiplicative effect on the optimization of production processes and growth of their efficiency," the head of the Government stressed. 

As Alikhan Smailov noted, the National Project "Affordable Internet" was adopted last year to develop Kazakhstan's communications infrastructure. It is expected that by 2027 the penetration of the network will reach 100%.

Thus, work is being done to provide rural settlements with quality communications. In addition, this year 2 thousand remote rural schools are planned to be covered with high-speed Internet.

"5G communication has been launched, which is already used by more than 2 million people in 20 cities of our country. Next year it is planned to provide more than 8 million people with 5G communication," Prime Minister said.

According to him, Kazakhstan also aims to be a key participant of the new Silk Road in the digital world. 

"Together with our neighbors, we plan to implement an optical route along the bottom of the Caspian Sea and are considering options for optic access to the countries of the Persian Gulf," the head of the Government said. 

In conclusion, he called on the countries of the region to join efforts to conduct research together in the field of artificial intelligence and create a common necessary infrastructure for data processing and analysis.

"We propose to create a digital platform to share technological solutions, patents and innovative ideas. This will improve our interaction and provide access to the latest technologies for entrepreneurs and researchers in our region," Alikhan Smailov said. 

After the plenary session, the heads of government of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan took part in the Digital Almaty Awards ceremony.

https://primeminister.kz/en/news/alikhan-smailov-suggests-creating-eurasian-digital-platform-for-technology-solutions-exchange-27182