StrategEast State and IT Eurasian Forum hosted a special session in partnership with Astana Hub: Development of the export IT industry of Kazakhstan. The discussion was moderated by Anatoly Motkin, President of StrategEast.
Talking about the way Kazakhstan encourages IT sector development Yersultan Yermanov, Director of Development of the IT Industry, Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan mentioned the human capital development and regional development as IT export growth drivers.
Rostislav Konyashkin, Chairman of the Management Board, National Information Technologies JSC talked about e-governance landscape in Kazakhstan, showcasing some examples where online government interaction with citizens allowed decreasing queues in government agencies, facilitating and accelerating obtainment of abstracts, certificates, licensing documents, etc. Overall, more than 200 services have been automated in various fields, such as healthcare, social welfare, and others.
Abay Absamet, Managing Director at Astana Hub: “The main goal of Astana Hub is to help our residents increase IT exports by $500 mln by 2025. To achieve that we support IT companies and tech startups on every stage of their lifecycle, starting with PR and talent acquisition, development, supporting measures and scaling.”
Aida Dikhanbayeva, Director of a Project Office StrategEast Kazakhstan shared the key figures related to Kazakhstan’s IT industry development and presented a joint Astana Hub-StrategEast Tech Orda project: “Thus far, 49 IT schools received funding for training new IT specialists. Grant for 1 student is around $1,2 K, whereas the goal is to get 20,000 students trained by 2025,” she explained.
Pavel Koktyshev, Managing Partner & co-founder MOST Ventures spoke about venture component of IT export in Kazakhstan. “The figures are impressive. A 28% growth of venture capital raise has been recorded in Central Asia since 2020. Largest investment raised by a startup in Kazakhstan reached $10 million.”
Aktore Barlybayev, Product manager, LLP “Toolpar”, Tastamat project and a resident of Astana Hub talked about his project and the benefits of being a resident: “Astana Hub helped our startip survive the “deadly hollow” – first three years that are critical for a startup survival. We had a chance to rent an office for free, they provided good infrastructure, strong networking, promotional support, and financing withing different programs.”
