BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 27. Kazakhstan is poised to retain its status as the regional innovation leader thanks to favorable business and investment conditions created since gaining independence in 1991, and retaining borders open to foreign companies and entrepreneurs, a source at MOST Ventures told Trend.
MOST Ventures, a private regional venture fund, said Kazakhstan’s position and ability to leverage its advantages enabled the country to make the transition to becoming a regional innovation powerhouse.
“The country also boasts the most digitalized business and state infrastructures in Central Asia, the most highly educated workforce, and the strongest support for innovations from the state. Kazakhstan is the top destination for big international IT events and conventions like Digital Bridge 2022 with almost 25,000 participants or Digital Almaty with over 15,000 people from 30 countries,” the source noted.
The representative of MOST Ventures also highlighted that Kazakhstan’s ability to become the first Central Asian country to partner with Google for a startup accelerator program made Kazakhstan a bridge between the East and West worlds.
Indeed, Kazakhstan’s policy shift suggests that the government is very keen on developing innovations and high technological know-how in the country. Kazakhstan’s new development plan envisages a boost in the export of innovative products in the following years.
Kazakhstan expects to increase the export of innovative information and communication technologies (ICT) to 84 billion Kazakh tenge ($186.99 million) in 2023, which is a two-fold increase compared to 42 billion Kazakh tenge ($93.49 million).
Kazakhstan aims to continue this trend going forward. ICT production exports are projected to reach 147 billion Kazakh tenge ($327.23 million) in 2024. Another dramatic increase is expected to be recorded in 2025, with exports of this category of goods expecting to reach 210 billion Kazakh tenge ($467.47 million).
The volume of exports will further increase to 230 billion Kazakh tenge ($511.99 million) and 240 billion Kazakh tenge ($534.25 million) respectively in 2026 and 2027 respectively.
The new development plan aims to unlock the previously unexplored economic potential of the country and solidify Kazakhstan’s ambition as the regional innovation leader.