At the Government session, Deputy Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development Rostislav Konyashkin reported on the work being carried out in fulfillment of the instructions of the Head of State announced at the 5th meeting of the National Kurultai on large-scale digital modernization of the state apparatus.
He noted that the digitization of the register of government functions is underway in the country. A functional analysis is being conducted using artificial intelligence.
“The Ministry of Finance is analyzing the efficiency of expenditures for the implementation of functions. The Ministry of National Economy is carrying out optimization and prioritization of functions, taking into account the achievement of indicators,” Rostislav Konyashkin said.
Reengineering and digitization of government functions are also being carried out on the QazTech platform.
As a result, the following outcomes are achieved:
- optimization of expenditures;
- digital monitoring of efficiency;
- improvement of the quality and speed of service delivery.
The main digital tool in the field of social support is the Social Wallet. Together with government agencies, the Ministry is successfully implementing projects to provide students with free meals, as well as free provision of medicines to citizens. To date, more than 69 million school meals have been provided through personalized vouchers. More than 14 million prescriptions have been issued with the dispensing of medicines.
Further implementation of the Social Wallet is planned in such areas as medical services, kindergartens, clubs and sections, preferential rental housing, housing and utility benefits, socially significant food products and goods, and others.
At the same time, compliance with the criteria for granting support measures will be ensured, personalized vouchers will be assigned, and the fact of provision of a service or state support measure will be unambiguously recorded. The Deputy Minister also spoke about the implementation of the “Data Center Valley” project.
“As a pilot location for the placement of a data center valley, the city of Ekibastuz in Pavlodar Region has been selected. The akimat of Pavlodar Region is reserving a land plot with a total area of 200 hectares. The project requires comprehensive provision of basic infrastructure, including water supply, access roads, telecommunications networks, and power supply,” Rostislav Konyashkin explained.
It was noted that the project lays the foundation for the formation of an international hub of data centers and cloud AI infrastructure in the country, ensures the attraction of leading hyperscaler companies, contributes to the creation of highly paid skilled jobs, and also creates conditions for increasing exports of computing and digital services.
The project provides for flexible participation models that take into account various investment strategies and levels of investor readiness. This approach makes it possible to attract investors, technology companies, and cloud service providers.
The first model предусматривает the provision to an investor of a land plot with reserved energy capacity for the construction of a data center “from scratch.”
The second model involves the use of facilities in a format with a ready-made frame and basic engineering systems, which ensures accelerated deployment of infrastructure and reduction of project risks.
The third model is implemented in a server capacity leasing format based on the Zero CAPEX principle and is aimed at participants without capital investments in infrastructure.
The fourth model includes the provision of managed AI and cloud services with access to high-performance computing clusters, ensuring the fastest possible launch without ownership of infrastructure.
The combination of these models contributes to the accelerated development of the artificial intelligence ecosystem in Kazakhstan, forming a universal platform for the implementation of investment and artificial intelligence solutions.
Within the framework of the first model, an additional condition for investors is the priority procurement of products from domestic manufacturers.
Tax preferences based on the principle of a special economic zone are provided for investors.
It was also reported that Kazakhstan plans to increase administrative fines for non-compliance with security requirements for the protection of citizens’ personal data.
“By implementing the constitutional rights of citizens to privacy and protection of personal information, we are moving to a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ in this area. For this purpose, we will increase the limit of administrative fines for those who do not comply with security requirements several times, up to 5,000 monthly calculation indices. In addition, we propose to introduce criminal liability for mass leakage of personal data,” Rostislav Konyashkin emphasized.
The Deputy Minister added that digital transformation must not undermine the security of citizens.
