Vice-Minister for Investments and Development Timur Toktabayev spoke on the new technological order of Kazakhstani enterprises within the first direction of the Address of the Head of the State "Industrialization should become the flagship of introduction of new technologies," today at a briefing in the press center of the Government.

According to Timur Toktabayev, the Head of State instructed in his Address to the people of Kazakhstan in January 2018 to revise the approaches to the development of the Special Economic Zone of Alatau Park of Innovative Technologies, located in Almaty.

The SEZ, within the framework of which preferential regimes for innovative enterprises operate, by the decision of the Government, will be handed over to the akimat of Almaty, which will expand the number of high-tech production lines.

"In its turn, the SEZ management company – PIT Autonomous Cluster Fund – will be transferred from the jurisdiction of the MID RK to the MIC RK. This is done on the basis that it is the Ministry of Information and Communications that is the main coordinating body for the implementation of the Digital Kazakhstan State Program, while 80% of the projects, developing under the PIT are related to digitalization of the economy and digital export," Timur Toktabayev said.

This will make it possible to use the existing achievements and technologies of PIT ACF for the effective formation of the International Technopark of IT Startups on the basis of Expo-2017 and in general for the development of information and communications.

According to the announced data, the total amount of funds attracted by Alatau SEZ from subsoil users in 2015-2017 exceeded 3.5 billion tenge (a total of 35 companies). 64 projects worth 2.6 billion tenge were financed, including in 2015 – 5 projects (21.4 million tenge), in 2016 – 27 projects (856 million tenge), in 2017 – about 32 projects (more than 1.7 billion tenge).

Answering the journalists' questions, Timur Toktabayev stressed that there are no plans to cut staff during the transfer from the ministry to the akimat. Moreover, at the present time, the second stage of the SEZ is developing and its further expansion will lead to an increase in the number of employees.

"In general, this will positively affect the development of the city of Almaty within the framework of smart technologies," Timur Toktabayev summed up.

For reference: In 2003, in order to create new competitive industries and make full use of the scientific, technical and innovative potential of the country, the Information Technologies Park Special Economic Zone was established. In 2011, it was renamed the Park of Innovative Technologies.

Since 2014, the Park of Innovative Technologies Autonomous Cluster Fund has been created as a management body of the PIT SEZ and responsible for the formation of an innovative cluster in the city of Almaty.