During his working trip to Aktobe region, the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov visited the first regional IT hub in Aktobe. The event was attended by Minister of Digital Development Bagdat Mussin, Akim of Aktobe region Yeraly Tugzhanov and representatives of the local IT community.

The main mission of Aqtobe IT Hub is to support IT startups, digital education and technology transfer, search for talents in the field of modern technologies and unlock their potential, development of the IT industry in the region as a whole. 

The Hub will become a unified ecosystem for industry participants and a platform where industry forums, business debates, workshops, events with the participation of venture capitalists, big business and technology startups will be held. 

Aqtobe IT Hub residents will work on the creation of new digital products and services, including those aimed at solving the problems of the city and large industrial companies. Within a year, they intend to launch at least 150 incubation programs and 75 startup projects.

Alikhan Smailov noted that an international IT-hub was created in the capital of Kazakhstan to develop the sphere of digital technologies, where unprecedented tax preferences are provided and all administrative procedures are simplified.

"Now we are seeing the results. According to the results of last year we already have more than $300 million of exports due to products and services of IT-sphere. This year we already have $500 million. We expect that in just two or three years we will reach $1 billion. Therefore, it is important to replicate this experience. We have opened eight such centers across Kazakhstan, including Aktobe. Six more are planned to be launched by the end of this year," he said.

Prime Minister stressed that each city should have a center for the development of IT-industry, where urban and rural youth will be attracted to learn and develop their abilities to digital technologies.

"It is they who should become the basis for the digitalization of our economy in the future. Without digital technologies, further development is no longer possible," he said. 

In Aqtobe IT Hub there was also a meeting of the Head of Government with creative youth of the region, during which they discussed trends in the intellectual property market, as well as appropriate measures to support youth projects.

Prime Minister reminded that the Concept of Youth Policy for the next 7 years was adopted in the republic, and the laws enshrined the concept of "creative industry" and defined the types of activities included in it.

"In all these areas we will provide measures of state support to help our talented youth to develop their abilities in a variety of directions," Alikhan Smailov said.

#Alikhan Smailov #The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan #Ministry of Digital Development #Regions