"Digital Kazakhstan": Even the most remote settlements of Kazakhstan will have access to Internet, TV and radio broadcasting (REVIEW)

First of all, we remind that the state program "Digital Kazakhstan" was developed by the Ministry of Information and Communications of Kazakhstan in the executive order of President Nursultan Nazarbayev dated 1 February 2010. The purpose of the program is to improve the living standards of population and competitiveness of Kazakhstan's economy through the progressive development of digital ecosystems. Thanks to the implementation of the program the Ministry is going to implement the digital Silk Road, to develop creative society, to make digital transformations in economic sectors and to change over to the proactive state.

In general, the Ministry will actively work in five areas: active implementation of digital technologies in the economic sectors; digitalization of public services; development of high-speed Internet throughout the country; training citizens and businesses for digital skills; creation of conditions for the development of innovations, including support for start-ups and technological entrepreneurship.

At the meeting Dauren Abayev noted that the implementation of the state program "Digital Kazakhstan" is entering an active phase and investments in digitalization will return fivefold by 2025.

"The President set clear tasks for digitization of all sectors, including industry, agribusiness, transport, construction and housing, financial sector, education and healthcare, public administration. In addition, the Ministry is instructed to develop a start-up ecosystem, to legislatively stimulate the demand for new technologies and to form an etalon standard for Smart city. The direct effect of digitalization of the economy by 2025 will create an additional value approximately 2 trillion tenge, having ensured a return from public and private investments fivefold", the head of the Ministry added.

According to the data of the World Economic Forum, in 2017 Kazakhstan ranked the 36th out of 137 countries in the world in terms of the number of Internet users. It climbed 5 spots in the ranking compared to 2016. The number of Internet users in Kazakhstan totaled 77% of population, that is 4% more than in 2016.

"As of the end of 2017, all settlements with population of 50,000 people and regional centers now have access to 4G network. In this regard, I instruct the Telecommunications Committee and the territorial inspectorates to monitor the quality of communications in these settlements in the first quarter of this year", D. Abayev said.

In addition, according to the head of the Ministry of Information and Communications, this year the Ministry starts implementing the project "Construction of fiber-optic communication lines in rural settlements of the Republic of Kazakhstan". The new project will cover 129 rural settlements.

Also the radio network will be connected to 12 districts of Kazakhstan's border areas this year.

"Broadcasting of the national radio also requires efficient work. For example, 2 million people cannot listen to "Kazakh Radio", 5 million people have no access to "Shalkar" radio. This is particularly true for the border regions of the country. This year we plan to connect 12 districts of the country to the radio network that are located in the border areas and cover 300 thousand people in Almaty, South Kazakhstan and East Kazakhstan regions", the Minister of Information and Communications said.

Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Askar Zhumagaliyev talked about the digitalization of public services, which will significantly save time and costs for Kazakhstanis.

"Proactive services have been launched. For example, nowadays young mothers do not need to go to the Public Service Centers, automation will do all the work for them. The mothers will receive ready-made documents without leaving home. Since the beginning of the year, 17,000 such services have been provided", A. Zhumagaliyev said.

The process of digitalization of public services doesn’t sidestep car enthusiast.

Askar Zhumagaliyev promised that until the end of the first half of the year, the procedure for the registration of cars will be transformed into an electronic format.

"We know that there are problems in specialized Public Service Centers. There are queues when designing cars. We carry out interesting work with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Until the end of the first half of the year we will realize it. The car registration will be carried out without coming to the special center - you order through the Internet and get through "Kazpost". I think it will please motorists", A. Zhumagaliyev said at the expanded board meeting of the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Saltanat Suraganova

Photo by Chingiz Kapparov