Features - The Times Of Central Asia

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Digital Economy

Kazakhstan Accelerates AI Push to Build Digital Economy

Kazakhstan must accelerate its transition to a digital economy and scale up artificial intelligence if it wants to avoid economic stagnation, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has said. Speaking on May 4 at a meeting of the AI Development Council, Tokayev warned that Kazakhstan’s traditional growth drivers, including natural resources and low-cost labor, are nearing exhaustion, while new engines of growth have yet to take shape. According to the president, Kazakhstan is already facing the “middle-income trap.” He said avoiding stagnation requires a shift to a digital economy and the development of platform-based solutions. “Without a unified system of government data, artificial intelligence will remain ineffective,” Tokayev said. He called for public services to become an “invisible but highly efficient operating system” capable of reducing processing times from days to seconds, which he said would accelerate capital turnover across the economy. Kazakhstan has begun testing this approach in customs, tax administration, logistics, and public finance. The KEDEN customs platform has cut declaration processing times to under one minute, while Smart Cargo is being developed as a single digital window for logistics services. The integrated tax administration system has reduced document processing times from one hour to one minute. The Smart Data Finance platform brings together data from 78 sources, including financial transactions and transport activity. Authorities say real-time budget monitoring has helped prevent risky payments worth hundreds of billions of tenge. A public procurement forecasting system, built on a national product catalog with more than 23 million items, is also being developed to reduce budget waste. Tokayev said the digital economy already accounts for more than 15% of global GDP, reflecting a shift in global competition from goods markets to data and standards. He also emphasized the need to develop digital financial instruments, including cryptocurrencies and asset tokenization. “This will increase the country’s attractiveness for global capital and create the conditions for Kazakhstan to become a leading investment and financial hub,” he said. According to Tokayev, Kazakhstan has already established a legal framework for regulating digital assets. The government and the National Bank have been tasked with coordinating a strategy for developing the crypto market. At the same time, Tokayev stressed the need for more precise measurement of digitalization’s contribution to economic growth. “When GDP growth is reported, it is essential to clearly understand what share comes from the real sector and what from innovation,” he said, warning that the absence of a clear methodology could create an illusion of progress while masking underlying challenges. Tokayev also visited the GITEX AI Central Asia & Caucasus exhibition, where projects in AI, logistics, and fintech were showcased. Among them was an AI assistant deployed in Kazakhtelecom’s contact center, where it processes customer requests and helps detect fraudulent calls. Projects aimed at developing a digital asset ecosystem and crypto market infrastructure were also presented, including tokenized financial instruments on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange. Experts say Kazakhstan is already taking steps to compete in the global technology landscape. According to Rustem Mustafin, head of the Center...

Industrial Accident

Two Killed in Explosion at Industrial Plant in Eastern Kazakhstan

Two people were killed and nine injured in an explosion at a facility operated by Kazzinc in Ust-Kamenogorsk, local authorities and emergency services said. The incident occurred at around 8 a.m. on May 5. According to preliminary information, a dust-collection unit malfunctioned in one of the workshops, followed by a fire and the partial collapse of building structures. Emergency crews from the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Kazakhstan were quickly dispatched to the scene, deploying 10 fire units. “Rescuers are clearing debris and extinguishing remaining fire sources until the situation is fully contained. Search operations for victims are ongoing. According to preliminary information, four people are being transported to medical facilities,” the ministry said. Local health authorities later reported that the number of injured had risen to nine. Three remain in serious condition: two have been hospitalized, while one received resuscitation at the scene. “One of the injured was transported to a medical facility by employees of the enterprise,” the Ust-Kamenogorsk health department said. Following the explosion, thick smoke rose above the plant, prompting specialists from the East Kazakhstan regional Department of Ecology to carry out air quality monitoring at the boundary of the sanitary protection zone. “We deployed a mobile laboratory to the sanitary protection zone first. Measurements have already been taken at two points, and we are now moving to a third point in the northwestern direction from the plant, following the wind,” said department head Aset Suleimenov. He added that four to five locations would be tested, primarily along the direction of the smoke plume. Results will be released later. Authorities subsequently confirmed that two people had died in the incident. Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov said he had taken the situation under personal control. “This morning I issued the necessary instructions regarding the explosion in Ust-Kamenogorsk. The Ministry of Emergency Situations, environmental authorities, and regional administrations must take all necessary measures and report back to me. This issue will remain under my personal control,” he said at a government meeting. The Kazzinc site in Ust-Kamenogorsk is a major metallurgical complex that includes zinc, lead, and copper production, as well as precious metals refining and sulfuric acid production. Ust-Kamenogorsk is considered one of Kazakhstan’s most environmentally affected cities, where the concentration of metallurgical enterprises frequently leads to air pollution levels exceeding permissible limits. Glencore, a multinational commodity trading and mining company, is a major shareholder in Kazzinc, which was established in 1997. The company is a major producer of zinc, as well as lead, copper, and precious metals.

TCA Interviews

UNEP Interview: From Space, Central Asia’s Methane Challenge Comes Into Focus

Satellites are changing the way the world sees methane. What was once an invisible leak from a well, flare, pipeline, landfill, or coal mine can now be detected from space, traced to a specific site, and sent to governments and companies for action. A new analysis by the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Methane Emissions Observatory puts that system to the test. Its Methane Alert and Response System, known as MARS, uses 35 satellite instruments to identify major human-caused methane “super-emitters” and notify those responsible. UNEP says the system has already enabled 41 mitigation cases in 11 countries, covering sources estimated to have released 1.2 million tonnes of methane. For Central Asia, the findings are especially relevant. UNEP’s new data includes a rolling list of the world’s 50 largest satellite-detected methane sources, covering oil and gas, coal, and waste, and shows where rapid action may be possible. Several of those sources are linked to Turkmenistan’s oil and gas sector, placing the region firmly inside a global debate over methane transparency, climate responsibility, and whether satellite alerts can lead to action on the ground. Of the 50 sources featured in the latest UNEP/IMEO snapshot, China has the largest number, while Turkmenistan stands out sharply for Central Asia, with the second-largest individual source and four of the top ten. Methane is shorter-lived than carbon dioxide, but far more powerful in the near term. That makes cutting large leaks one of the fastest ways to slow global warming. The harder question, as UNEP’s latest data makes clear, is no longer only where the leaks are, but who responds when they are found. On April 30, UNEP/IMEO presented the new MARS findings, highlighting the growing role of satellite-based monitoring in identifying major methane sources and pressing governments and companies to act. The Times of Central Asia spoke with Meghan Demeter, MARS Programme Manager, International Methane Emissions Observatory, UNEP. TCA: What does the new MARS data reveal about Central Asia specifically that may surprise readers? Demeter: The latest MARS data products depict the region as one with growing engagement and significant mitigation potential. Responses to MARS notifications are increasing, supported in particular by designated national focal points who play a key role in coordinating follow-up with operators. Based on the published 2025 data alone, the response rate across Central Asia currently stands at 22%. Managing a high volume of alerts requires more effort to achieve very high response rates compared to countries that receive only a handful of notifications. Encouragingly, the region has already recorded nearly 20 mitigation cases, underscoring the strong potential for emissions reductions when large methane sources are identified and addressed. TCA: Why does Central Asia matter in the global methane debate, even if it is not the world’s largest methane-emitting region? Demeter: Across Central Asia, looking at the 2025 data alone, UNEP’s International Methane Emissions Observatory, through the Methane Alert and Response System (MARS), detected and notified 298 emission sources from the oil and gas sector. While satellites detect only a fraction of global methane emissions, satellites are highly effective at identifying so-called “super-emitters,” methane emission events so large they can be detected from space. These represent opportunities where action can deliver the greatest and fastest climate wins, while also catalyzing broader change. Regarding the “top 50” list of emission events, 11 of these sources are located in Central Asia, all from...

Regional Ecological Summit

Opinion: The Regional Ecological Summit and the Making of a Central Asian Voice

On 22–24 April, Astana hosted the Regional Ecological Summit—a gathering of governments, international organizations, financial institutions, and civil society that marked a new level of ambition in Central Asia’s environmental diplomacy. Fifty-eight sessions were held across three days at a moment when Central Asia’s ecological agenda is becoming inseparable from its political and economic future. The opening ceremony was attended by the presidents of all five Central Asian states. The summit adopted the Astana Declaration on Ecological Solidarity in Central Asia and brought renewed attention to the need to reform the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS). Taken together, these developments signal more than procedural diplomacy. They point to growing political momentum. The region has never lacked shared history or channels of communication. Russian remains a practical language of intergovernmental exchange, and borders, economies, rivers, energy systems, and labor markets have tied these countries together long before contemporary climate diplomacy gave this interdependence a new vocabulary. For decades, much external analysis of Central Asia expected this interdependence to produce confrontation, particularly around water and energy. Those risks remain real. Yet the Astana summit showed a more complex trajectory. Climate change, biodiversity loss, water insecurity, land degradation, and food security are not separate national problems neatly contained within borders. Addressing them is becoming one of the fields through which regional coherence is being built. The significance of the Summit lies less in ceremonial language than in the consolidation of multiple ecological agendas into a visible diplomatic architecture. Through its panels and high-level discussions, the Summit placed Central Asia’s natural heritage not at the margins of development but at its center. Ecosystems, rivers, glaciers, mountains, and landscapes are not only environmental assets. They are conditions for prosperity, stability, and resilience. Kazakhstan’s chairmanship of IFAS reopened the question of whether the Fund, long criticized for its limitations, can be reworked rather than left as a symbol of failed regional environmental governance. Kazakhstan’s proposal for an International Water Organization should be read in the same frame: it is not merely a technical proposal about water governance but an attempt to move a Central Asian concern into the language of global institutional reform. Kyrgyzstan’s mountain agenda and Tajikistan’s glacier diplomacy also belong to this broader pattern. They are not just isolated national branding exercises. Together with Uzbekistan’s increasingly active regional posture, they form a wider mosaic: each country brings a distinct ecological priority, but these priorities are becoming legible as parts of one regional perspective, and its voice carries more weight when presented as such. This is particularly important in the current geopolitical moment. As larger powers turn inward, compete over corridors, or speak about Central Asia through the old grammar of influence, the region is attempting to define itself not as terrain for another “Great Game" but as a pole of its own. This does not mean distance from external partners. On the contrary, the United Nations was a strategic partner of the Summit, and many formats involved major international organizations, European...

Podcast

Pannier and Hillard’s Spotlight on Central Asia: New Episode Out Now

As Managing Editor of The Times of Central Asia, I’m delighted that, in partnership with the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs, from October 19, we are the home of the Spotlight on Central Asia podcast. Chaired by seasoned broadcasters Bruce Pannier of RFE/RL’s long-running Majlis podcast and Michael Hillard of The Red Line, each fortnightly instalment will take you on a deep dive into the latest news, developments, security issues, and social trends across an increasingly pivotal region. This week, the team will be tracking the culmination of Bishkek's power struggle as charges are formally brought against Tashiyev, alongside a fresh wave of EU sanctions that look designed to make an example of one Central Asian state. We'll also break down the shutdown of a key Kazakh pipeline carrying oil to Europe, Russia's increasingly blunt statements on foreign military deployments across the region, Ashgabat's crackdown on Starlink connections in Turkmenistan, and the EU's push to turn Central Asia into a transit point for Afghans being deported back to Afghanistan. We'll also cover the spread of a new strain of foot-and-mouth disease tearing through the region. And for our main story, we turn to the mounting ecological crisis in the Caspian Sea, where falling water levels and worsening environmental pressures are becoming impossible for the region to ignore. On the show this week: Vadim Ni, co-founder of the Save the Caspian Sea movement.

Warsaw Convention

Kazakhstan Looks Abroad in Push to Recover Illegal Assets

Kazakhstan has taken a first step toward joining the Warsaw Convention, a Council of Europe treaty that would make it easier for prosecutors to follow suspected criminal assets across borders. The move remains tentative, however. The draft ratification law appeared on the Open NPA portal on April 23 with public discussion scheduled until May 20, but was removed to an archive two days later after the developer withdrew it for a “press release correction.” For now, the measure remains procedural. Its purpose is more concrete: to give prosecutors a stronger route into foreign jurisdictions where disputed wealth may sit behind companies, property, bank accounts, trusts, or nominees. The Warsaw Convention - formally called the Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism - was opened for signature in Warsaw on May 16, 2005, and entered into force on May 1, 2008. Its purpose is practical. States that join it must maintain tools to identify criminal proceeds, freeze them, confiscate them, and cooperate with foreign authorities. For Kazakhstan, that framework would fit a campaign that has grown steadily since the unrest of January 2022. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has made the return of illegally acquired assets part of his wider domestic agenda, linking it to social justice, public finances, and the channeling of seized assets into public projects. A Campaign Moving Abroad Kazakhstan built the domestic legal base in 2023, when Tokayev signed the law on the return of illegally acquired assets to the state. This created procedures for identifying assets, negotiating voluntary returns, filing court claims, and managing property transferred to the state. It also applies to property located abroad when it was allegedly acquired with income illegally received in Kazakhstan. The system gained a sharper foreign component in January 2026, when a new Asset Recovery Service began work under the General Prosecutor’s Office. Its mandate includes representation in foreign courts, requests to freeze property, checks on asset origin, and direct cooperation with overseas authorities. Those tasks are exactly where domestic law alone often runs out of road. Assets rarely sit in one obvious place. They can be routed through companies, trusts, bank accounts, nominees, family members, or real estate in several countries. A Kazakh court order may be the start of a case, but it is far from the end of it. Foreign authorities usually need treaty channels, legal-assistance requests, and evidence that meets their own standards before they freeze or return property. Ratifying the Warsaw Convention would not solve those problems by itself, but it would give Kazakhstan another legal route for cooperation when cases cross borders. That could be important in corruption, money laundering, tax, organized crime, and terrorism-financing cases where property has moved through several jurisdictions. What the Convention Would Change The convention would add practical tools rather than automatic powers. It covers the tracing, freezing, seizure, and confiscation of criminal proceeds, and also applies to property used for financing terrorism, even when the...