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Astana Finance Days: Rewiring Finance at Institutional Scale – The Case for Deeper Financial Markets

Kazakhstan needs deeper financial markets and a system less dependent on banks, senior financial officials told Astana Finance Days on September 9, 2026. Speakers at the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) explored how digital finance could support that shift during the plenary session, "Innovation at Institutional Scale: Rewiring the Architecture of Finance." The turnout was standing-room only. Over the next fifty minutes, the panelists discussed Kazakhstan’s ambitions as a financial hub and the conditions needed to advance them. Moderator Sallianne Taylor, Bloomberg's EMEA Head of Government Relations, opened by asking what is fundamentally changing in the architecture of global finance, and what it means for Kazakhstan. There were five panelists: Timur Suleimenov, Governor of the National Bank of Kazakhstan; Renat Bekturov, Governor of the AIFC; Timur Turlov, Chief Executive of Freedom Holding Corp.; Sergio Mello, Global Head of Stablecoin Solutions at Anchorage Digital; and Balaji Srinivasan, founder of Network School and bestselling author of The Network State. The Governor's Priority: Stability Before Speed Governor Suleimenov began by naming "geopolitical tension" as the backdrop to today's discussions. "This is the elephant in the room, which we cannot ignore," he said, without further comment. He then described trade and finance flows as changing fundamentally, pointing to "division across the Atlantic. We're seeing trade wars, semi-trade wars across the world." He explained that "finance has always been a partner with trade, investment and finance." That atmosphere of uncertainty "reshapes financial flows," he said. Turning to technology, he noted that "with the invention of blockchain, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and everything in between, the traditional financial system has started to undergo very fundamental change. I think we're still in the rule-setting phase." As a result, he said, "There is no set of global rules for decentralized finance, for digital finance, crypto finance. Many countries are looking to strike the right balance between the traditional financial institutions such as banks or commodities or securities markets, and the new ways of doing finance that the market is offering." For Kazakhstan specifically, he argued the moment favors the country rather than threatens it. "I think for Kazakhstan, it's more of an opportunity," he said, pointing to its standing as the region's largest economy by GDP and GDP per capita, and its position as "the biggest financial system, the best financial system, the most capitalized" in Central Asia. That confidence carried into the moderator's next question: "As a central banker, how do you balance innovation with preserving that financial stability and trust?" Suleimenov called it "a never-ending story," then offered the line that framed the whole session: "When you see something new, and you don't have the rules for it, of course you have to evaluate it based on its merits and based on principles rather than rules, and then you come up with rules." He was candid about the risk that comes with new financial technology, but just as quick to put it in proportion. "What we've been seeing in Kazakhstan, I mean, it's 90% positive," he said, acknowledging...

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Space Days Kazakhstan Highlights Push Beyond Baikonur

Kazakhstan is home to Baikonur, the cosmodrome from which the Space Age began, but the country has spent three decades trying to turn that Soviet inheritance into a space sector of its own. At Space Days Kazakhstan, held on September 7–9 in Astana and Baikonur, Kazakhstan presented new satellite projects and plans for international cooperation. A day later, talks with China were announced on a separate five-satellite network for Central Asia. By 2030, Astana plans to assemble an international constellation of nine Earth-observation satellites, six of them Kazakh. The country is also upgrading its national satellite communications system, developing new Earth-observation spacecraft at home, and expanding cooperation with China and other partners. Kazakhstan still relies heavily on Russia at Baikonur, and many of its newer projects depend on foreign technology and cooperation. Nevertheless, Astana is seeking greater control over the infrastructure and spacecraft on its own territory while widening the number of countries it works with. Taking More Control at Baikonur One of the clearest examples of Kazakhstan’s attempt to gain more control over its space sector is Baiterek, a joint project with Russia that dates back to 2004. The original agreement called for a new launch complex at Baikonur. But the project spent much of the next two decades being redesigned as Russia changed the rocket it planned to use. Baiterek was first intended for the Angara rocket, then Zenit, and finally Soyuz-5, known in Kazakhstan as Sunkar. Each change brought further delays. After launch targets in 2023, 2024, and 2025 slipped, Soyuz-5 finally lifted off from Baikonur on April 30, 2026. The rocket carried a dummy payload on the first flight in the test program. The launch mattered less for what it carried than for what it represented. Kazakhstan now operates the launch pad and ground infrastructure used by Baiterek, giving it a larger role at a cosmodrome long dominated by Russia. But Russia still builds the rocket. That reflects the wider relationship at Baikonur. The cosmodrome remained on Kazakh territory after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but Russia leases it through 2050 for $115 million a year and continues to use it for its human spaceflight program. In July 2026, Baikonur was again used for an international mission to the ISS. Kazakhstan is therefore not replacing Russia at Baikonur. It is trying to take a larger role in a space complex where Russia remains deeply embedded. But launch infrastructure is only one part of Kazakhstan’s attempt to develop capabilities of its own. Increasingly, the focus is on satellites. Building Satellites at Home KazSat is the country’s national satellite communications and broadcasting system. KazSat-3 currently provides data transmission, television, and other communications services. Its planned operating life ends in late 2029. KazSat-3R is being developed as its replacement. The national operator, the Republican Center for Space Communication, invited more than 40 spacecraft manufacturers to participate in the selection process. Fourteen companies responded: two from Kazakhstan and twelve from abroad. The operator plans to cover more than half...

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Ashgabat’s Postwar Architecture Is Disappearing One Building at a Time

In July, UNESCO added ten examples of Tashkent’s modernist architecture to the World Heritage List, recognizing the buildings and urban complexes that helped reshape the Uzbek capital after the devastating 1966 earthquake. In neighboring Kazakhstan, prominent Soviet-era buildings in Almaty are protected through national and local heritage registers. Turkmenistan has also gained international recognition for ancient sites such as Merv and Nisa, along with traditions of carpet weaving and horse breeding. Yet Ashgabat’s 20th-century architecture remains largely absent from this system of recognition. This has taken on added urgency because some of the buildings that tell the story of modern Ashgabat are already disappearing. [caption id="attachment_56051" align="aligncenter" width="1774"] Image: TCA, Stephen M. Bland[/caption] In August 2026, turkmen.news reported the demolition of several buildings near Ashgabat’s 30th microdistrict. Some were residential blocks. Although some occupants received replacement apartments, other families objected to the relocation terms. In February, the former building of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography on Azadi Street was also demolished. At different times, it had housed a court and the Cultural Heritage Center. An additional floor and marble cladding had already changed its appearance, although some neoclassical elements survived. Once a building has been demolished, its architecture can be studied only through archives and photographs. For Ashgabat, this is particularly significant because much of the city visible today emerged from one of the worst disasters in its history. The City After the Earthquake The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake struck on the night of October 6, destroying or severely damaging much of the city. The capital had to be largely rebuilt. Architectural historian Ruslan Muradov writes that postwar reconstruction began with two-story brick apartment buildings designed to meet higher seismic standards. Their facades featured decorative plasterwork and carved wooden elements on the loggias, or recessed balconies. New residential blocks were organized around shared courtyards and greenery. In the 1950s, the Academy of Sciences, the railway station, Turkmen State University, theaters, administrative buildings, and new housing transformed the city center. From the 1960s through the 1980s, hotels, public buildings, and residential districts added another architectural layer. Behind this architecture was the everyday life of several generations. Courtyards became extensions of apartments, while institutions and shops occupied the ground floors. The postwar city gradually became an ordinary, lived-in urban environment. Its surviving buildings still offer clues to how Ashgabat recovered after 1948. They show how seismic risk changed construction, how the climate influenced housing design, and how planners used the spaces between buildings. But unlike some neighboring capitals, Ashgabat has no publicly available inventory identifying the most significant examples of its postwar architecture. The time available to document them is shrinking. [caption id="attachment_56053" align="alignnone" width="1774"] Image: TCA, Stephen M. Bland[/caption] Turkmenistan’s Heritage Focus Turkmenistan has five properties on the World Heritage List. Ancient Merv, Kunya-Urgench, and the Parthian Fortresses of Nisa make up three of them. The other two are transnational properties, the Silk Roads: Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor and the Cold Winter Deserts of Turan. Another nine sites are on the country’s Tentative...

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$100 Million Kyrgyzstan Logistics Center Planned Near China Border

Kyrgyzstan plans to establish a logistics center near its border with China, with up to $100 million in investment to be attracted for the project. The center would help connect Chinese freight with routes through Uzbekistan and Afghanistan toward Pakistan, giving landlocked Kyrgyzstan another possible route to South Asian ports. On September 10, Kyrgyzstan’s National Investment Agency and local company Textile Trans signed a memorandum on establishing the Sary-Tash international transport and logistics center. The project also includes plans for a textile manufacturing cluster. Sary-Tash is located in the Alay Valley in southern Osh Region, around 70 kilometers from the Irkeshtam border crossing with China. It sits on the Osh-Sary-Tash-Irkeshtam road and at a junction with routes toward Tajikistan. The planned center is intended to handle cargo moving along the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan-Afghanistan route, with possible onward access to Pakistan. It would include warehouse and transshipment facilities, along with customs services and a digital system for monitoring cargo. The Osh-Sary-Tash-Irkeshtam corridor is also included in Kyrgyzstan’s draft Logistics Framework Map for 2026–2030, which was released for public consultation in August. The plan also covers the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, which is being built along a separate route through Torugart, Arpa, Makmal, and Jalal-Abad. The Sary-Tash project comes as Bishkek looks for shorter trade routes to South Asia. On September 2, during Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit, Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan signed a Transit Trade Agreement. The agreement is intended to make trade and transit between the two countries easier. Kyrgyzstan has identified the Pakistani ports of Karachi, Port Qasim, and Gwadar as possible gateways to international markets. Trade between the two countries remains limited. During talks with Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Sharif said the two sides wanted to raise annual bilateral trade from about $16 million to $200 million within two years. Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan do not share a border. One possible route runs through Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, while another passes through China. Bishkek tested the China route in April 2026. A truck traveled about 3,300 kilometers from Bishkek through the Torugart crossing into China, then continued via Kashgar and the Karakoram Highway before crossing the Khunjerab Pass into Pakistan and reaching Karachi. That route bypasses Afghanistan and gives Kyrgyzstan direct road access to Pakistan’s seaports. Sary-Tash lies on a different road toward China, near Irkeshtam. The planned logistics center would allow goods to be stored and transferred there before continuing along regional transport routes. The announced $100 million is not secured financing. The memorandum says the project aims to attract investment of up to that amount. No construction timetable or opening date has been announced.

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New OECD Assessment Reveals Central Asia’s Student Performance

International student assessments help governments identify where students are succeeding, where they are falling behind and how learning outcomes are changing over time. The Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, tests how well 15-year-olds can apply what they have learned in science, mathematics and reading to real-world problems. Run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the assessment is intended to identify weaknesses and track whether learning improves over time. The results released on September 8 show improvement in some areas, declines in others and significant gaps in the regional data. PISA 2025 placed particular emphasis on science and introduced a new assessment of computational problem-solving, part of its broader work on learning in the digital world. What the Results Show Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan participated nationally. Tajikistan was represented by Dushanbe rather than a national sample, while Turkmenistan did not participate. Participant Science Math Reading Comp. ProblemSolving Kazakhstan 420 414 385 449 Kyrgyzstan 363 364 344 388 Dushanbe, TJK 334 382 368 — Uzbekistan 438 N/A N/A 402 OECD average 482 463 461 500 Kazakhstan recorded the highest published regional scores in mathematics, reading and computational problem-solving, while Uzbekistan recorded the highest score in science. Uzbekistan’s mathematics and reading results were not published, preventing a complete comparison across the three core subjects. Central Asia remained below OECD averages, but Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan scored higher than several EU member states in some subjects. Across OECD countries, average mathematics and reading performance fell to the lowest levels yet recorded by PISA. Science was comparatively stable. What Changed The latest scores and the longer-term trends do not always point in the same direction. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan both participated in PISA in 2022, while Kyrgyzstan’s previous participation was in 2009. Country ComparisonPeriod Science Math Reading Kazakhstan 2022–2025 −4 −12 −1 Kyrgyzstan 2009–2025 +33 +33 +30 Uzbekistan 2022–2025 +83 N/A N/A Kazakhstan’s mathematics score fell by about 12 points from 2022, a statistically significant decline for the country. Its smaller declines in science and reading were not statistically significant. Kyrgyzstan improved in mathematics, reading and science compared with its previous participation. The gains cover 16 years rather than a single PISA cycle. Uzbekistan recorded the largest movement in the regional results. Its science score rose from 355 in 2022 to 438 in 2025, an increase of 83 points. That was also the largest science gain among education systems with comparable results worldwide and more than twice the next-largest increase of 38 points. What Other Assessments Show Other international assessments help put the larger changes in context. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were the only Central Asian countries to participate in the 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS. The assessment tests younger students and uses a different methodology from PISA. Among eighth-graders, Kazakhstan scored 443 in science and Uzbekistan 396. Two years later, PISA recorded science scores of 420 for Kazakhstan and 438 for Uzbekistan. The assessments cover different students and testing methods, so the scores cannot be compared directly....

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Kazakhstani Director Darkhan Tulegenov: “We Have Long Been Part of the Global Film Industry”

The Cord, the latest feature by Kazakhstani director Darkhan Tulegenov, will have its world premiere in the Vision section of the 31st Busan International Film Festival, held in South Korea from October 6 to 15. Developed from his series Kindik, the film has been described by its creators as a drama about blind maternal love, but further plot details remain under wraps. The Kazakhstani director’s recent television work also includes Mūnai and Khanskaya Okhota. Tulegenov studied acting before moving into directing, making eight short films and earning early recognition on the festival circuit before completing his first feature, Brothers, in 2022. In an interview with The Times of Central Asia, Tulegenov explained why filmmakers from Kazakhstan now have lessons of their own to share with international colleagues, how his acting education helps him on set, and how a director adapts when nature rewrites the plan, from unexpected snow in Aktau to the icy waters of the Caspian Sea. TCA: Your path into international cinema began while you were still a student. Which festival was your first? Tulegenov: Yes, essentially it all started with short films, which I began making while I was still a student. Before making my debut in full-length feature cinema, I made eight short films and several series. My short films won many awards around the world. My first trip abroad with one of my films was, I think, to Bishkek, to a short film festival, where I won the Grand Prix. That was the beginning. After that, I really traveled a lot thanks to cinema. TCA: One of those trips took you to Iran’s Fajr Film Festival. How did that experience influence you as a filmmaker? Tulegenov: In Iran, I participated in the Talent Campus program. It is similar to Berlinale Talents at the Berlin Film Festival, only at the Fajr Film Festival. They organize it for participants from Arab countries, Central Asia, other parts of Asia, and other regions. Well-known Iranian directors serve as mentors there: Majid Majidi was there, for example, and Asghar Farhadi had come the year before me. For a student, it is an amazing experience because you can attend lectures by masters of Iranian cinema while surrounded by people from all over the world. At some point, you realize that filmmakers everywhere actually speak the same language, and where you studied does not matter at all. You can study cinema in Iran, Kazakhstan, or America. The main thing is to speak the language of real cinema. [caption id="attachment_56009" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] All images courtesy of Darkhan Tulegenov[/caption] TCA: You also studied at the New York Film Academy. How different was that experience from studying in Kazakhstan? Tulegenov: Yes, it was what they called an “academic mobility program” at the Zhurgenov Academy, where I graduated. I don’t know whether it still exists, but at the time they sent us to Los Angeles for three months. The academy paid for our tickets, daily expenses, and other costs. For me, above all, it was an...