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ASTANA (TCA) — The Government of Kazakhstan on January 16 approved the draft of the National Action Plan for implementation of the Address of the Head of State of January 10, 2018. The document was presented by the Minister of National Economy, Timur Suleimenov, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reports. Continue reading
ASTANA (TCA) — In a 7-minute statement, which was televised on January 9, Kazakhstan’s long-ruling President Nursultan Nazarbayev summarized his annual address to the nation in a prerecorded video and indicated that, for the second straight year, he would refrain from delivering the speech live in parliament, saying that his full address will be published by state newspapers on January 10, RFE/RL reported. In the past, Nazarbayev has delivered his annual address before the Kazakh parliament, and it has been televised live. But in 2017, he also made a prerecorded summary that was aired on January 31 and then published in state newspapers. In the televised statement yesterday evening, Nazarbayev focused on efforts to digitize the Kazakh economy and bureaucracy. He said that digital technologies will help continue to deregulate business, improve the quality of public services and state support, and better meet the requirements of citizens. The president spoke about the need to increase the depth of processing of natural (hydrocarbon) resources, and to improve the energy efficiency and environmental friendliness of production. Nazarbayev also spoke about a “reset” of Kazakhstan’s financial sector, saying that measures to recover the banking sector should involve strengthened supervision and control and take into account the interests of ordinary citizens. “It is necessary to significantly raise the responsibility of those who own the banks and those who manage them,” the president said, adding that it is necessary to increase lending and boost the development of the stock market. He also said that the introduction of Smart City technology will help to effectively solve the problems of growing cities and increase their attractiveness to investors.
BISHKEK (TCA) — It is impossible to expand access to education for children and education specialists without access to the Internet, Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Sapar Isakov said at the recent international conference on prospects for digital government and digital education in the country. Continue reading
ASTANA (TCA) — The draft state program Digital Kazakhstan was considered at the Government meeting on December 4, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported. Continue reading
ASTANA (TCA) — Cyber terrorism and cyber-attacks is a serious challenge facing business companies and even entire countries in contemporary world. Kazakhstan is no exception, and the country has taken efforts to thwart the new threat. We are republishing this article by Anna Gussarova on the issue, originally published by The Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor: The government of Kazakhstan has approved an action plan, on October 28, to implement the country’s cybersecurity concept—“Cyber Shield”—by 2022 (Zakon.kz, November 1). The document outlines key areas of state policy that will be required to build a modern yet reliable system to mitigate and prevent cyberattacks and threats from hybrid (“new type”) warfare. The amount of illegal online content reaching Kazakhstan has grown by a factor of 40 in the last three years (Kapital.kz, September 4). Both government agencies and domestic financial institutions frequently suffer from cyberattacks. Ruslan Abdukalikov, the deputy chairman of the Committee on Information Security in the Ministry of Defense and Aerospace Industry, recently pointed out that the number of cyber threats to the state’s electronic systems increases by 2–2.5 times every year (Inform.kz, October 28). As the country seeks to attract new technologies to encourage economic diversification, information and cybersecurity challenges have been growing as well. To reduce these vulnerabilities, Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev instructed the government and the National Security Committee to develop the country’s cybersecurity strategy, emphasizing “this is a matter of national security… In today’s world, it is not necessary to fight using an aircraft or a tank.” Rather, a computer virus can knock a power plant offline or paralyze the domestic railway network, he noted (Informburo.kz, September 4). Recent trends in cyber espionage and hybrid warfare have revealed the country’s need to rethink its security policies, including in the cyber realm. The security services have contributed heavily to formulating a cybersecurity strategy for Kazakhstan. But the above-cited recently adopted action plan is notable because it introduces a comprehensive approach to build a “Cyber Shield” concept that will have multiple stakeholders, including businesses, the research community and the general population. Several important conclusions can be drawn based on the text of the action plan: First, in the government’s view, local software is preferable, but not yet available. As a result, the recently reorganized Ministry of Defense and Aerospace Industry is working to gradually overcome the country’s reliance on proprietary information security software from abroad as well as foreign IT product certification. Policymakers in Kazakhstan have been discussing this particular issue for the last five years. As a first step in this direction, the Chamber of Entrepreneurs will create a national register of trusted software and IT products by July 2018 (Zakon.kz, November 1). Second, international cooperation is so far limited, but seen as important. In particular, international cooperation appears particularly necessary to allow Kazakhstan to attract new technologies and develop its domestic information and communications technology (ICT) sphere. In this regard, the Cyber Shield action plan lists two main priorities. The first is for the National...
ALMATY (TCA) — The U.S. Consulate General in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, on October 20 said it has opened its new American Space Almaty as an anchor tenant at SmArt.Point after a full renovation and redesign. Continue reading
