“Digital Qazaqstan”: What the new nationwide strategy for digitalization and AI changes

The Digital Qazaqstan Strategy is the country’s principal document for technological development in the coming years. It was developed in implementation of paragraph 3 of the Nationwide Action Plan for the implementation of the President’s Address of 8 September 2025, “Kazakhstan in the Era of Artificial Intelligence” (the plan was approved by Decree No. 1042 of 13 October 2025). The text of the decree and the strategy was officially published on 10 June 2026 in Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.

The document sets a three-year “sprint”: to build a fully fledged digital state over the next three years and ensure large-scale deployment of AI across all key sectors of the economy and the state apparatus. The Government and state bodies have been given three months to develop and approve the Implementation Action Plan. Personal responsibility for achieving the key indicators is assigned to the first heads of state bodies — a provision explicitly enshrined in the decree.

The goal is to position Kazakhstan as a leading digital state with technological sovereignty, a developed data economy, and a competitive AI industry. The document is structured around three target groups and, accordingly, three strategic directions: digitalization in the interests of citizens, in the interests of business and the economy, and within the state apparatus.

The strategy is based on seven principles: economic efficiency, platform-based approach, human-centeredness, responsible and ethical use of technologies, security and technological sovereignty, adaptive regulation, and a differentiated approach to digitalization.

The technological architecture is described as a pyramid of layers: energy infrastructure → high-performance computing and a network of data centers → the state’s platform infrastructure → the digital economy (national data governance standards, sectoral repositories, national data infrastructure) → applied digital and AI solutions across industries.

Implementation management will be centralized: the Project Management Office (PMO) will serve as the single center for management and monitoring, with the Digital Headquarters under the Prime Minister at the coordination level. The main implementation format will be a portfolio of “icebreaker projects.” Based at the Alem.AI center, an institutional mechanism is being created for the systematic integration of international experience: monitoring global AI strategies, technology transfer, regulatory “sandboxes,” and participation in international initiatives.

The strategy’s key dividing line is financing. Budget funds are directed primarily to core state digital components (registries, e-government components, government APIs, cybersecurity of state systems). Everything else is to be financed through a mixed funding model: private investment, PPPs, offtake contracts, co-financing, grant and venture instruments, and development institution resources.

The strategy derives its investment benchmark from international comparisons: countries in the top 10 of the IMD digital competitiveness ranking invest about 1.8% of GDP annually in digital technologies, while those in the top 30 invest around 1.2%. For Kazakhstan (39th in the IMD ranking, GDP of about $300 billion), this implies $3.5–5.5 billion per year, or $10.5–16.5 billion over a three-year period.

The strategy records the progress achieved: 24th place in the UN E-Government Development Index (EGDI), 39th in the IMD Digital Competitiveness Ranking (2025), and 58th out of 195 in the Government AI Readiness Index 2025 (first in Central Asia). The share of e-government services reached 92%, cashless payments in retail — around 90%, and internet users — 95.3% (2024). The Alem.Cloud and Al-Farabium supercomputers have been launched (86th and 103rd positions in TOP500), the Law on Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Code have been adopted, and the Kazakh-language language models KazLLM and AlemLLM have been introduced.

At the same time, the document candidly identifies its weak points: the diffusion of generative AI in Kazakhstan (13.7% in the second half of 2025) is below the global average (16.3%); of the 517 state information systems created, a significant share developed in isolation, along departmental lines; 30–40% of civil servants’ working time is spent on routine operations; and the IT market remains “service-based rather than industrial,” despite IT services exports rising from $60.07 million in 2021 to $690.7 million in 2024.

“Digital Qazaqstan” is the fifth generation of digitalization policy documents, following “Information Kazakhstan – 2020” (2013), the state program “Digital Kazakhstan” (2018–2022), the Concept for Digital Transformation, ICT Sector Development and Cybersecurity for 2023–2029, and the Concept for Artificial Intelligence Development for 2024–2029. The differences are substantial.

Status and accountability. Previous programs and concepts were approved by Government resolutions; “Digital Qazaqstan” is approved by a Presidential decree and has the status of a “national strategy,” with personal accountability of first heads and oversight by the Presidential Administration. Implementation management is centralized in the PMO and the Digital Headquarters under the Prime Minister, with portfolio management, AI dashboards, and quarterly reviews instead of the usual annual reporting logic.

AI as the core, not an industry. “Digital Kazakhstan” was a program for the digitalization of sectors and public services; the 2023–2029 Concept was an industry-specific document for ICT development. The new strategy makes AI the underlying logic of the entire governance system: from an “algorithmic budget” and machine-readable law to AI agents in the public administration. The strategy consolidates the contours of previously fragmented documents, while moving cybersecurity into the National Security Strategy for 2026–2030.

Market-based financing. The state program “Digital Kazakhstan” was financed primarily from the budget (according to the 2018–2021 report, about 207.5 billion tenge was utilized, including 90.6 billion tenge in private investment). The new strategy explicitly declares reliance on private capital and market mechanisms, with a target of 10.5–16.5 billion dollars over three years — an order of magnitude more.

A shift in the state’s role in the IT market. For the first time at the strategy level, a phased move away from the state’s own product development has been formalized: internal development is being scaled back, with priority given to domestic companies through guaranteed demand, off-take contracts, and the pilot-to-rollout mechanism. This is a response to years of criticism of a model in which the state acted simultaneously as customer, regulator, and implementer.

New economy. For the first time, the strategic planning framework includes the crypto industry (issuance of a stablecoin, a national strategic crypto reserve, CryptoCity in Alatau City), unmanned systems and air taxis, the national satellite program “Made in Qazaqstan,” an export-oriented robotics sector, and the export of computing capacity through the national AI Hub.

Recognition of risks. Unlike its predecessors, the strategy openly describes the risks: geopolitical dependence on foreign technologies, volatility of commodity revenues, insufficient funding and coordination, and the inertia of budgetary procedures.

For citizens, a shift from an application-based model to a proactive one is envisaged: services and social support should be assigned automatically when life events occur, without applications or certificates. Public service centers are being refocused on complex cases.

For business, the most sensitive shift is “invisible” tax administration: automatic calculation of liabilities, risk-based oversight instead of blanket inspections, and the tax system as a “sensor of economic activity.” Sector-specific “data lakes” and mandatory interoperability standards mean that digitalization is moving from a voluntary corporate practice to a condition for access to subsidies and state support — the strategy explicitly ties support for the agro-industrial complex to digital productivity indicators.

For the IT sector, a domestic scaling market is being created: guaranteed demand and offtake contracts are expected to make technology companies attractive to banks and venture capital investors. The targets are to double exports and create three “unicorns” by 2029.

For the state apparatus, the strategy implies an institutional overhaul: a platform architecture instead of hundreds of fragmented systems, a domain data model, Data Governance with a national data quality standard, a shift to machine-readable law, and adaptive budgeting.

The feasibility of these plans will depend on whether the announced private investment can be attracted and interagency coordination can be maintained — the very factors the strategy itself identifies as the main internal risks. The first test is the Action Plan for implementing the strategy, which the Government and state bodies must develop and approve within three months, that is, by 9 September 2026.