A dedicated working group has discussed how to modernize it
The first meeting of the working group on amending the Digital Kazakhstan state programme was held online. The experts discussed the main areas of work and agreed to hold such meetings weekly.
More than 90 representatives of the IT sector and of a number of government bodies took part in the online meeting of the working group on amending the Digital Kazakhstan state programme, organized by the Ministry of Digital Development. As Askar Zhumagaliyev, Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, noted, the situation that has developed in the world has had a serious impact on digitalization processes and this calls for an appropriate response. “The world will no longer be what it was yesterday; digital technologies are now at the front line,” he said.
To make the digitalization objectives more specific, it was proposed that 10 subgroups be created within the working group; these were presented by Abylaikhan Ospanov, Vice Minister of Digital Development. The E-commerce subgroup, for example, will be headed by Ramil Mukhoryapov, founder and CEO of Chocofamily Holding, and the Innovation Ecosystem subgroup by the head of Prime Source, Evgeny Scherbinin.
During the discussion of the presentation, Arman Abdrassilov, co-founder and director of the Center for Analysis and Investigation of Cyber Attacks (TSARKA) association of legal entities, put forward the idea of making information security a separate track.
“All these problems with websites going down and hacker attacks are connected with information security,” he said. The idea was backed by other participants in the meeting, since the existing Cyber Shield information security programme contains no measures aimed at developing the information security industry itself.
Another issue important for the industry was raised by Kairat Akhmetov, who heads Korkem Telecom. In his view, reducing the market share of quasi-public companies is important for the market’s further development. “This is needed so that the industry becomes more flexible and the share of private companies grows,” he said.
For his part, Bolat Basheyev, head of the ICT Committee at the Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs, proposed reconsidering the regulator’s role in the procurement of digital services. “Problems arise wherever the regulator seeks to buy from a single principal supplier. The regulator should only set digitalization requirements, and market participants will choose the supplier themselves,” he believes.
As an example, Basheyev cited the situation in the housing and utilities sector, where the supervisory authority is trying to develop a system that would compete with the market. “My proposal is that the regulator should create the rules rather than take part in procurement from a single supplier on the market,” he stressed.
The opposite view was voiced by Rakhim Oshakbayev of the Talap Center for Applied Research. In his opinion, there are many cases where, once the state leaves the market, private companies pursue nothing but higher profits and simply minimize their costs. “In that case no one safeguards the public or state interest, so this issue needs to be approached in a balanced way,” the expert believes.
For his part, he proposed singling out Digital Society as a separate subgroup. “There is the Listening State concept, and it has been well received by society; there are many digital tools for monitoring social media, and an online petitions service. That, too, deserves a separate track, from the standpoint of raising digital literacy, increasing engagement and addressing the digital divide. It is important that our working group does not turn into the Chamber of Entrepreneurs’ IT committee, where we relay only the interests of business; we need to take a national position and look at how digital technologies can improve life in the country and make us more competitive,” he said.
Askar Zhumagaliyev said the ministry has been working on this for a long time, but there are certain difficulties here that will take time to resolve. “A draft law has been submitted to the Mazhilis under which most quasi-public companies will lose the ability to operate where private business is present. This is also my personal position: the Yellow Pages Rule must be observed,” he said. At the same time, the minister also noted that a balance between the interests of the IT industry and of society must be maintained in Digital Kazakhstan. A similar view was expressed by Bagdat Musin, adviser to the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on digitalization and innovative technologies, who took part in the online meeting and noted that the Presidential Administration would also send its proposals to the working group.
“Whatever ideas come from the Presidential Administration, we will send them to the working group, because there is no time to wait. We will work them through together,” Musin said.
As a reminder, in early March President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev instructed that adjustments be made to the Digital Kazakhstan programme, which is currently being implemented by all government bodies, in order to speed up the pace of digitalization. The Ministry of Digital Development subsequently set up a working group on amendments and additions to the Digital Kazakhstan state programme. The working group also includes representatives of the IT and business communities, telecom operators, government bodies and national companies.
Source: https://kursiv.kz/news/obschestvo/2020-04/programm...