Over the next five years, plans are in place to train one million Kazakhstani citizens in artificial intelligence. This was announced today during a government field meeting by the Minister of Digital Development, Innovations, and Aerospace Industry, Jaslan Madiyev, as reported by a correspondent from the Kapital.kz business information center.
“We believe it is essential to scale the dissemination of artificial intelligence. How will we achieve this? An innovative and advanced ecosystem has formed in Kazakhstan, known as Astana Hub, where numerous companies are already developing. Currently, more than 1,500 companies are registered in Astana Hub, which includes major tech firms. There are even cases where startups from other countries come here, attracting talent to the nation,” he noted.
Today, Astana Hub is represented in all regions, with 150 out of the 1,500 companies operating in the field of AI or utilizing artificial intelligence technologies.
“To support and nurture such companies, capital is always necessary, which is why we recently launched a venture fund of funds to support and invest in these startups. The targeted size of the fund is $1 billion, and a distinctive feature of this initiative is that a significant portion of the capital in the initial phase we have already raised comes from private capital. Additionally, private capital and investors will also be involved in this work and will select high-quality projects. Thus, we will be able to help our startups and companies reach the same level as global leaders,” emphasized the head of the Ministry of Digital Development.
Education is a very important area. Together with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Ministry of Digitalization has launched educational initiatives in artificial intelligence.
“We have set a goal to train 1 million people over the next five years. This includes 500,000 schoolchildren, 300,000 students, 90,000 civil servants, 80,000 entrepreneurs and corporate sector representatives, and 30,000 citizens from other fields, including the social sector. These programs have already been tested in a pilot mode. For each of these categories, we have corresponding educational products and initiatives that we have tested, and the training will be available both online and offline,” clarified Jaslan Madiyev.
Following the directive of the head of state, plans are in place to open an international center for artificial intelligence next year.
“This will be a competence center for artificial intelligence, where all educational initiatives will take place, along with a startup campus for companies in the AI sector. Here, major international tech companies will establish artificial intelligence centers, R&D centers, laboratories, and there will be corresponding teams from the private sector, government, and academia working together to implement artificial intelligence across all sectors of the economy. This center will be based on the territory of EXPO, at the Expo-Shara site. Reconstruction work has already begun,” concluded the Minister of Digitalization.