Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest economy, is rapidly positioning itself as a regional leader in digital transformation. Indeed, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has repeatedly emphasized his commitment to making Kazakhstan “fully digital within the next three years,” turning digitalization and AI into a national modernization goal rather than a simple technology policy. This direction was formalized when Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov noted that President Tokayev declared 2026 the Year of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, a decision that now defines the Government’s priorities across sectors according to daryo.uz

By the end of 2025, Kazakhstan’s digital government ecosystem had already reached mass adoption. The eGov.kz portal counted over 15.1 million registered users (including 610,000 new users added during 2025), while the eGov Mobile application was used by over 11.7 million citizens and reached 6.4 million monthly active users. This scale is supported by very high annual service volumes: in 2025 alone, citizens received more than 51.5 million online services, with almost half delivered via smartphones—showing that mobile-first public services are becoming the default mode of citizen–state interaction.

Kazakhstan is also investing in the human and industrial foundations of AI. Officials cited a digital workforce of more than 200,000 people, including 20,000 AI specialists, and a plan to train one million citizens in digital skills over five years—paired with strategic projects such as the Alem.Cloud supercomputing initiative and large-scale partnerships. At the government level, Bektenov has framed AI not as an “add-on,” but as part of the backbone of a new economic model—where institutional foundations, infrastructure, and human capital move together according to Astana Times.

Kazakhstan’s Global Standing in Digital Government

International benchmarks reinforce Kazakhstan’s progress. In the UN E-Government Development Index (EGDI) 2024, Kazakhstan ranked 24th out of 193 countries, and it placed 10th globally in the Online Services Index—meaning the quality and breadth of online public services is among the world’s leaders. This helps explain why everyday services—such as education-related procedures and many administrative tasks—have increasingly moved online, with a strong shift toward proactive and mobile services. (Note: some narratives mention higher ranks, but the most clearly documented UN-based figure available in official reporting remains the 24th position in EGDI 2024.)

Kazakhstan is not only digitizing services; it is also trying to build technological sovereignty. This includes expanding domestic capabilities in AI and language technology—such as Kazakh-focused large language models (KazLLM / Alem LLM) and national AI platforms—so the country is not limited to adopting only foreign tools. In parallel, national policy discussions increasingly link digital acceleration with legal guarantees, trust, and data protection—recognizing that a “digital state” depends as much on governance and security as on apps and infrastructure according to Timesca.

Why Digital Qazaqstan Became the National Technology Forum

That is also why Kazakhstan is scaled its flagship tech forum into a national format. The former Digital Almaty forum has entered a new stage and transformed into Digital Qazaqstan, described as the country’s main national technology forum bringing together regions, IT companies, industrial customers, investors, and state institutions. The first Digital Qazaqstan forum took place on March 27, 2026, in Shymkent, one of Kazakhstan’s key industrial and economic centers, and the concept is to hold it annually in different cities—building a unified national ecosystem rather than concentrating digital initiatives in one capital city according to Astana Hub and Digitalqazaqtan.

According to the forum’s official materials, Digital Qazaqstan gathered 525 ........

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