Positioning Kazakhstan as a Regional Leader in ICT and Digital Exports for Sustainable Economic Growth

Kazakhstan ranks 24th on the UN E-Government Development Index 2024, 10th on the Online Services Index, alongside Estonia, South Korea, and Denmark, and holds Group A "Extensive Maturity" classification on the World Bank GovTech Maturity Index 2025. It has deployed a national supercomputer, sovereign large language models, an advanced digital asset regulatory framework, and an internationally networked startup ecosystem. Yet Kazakhstan remains largely invisible as a digital investment destination. The gap between what it has built and what the world knows about it is the central strategic problem this report addresses.

Commissioned by the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development and conducted through SIPA's Capstone Workshop in Sustainable Development Practice, this research draws on international index analysis, comparative benchmarking against Estonia, Singapore, and South Korea, and primary interviews in Astana in January and March 2026.

Across five priority sectors, e-Government, LLMs, fintech, smart cities, and robotics, the report identifies real exportable value constrained by three structural gaps: limited international visibility, uneven digital development across cities, and a manufacturing base anchored in mid-level processing. Recommendations span three sequential phases from one to five years, moving from legal and institutional foundations, to scaling and targeted deployment, to positioning Kazakhstan as a regional digital hub.