Astana, 29 May 2025 – At the Astana International Forum, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry, Zhaslan Mädiyev, laid out a sweeping vision for the country’s future in a detailed conversation covering everything from cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence to aerospace and global partnerships. Mädiyev described how Kazakhstan is rapidly becoming a regional and global leader in digital innovation by creating a regulatory and technological framework designed for the challenges of the 21st century.

“Kazakhstan is quite active in terms of developing the crypto ecosystem and trying to promote a crypto-friendly environment for changing organizations and promoting innovative solutions in the whole value chain,” Mädiyev said. “We are one of the top 10 countries in terms of crypto mining. The Digital Ministry is the regulator of crypto mining, and we are also regulating mining pools.” The country’s digital infrastructure includes over 60 operating mining firms and more than 10 officially licensed exchanges, among them global giants like Binance, Bybit, Bitfinex, and Binone. Mädiyev emphasized that this ecosystem is supported by the Astana International Financial Center, which regulates crypto exchanges, and Astana Hub, a dedicated innovation zone where crypto and blockchain startups benefit from zero tax incentives.

“Because of that, we see the inflow of more and more foreign players who want to tap the Kazakhstani market and the whole Central Asian market through Kazakhstan,” he explained. According to the Minister, the government is now entering a new phase by amending laws to allow crypto ATMs, crypto exchange shops, and crypto card circulation. One of the most ambitious plans is to establish a crypto city. “The President’s idea is to define a crypto city that will be completely crypto-friendly, where crypto can be a legal tender — you can pay in restaurants, in cafes, purchase real estate, invest in crypto,” Mädiyev said. “That could be a magnet for developers, the IT community, and the blockchain ecosystem, giving new momentum to economic diversification.”

On concerns that crypto might threaten the national currency, Mädiyev was reassuring. “We believe, as per my expectation, it shouldn’t have a huge negative impact on the currency. Why? Because we are not starting from scratch,” he said. “We already established official crypto-fiat channels, and we didn’t see a massive run on deposits or on the national currency.” He added that there is still a technological and psychological barrier among the public. “A person has to be tech-savvy to use it — open wallets, understand custodial and non-custodial tools, and learn to avoid scams. Also, the availability of local currency instruments with good yields makes crypto less attractive for many citizens.”

Asked about Kazakhstan’s broader digitalization priorities, Mädiyev pointed to impressive achievements. “For the last 10 years Kazakhstan has been investing a lot into digital transformation,” he said. “We became a top 24 country in terms of the UN’s e-government development index and top 10 in terms of online service quality. Over 90% of public services are available online, and 90% of transactions in Kazakhstan are cashless.” The Minister highlighted that the country is among the first to pilot a Central Bank Digital Currency, and that most personal documents are now fully digital and legally equivalent to physical ones.

Looking forward, artificial intelligence is at the center of the government’s new strategy. “We are developing AI through three pillars: creating an institutional framework, building infrastructure, and developing human capital,” Mädiyev said. A dedicated Committee for the Development of AI and the Crypto Industry has been established. A five-year conceptual framework is already being implemented and will soon be formalized as the national AI strategy. “We are forming an AI Council under the President, with international experts like Peter Norvig, Kai-Fu Lee, and Laura Tyson as members,” he noted. A draft AI law is also expected this year, setting out terminology, ethical standards, product labeling, and risk management.

In terms of infrastructure, Mädiyev announced that Kazakhstan is about to launch a supercomputer cluster this July. “The supercomputer chips are already in Kazakhstan. We opened a first cluster in the U.S. to train Kazakh LLMs — on Lama, YeLightning, DeepSeek, Falcon — and now we are bringing that power home,” he said. A national AI platform is already in place, giving public employees access to tools like GPUs, data sets, and low-code environments to create their own AI engines. “By the end of next year, 50 AI engines will be operating in the public sector,” he added.

Mädiyev also revealed a massive human capital development program. “We announced a plan to train one million people over five years in AI — 500,000 schoolchildren, 300,000 university students, 90,000 public sector employees, 80,000 corporate sector employees, and 30,000 from other areas,” he said. AI education has been embedded in school curricula and extracurricular programs that include 3D modeling, robotics, and generative AI. “We opened the first AI school in the region — Tomorrow School — a peer-to-peer model created with Nicolas Sadirac, founder of École 42,” Mädiyev said. “Over 50 projects, 20 programming languages, and a fully immersive experience — we already have three batches, with over 3,500 applicants for just 400 spots.”

At the heart of this vision is the International AI Center. “It will be a center of excellence with big tech companies, startups, public and event spaces, hackathon zones, an AI museum, café, cinema, and kids’ zone,” Mädiyev described. “There will also be an AI-driven government office and collaboration hubs for science, business, and education.” He hopes to replicate the success of Astana Hub, which has already expanded to 20 cities and opened branches in Silicon Valley, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the UK, and most recently Dubai.

On Kazakhstan’s growing cooperation with the UAE, Mädiyev emphasized strong ties in logistics, renewables, and digital technology. “We’re working with Masdar on energy and with Abu Dhabi Ports in logistics. In our sector, we have two key projects — a supercomputer cluster and a Smart City initiative with G42, an AI company from the UAE,” he said. G42’s Presight AI has hired over 40 Kazakh specialists and is developing a smart control center with thousands of cameras, due to be finalized by the end of the year. Mädiyev also invited UAE’s AI Minister Omar Al Olama to join Kazakhstan’s AI Council.

Kazakhstan’s aerospace industry is also undergoing a transformation. “We’re vertically integrated: we run the world’s largest cosmodrome, have launch pads, and started producing our own launch vehicles and satellites,” Mädiyev said. “For the first time, we began exporting satellites — to Mongolia, Congo, and others. Buyers benefit from our full constellation and monitoring tools for forests, waste, illegal mining, and more. All production is certified by Airbus through our joint venture.” The country is now testing AI applications in image labeling and processing, with long-term ambitions to embed AI capabilities directly onto satellites.

Mädiyev concluded by emphasizing the international reach of Kazakhstan’s tech ecosystem. “We have over 1,500 startups — in blockchain, medtech, edtech, defense tech, and more. Our IT hubs in Saudi Arabia, Silicon Valley, and Europe are giving them global access,” he said. One standout example is Higgsfield AI, a Kazakh startup working on text-to-video generation. “They raised $16 million from Menlo Ventures, with a valuation of over $100 million. We believe we can create many more such success stories.”

With its bold national strategies, international partnerships, and homegrown talent, Kazakhstan is emerging as a digital powerhouse — not just in Central Asia, but on the global stage.