IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Nurlan Iskendir, Astana resident: «People often need different certificates and to receive them, it is not necessary to ask for permission to leave work but just connect to the internet and receive all necessary information at home.»

The electronic government service eGov.kz has launched its first consulting robot, Kenes, from the Kazakh word for advice, in testing mode.

Kenes answers calls to Single Contact Centre number 1414 and consults on the most popular public service requests, according to head of the National Information Technologies (NIT) public-private company Aset Turysov.

“As world practice shows, contact centres are introducing special robots to optimise their work. The robot processes frequently asked questions and sends them to call centre operators in necessary cases. The mechanism not only reduces timeout, but also lightens the work of the operators,” Turysov wrote on his Facebook page.

The International Expert Council on Digitisation discussed at its Jan. 31 meeting international practices in digital development, the role of e-government as well as how to nurture young talent and develop a startup culture.

The gathering also discussed economic sustainability in developing technology and the impact of innovation ecosystems on education and employment.

The Government for Citizens Corporation launched Jan. 12 the first public service centre for immigrants and a digital public service centre in the capital.

The immigration service centre is located at 31 Imanov Street and is open from 9 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.. Applicants can receive a medical examination, fingerprinting and issue an insurance policy and get an individual identification number.

Government for Citizens State Corporation intends to simplify real estate registration and reduce the times it takes, reported board chair Abylaikhan Ospanov at the May 23 Central Communications Service briefing.

“The rights to register real estate will be transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the Government for Citizens state corporation in the near future. This will simplify the procedure,” he said.

Improving public services online in Kazakhstan and making sure that they are freely accessible has become one of the most important strategic objectives set bythe country’s President, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Senate deputy, member of the Committee on Economic Policy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development, Ashat Kuzekov answered our questions on how these tasks are carried out by the legislature and described the benefits of “Mobile Government” programmes.

Q: The range of public services offered is becoming increasingly broad. Therefore, the number of regulations, which reinforce legislation on providing this service, are increasing. Not so long ago, you were considering another bill on e-government services. Could you elaborate what it provides that is new?

Modern information and communication technologies occupy a central position in the world in health security, medical services and the transformation of healthcare systems. Information systems of electronic health allow monitoring of patients at a significant distance, distribution of information among the patients and improved accessibility to healthcare for disabled and elderly people, especially in remote areas.

During the last 10 years, Kazakhstan has been introducing and developing e-Government, the main goal of which is to create a country in which the interaction between the people and the state is simple, clear and approachable.

In this episode of East-West Connect, we explore how smart city innovations are transforming Astana into a model for urban sustainability, smarter living and economic growth in Central Asia.

Kazakhstan is embracing smart city innovations to improve urban life and drive economic growth. In Astana, technologies such as AI, 5G and intelligent transport systems are driving sustainability and efficiency.

As is known, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev defined an increase of the quality of public services rendered to the population as one of the priorities.

Minister of Transport and Communications of Kazakhstan Askar Zhumagaliyev reported on the process of optimization and automation of socially important public services and establishment of specialized Public Service Centers for registration of vehicles and issuance of driver’s licenses.

The issues on improvement public administration, efficiency of the control activities and conducting ratings of regions were discussed within the seminar. Special attention was paid to the system of annual estimation of the effectiveness of the public bodies' work, which is carried out in accordance with the President's Decree.

The centres, widely known in Kazakhstan by their Russian acronym, TSON, were set up in 2007 with the aim of assisting citizens in providing government services under one roof under the so-called “one window” principle. The aim was to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy and remove administrative barriers to accessing services by the population.

Azamat Issembulov, Deputy Director, East Kazakhstan Region Public Service Centre «A person knows for sure that his question reached the recipient. His question was seen and heard so officials worked on it and gave their answer.»

According to the Committee of the State Revenues of the Finance Ministry, a new system of ‘single window’ that simplifies customs procedures for both exporters and importers will be introduced in 2017. The automated system will include all information about licenses and approval documents. This system will be combined with the ‘E-Government’ and databases of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Health and Social Development and, the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This will halve the waiting time for bureaucratic approvals necessary for businesses. The mechanism will allow the exchange of data between government agencies of the Eurasian Economic Union.

According to its developers, the company technical support centre iDos will connect to a common information network at the hospital and polyclinic. The well-known American company EMC, one of the global leaders in the field of IT with experience in creating the national e-healthcare systems in Finland and Georgia, is among the development partners.

According to the United Nations ranking, Kazakhstan is currently ranking 39 in the E-Government Development Index, 26 in Online Service Index and 40 in Global Cybersecurity Index.

Today, Kazakhstan is one of the leading countries in terms of Internet accessibility – the cost per one gigabyte in the country amounts to US$0.49, the population coverage stands at 84.2 percent, whereas, for example, in Ukraine these figures are US$0.51/62.5 percent of population coverage, in China – US$9.89/61.2 percent, and in the United States – US$12.37/87.3 percent.

Tax revenues to the budget increased by one trillion tenge, and the effectiveness of customs inspections increased by 6 times. This is the result of the integration of the tax and customs systems, experts say. Combining these databases has helped to reduce the VAT refund deadlines. In addition, payment of duties and taxes are now can be confirmed through the e-government portal. Previously, this process took about 3 days, now it is done in seconds.

Last year over 13 thousand residents have received the electronic digital signature and are using services of the electronic government. This place in the Kostanai Public Service Centre is like a school. Ainur teaches people to work with the e-government portal.

Ainur Mukanova, Consulting Officer: It means that they will be able to receive all state services at home with the help of the internet. They need not to go somewhere. It is very convenient. They are sending a request, receive a document, and then take it to where it is necessary.

Minister of Information and Communications of Kazakhstan Dauren Abayev participated in a global e-government forum, "Gov3.0 Global Forum 2016," held in Pusan, South Korea, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported on November 10.

During the event, heads of departments in the field of ICT, representatives of international organizations and the world's leading scientists from more than 15 countries have discussed various issues relating to innovation in public activities, and shared their experiences.

Uzbekistan intends to adopt Kazakhstan’s experience in developing public services, Kazakhstan’s Agency for Civil Service Affairs and Anti-Corruption reported Dec. 22.

State Services Department Director Adilbek Mukashev met with representatives of Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Justice, and presented one-stop-shop centres and the e-government system, where the Kazakh side presented its experience in assessing, controlling and publicly monitoring the quality of public services.