Smart city technologies are being introduced in the country’s five largest cities – Aktobe, Almaty, Astana, Karaganda and Shymkent – as part of the Digital Kazakhstan programme, said Minister of Information and Communications Dauren Abayev at a Dec. 26 government meeting.
The concept is designed to improve the efficiency of all city services, as people and their needs lie at the heart of its mission. Comfort, safety, efficiency and environmental friendliness are the key characteristics of smart cities.
Good Governance Matters is the strapline of Nazarbayev University’s Graduate School of Public Policy. But what does “good governance” mean for the citizens of Kazakhstan? If Kazakhstan is to join the top 30 developed countries in the world as set out in the President’s 2050 Strategy, then having high quality public services will be key to achieving this. There are important signs that good things are happening in Kazakhstan in this regard.333472-2
Consider, for example, the recently released global education report card entitled Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the longest running, large scale international assessment of mathematics and science education in the world conducted amongst fourth and eighth grade children in 57 countries. These countries include developed nations such as Australia, Canada, England, France and the USA. The results are hugely encouraging, in that Kazakhstan school children ranked 12th in year four math and eighth in science. Compare this with Australia, where children of the same age ranked 28th and 25th, respectively.
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.
Read more: KZ: Preliminary results of tax and custom systems integration
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.
Read more: KZ: South Korea to help Kazakhstan to develop e-government
Kazakhstan ranks seventh among Asian countries for e-government in 2016, a United Nations report said.
The “100 Concrete Steps to Implement Five Institutional Reforms” initiative launched last year by President Nursultan Nazarbayev “has the potential to support the establishment of a modern, professional and independent public service,” the UN stated in its 2016 E-Government Survey.
Read more: Kazakhstan among Top 10 Asian Countries for E-Government, UN Says