Promoting cooperation with national parks
Over the period from 24 to 27 July 2019, a visit of the inter-agency delegation of the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Culture and Sport of the Republic of Kazakhstan was elaborated. The major purpose of the visit is to establish contacts with the US public and private sector on the implementation of advanced technologies for managing national parks.
Visit of the leadership of “National information technologies” JSC
On September 16, 2019 “National Information technologies” JSC visited “Nutanix” and “MinIO” which are located in San Jose and Palo Alto, California. “Nutanix” is a cloud computing American company that sells hyper-converged infrastructure software cloud services and software-defined storage.
“MinIO” is an American company that develops high-performance distributed object storage software designed for large-scale private cloud infrastructure. The “MinIO” solution can store unstructured data such as photos, videos, log files, and backups.
During the meetings the parties discussed issues on the current situation data storage state bodies, architecture design databases that use the traditional model of storage, processing and forecasts a sharp increase in the size of databases in the data Center of JSC "National information technologies" and ways of their solution.
Besides, the American side was presented the activities of the international technopark of IT startups "Astana Hub", conditions for simplifying visa and labor regimes for foreign participants of "Astana Hub", as well as tax preferences in the form of simplified taxation.
Meeting of the leadership of Silicon valley’s IT-companies with the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan
On September 23, 2019, a meeting of the first leaders of major American IT-companies with the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan K-Zh.Tokayev was organized in New York. Bilateral meetings were arranged with Guy Diedrich, Vice President and the Global Innovation Officer for Cisco Systems, and Michael Punke - Vice President for Global Public Policy at Amazon Web Services, Bedy Yang Managing Partner at 500 Startups, Karl Cox - Vice President of the Oracle Corporation, responsible for Public Policy, Saeed Amidi, CEO&Founder of “Plug and Play”.
According to American IT companies and venture funds (Oracle, Plug and Play Ventures, 500 Startups), the main areas of cooperation could be the launch of joint programs and exchange of startups in such areas as retail, financial technology, travel, logistics, smart cities, as well as the participation in "Astana Hub" projects.
Visit of representatives of "Nazarbayev University", "Astana Hub" delegation to participate in the annual event "Disruptive SF 2019", TechCrunch
Annually, Disruptive SF international platform gathers the world of startups to get acquainted with current and future technology in one place. Inspired by the ideas of the leaders and best startups of the future, learn the latest innovations and easily find connections for business promotion. On October 2-4, 2019, representatives of "Astana Hub", startup projects “СТО gram” and "Diet Genius", as well as representatives of Nazarbayev University attended this platform.
Additionally, on October 3, 2019, for the delegation under the leadership of the Head of the “Plug&Play” company was arranged a meeting in order to discuss the issue of opening an energy hub in Kazakhstan. During the meeting, the Kazakh side invited the company to be the speakers at the Digital Bridge forum, which was held on October 24-25, 2019 in Nur-Sultan.
Visit of the delegation of "Republican center for space communications" JSC October 10-11, 2019
Arranged a visit of JSC "Republican center for space communications" to the companies "Maxar technologies" and "Saturn” located in Palo Alto and Los Angeles.
The main purpose of the visit is to establish contacts and cooperation with “Maxar technologies”, the world leader in satellite manufacturing and assembly.
Visit on promoting cooperation with national parks
On October 17-18, 2019, an inter-agency delegation of the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan visited Denver, Colorado to promote cooperation with national parks of the United States. While the visit was arranged a meeting with the President of the company "Xanterra" A.Todd. An exchange of views regarding the engagement of advanced technologies for managing national parks was held.
Visit of the Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United States E. Kazykhanov (October 16-17, 2019)
Within the visit of the Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United States E. Kazykhanov, a round table on "Investment potential of the Republic of Kazakhstan" was arranged. Don Bonker, a former Congressman from Washington state and representatives of a number of American companies like “Cisco”, “Chevron”, “500 Startups”, “Primus Power”, “Valmont”, “MinIO”, “Nutanix”, and others attended this event.
The round table presented the "Digital Kazakhstan" program, opportunities for implementing joint projects through the "Kazakhstan Investment Development Fund", as well as solutions of Kazakhstan IT companies based in Silicon Valley.
There was a meeting with young kazakhs working in Silicon Valley in "Google", "Epam", "Motrux LLC" and others, as well as with students from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Southern California.
A meeting was held with the CEO of "Plug&Play" Saeed Amidi, after which an agreement to open the "Plug and Play" energy and innovation hub in 2020 in Nur-Sultan to implement technology transfer for the application and implementation of innovations in Kazakhstan was reached. Besides, the “Plug&Play” company confirmed its participation in the international forum "Digital Bridge" in Nur-Sultan on October 24-25, 2019.
A meeting with Guy Diedrich – Vice President and the Global Innovation Officer for Cisco Systems was arranged. After the negotiations an agreement on the possibility of providing a free education program on information technologies and cybersecurity within the framework of the "Digital Kazakhstan" program was reached.
The parties discussed the implementation of the CDA (Country Digital Acceleration program).
Visit of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan A. Mamin to San Francisco
The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan A. Mamin paid an official visit to San Francisco on December 9-10, 2019.
The main goal of the visit of the Head of the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan to San-Francisco was to hold negotiations with the leadership of companies in the field of innovation and digital development, venture financing and energy.
The issues of promoting innovation ecosystem, venture capital and start-up projects in Kazakhstan were discussed during the talks of A.Mamin with the management of “Plug&Play” company, its branch is going to be opened on the site of “Astana Hub”.
On the meeting with a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at “C3.ai” Thomas Siebel, the issues of cooperation in exploiting the artificial intelligence in the oil and gas and other areas of the economy of Kazakhstan were discussed.
On the meeting with the Chief Executive Officer at “One Web” A.Steckel the outlook of implementing the project on ubiquitous coverage of the territory of Kazakhstan, including remote and hard – to – reach regions with high-speed broadband internet connection through communication satellites were considered. After the negotiations the Governor of the AIFC K.Kelimbetov and the Chairman of One Web A.Steckel signed an agreement on further promoting the project.
The document includes the creation of a joint venture fund in equivalent to 10 million dollars. The project will give a boost to the development of venture financing and innovative entrepreneurship, providing start-up companies with venture capital.
Following the talks between the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan and the Chief Financial Officer of the “Bright Sphere Investment Group” (BSIG) S. Rana, the Kazakhstan Investment Development Fund (KIDF) and BSIG signed a memorandum of cooperation in creating a joint fund in 2020 to finance infrastructure projects at territory of Kazakhstan.
During the negotiations with ValvTechnologies President Kevin Hunt, Askar Mamin considered the possibility of opening a plant in Kazakhstan for the production of valves and gate valves for the oil and gas sector. It is planned to use the manufactured products within the framework of the Tengizchevroil Future Expansion Project, as well as export to the markets of neighboring countries.
During the visit Head of the Government attended the Center of the Fourth Industrial Revolution of the World Economic Forum (WEF) to discuss promising cooperation areas in the regulation of innovative technologies with the WEF managing director R. Samans.
Following the meeting between the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the International Financial Center “Astana” (AIFC), a document on strategic partnership in development of the Internet of Things (IoT) was signed, which is the first step towards the opening in 2020 in Kazakhstan of the WEF Affiliate Center for the fourth industrial revolution. Similar institutions operate in Israel, India, China, the United Arab Emirates, Colombia, South Africa, the USA and Japan, contributing to the provision of systemic state support for the development of the latest technologies and innovative projects.
The Prime Minister visited the office and factory of Tesla, where, as part of the meeting with the company’s management, expansion of the network of gas stations in Kazakhstan and opening of service centers for electric vehicles were discussed.
During a visit to the headquarters of the Cisco Corporation and a meeting with Vice-President G. Diedrich, the implementation of the updated strategy for cooperation in the field of information technology and achieving the goals set in the state program "Digital Kazakhstan" was considered.
The company presented the integrated digitalization of the economy, the creation of an innovative ecosystem, and the introduction of advanced Cisco technologies to further improve e-government resources. Following the meeting, the agreement was reached to scrutinize the Cisco project in Kazakhstan.
Visit to Kazakhstan
Arranging the meetings for Sobhan Hajitarkhani – Vice President of “Plug and Play Tech Center” and Hamid Hadibeik - Chief of Staff to the CEO and Founder of “Plug and Play”.
10.21.2019 arranging a master class for startup projects, IT companies on the territory of "TechGarden" in Almaty
10.22.2019 arranging a meeting with "Nazarbayev University".
10.23.2019 arranging a meeting with the Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry A.Zhumagaliev, "Zerde National Infocommunication Holding" JSC, "Astana Hub", "QazTechVentures" JSC.
10.24-25.2019 arranging meetings with the Vice-Ministers of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry A.Ospanov, Healthcare O. Abishev, Education and Science R.Bigari, Labor and Social Security N. Mukashev.