Kazakhstan's Astana hub fuels tech start-ups and export boom

euronews (in English)

In this episode of East-West Connect, we explore Kazakhstan's tech boom at the Astana hub, highlighting AI startups like Arlan Biotech and Autism Spectrum that are driving innovation.

Transcript

00:00Artificial intelligence, connectivity, blockchain, technology is disrupting our lives like never

00:16before.

00:17In Kazakhstan, the IT sector is growing fast, exporting services to international markets.

00:25It's helping to grow the country's economy and that of Central Asia.

00:29But how easy is it in today's competitive and uncertain world?

00:37Hello and welcome to East-West Connect.

00:39We're highlighting business and economic developments in Kazakhstan and the wider Central Asia region,

00:47connecting them with Europe and beyond.

00:50Technology is big business.

00:52In Central Asia, revenue in the IT services market is expected to top 3.8 billion euros

00:59this year.

01:01Kazakhstan's IT sector now has over 18,600 businesses.

01:07The Astana Hub, a technology park in the country's capital, is supporting start-ups, tech companies,

01:14investors and researchers.

01:17In 2018, it's attracted more than 1,500 companies so far and created over 28,000 jobs.

01:26Total business revenue has exceeded 1.9 billion euros, with more than half coming from exports

01:34in the past five years.

01:36Artificial intelligence is one of the big areas of business.

01:40Take a look at this.

01:47AI played a big role in the speedy development of COVID vaccines and now this start-up,

01:54supported by the Astana Hub, is hoping to turbocharge drug discovery too.

02:02Deploying generative AI, it's come up with software that produces sequences of nanobodies,

02:08small antibody fragments for pharmaceutical research.

02:14Antibody discovery is considered as a holy grail for drug discovery because antibodies

02:19are used everywhere, starting from diagnostics to therapeutics.

02:23But there is a problem.

02:24Antibody discovery is quite a long process, very expensive.

02:29So our technology is able to give working antibody sequences within minutes and cut

02:36the costs.

02:39Alan is one of 150 start-ups helped by the Astana Hub in the field of AI.

02:46Other businesses are working in the likes of fintech, blockchain and game development.

02:52A growing ecosystem, fueled by incubation, acceleration and start-up support.

03:00We are offering tax incentives.

03:02So even international companies can move their operations to Kazakhstan, they can also become

03:08the members of Astana Hub.

03:11So for example, out of 1,500 IT companies that are our members, 400 have some kind of

03:17foreign presence.

03:19Alan Biotech has international ambitions of its own, with a base in the US too.

03:26It has a long-sighing global market and hopes to get its product out there within a year.

03:39So how does the Astana Hub and its business ecosystem fit into Kazakhstan's wider economic

03:45vision?

03:46I asked the country's innovation minister.

03:51We expect that for 2024, the IT exports of Kazakhstan will exceed 700 million US dollars.

03:59So maybe around 70 to 80% of that in the result of Astana Hub companies.

04:08And how about helping businesses to expand globally and making them global?

04:12How's that going to happen?

04:13There are a number of programs that will launch in Astana Hub.

04:17First of all, by bringing them from developed markets like Silicon Valley.

04:21There are programs like Google for Startups.

04:23Astana Hub is an exclusive partner of Google for this acceleration program in Central Asia,

04:29Azerbaijan and Mongolia.

04:31Plus there are our homegrown acceleration programs like AIpreneurs, where the individual

04:37comes and forms the groups and then the new startups appear.

04:41So these kind of programs, they teach and educate the entrepreneurs and startups.

04:47And when we talk about these IT exports and going to global markets, where are we talking

04:51in the world?

04:52Europe?

04:53Everywhere else as well?

04:54Frankly speaking, right now the residents of Astana Hub, they're exporting to almost

04:5890 countries.

05:00And this is the US, Europe, Asia and various fields like software engineering, AI, game

05:10dev and a number of other industries.

05:12And what does that mean for your economy here then?

05:14You know that we are an oil and gas based economy, trying to diversify our economy.

05:19And I think that IT exports and the industry itself giving its own contribution to diversify

05:25the economy.

05:26Kazakhstan, like all countries around the world now, face a lot of challenges.

05:29Geopolitics, supply chain issues, competition, protectionism.

05:34How do you approach that and how are you trying to overcome some of those challenges?

05:37We're trying to work with everyone, with East and West.

05:41And we know that the exporting regimes of critical technologies is becoming more and

05:48more stringent.

05:50But we're trying to somehow to overcome these issues, to work with both sides and abiding

06:00to all the requirements in terms of the security protocols and the other requirements.

06:07In order to overcome those challenges.

06:12The Astana Hub recently ran a competition for startups with finalists receiving seed

06:17funding.

06:18Among them, Ads IQ, an AI based system for public transport displays.

06:24Green Cars, which is developing electric vehicle infrastructure.

06:29And Autism Spectrum, an app to help diagnose and support children with autism.

06:35I caught up with the founder of Autism Spectrum to hear about their startup journey.

06:42First, this was just a research project.

06:45We wanted to clarify and get to know about the information on autism, not only in Kazakhstan,

06:50but overall in post-Soviet Union countries.

06:53And through this research, we realized that there is a high demand for services in this

06:56field of medicine.

06:58That's why we figured out that maybe we should do something and create a service that would

07:01help people to get the diagnosis.

07:03You mentioned that you were a finalist in this competition run by the Astana Hub.

07:07What did that bring for your company and how important has that been for you?

07:10Astana Hub helped us a lot in terms of finding the financial help and making this app available

07:18soon in all of the platforms for the vast audience.

07:21But so far we, through the Astana Hub also, tested our app in terms of three hospitals

07:26and got the feedback and understood the demands and some specific needs in this field.

07:32Do you have aspirations to get into the European and international markets as well?

07:35Yes, the app will be available in spring and our major goal here is to make it available

07:40to a vast audience.

07:44That's all we have time for in this edition of East-West Connect, but you can get more

07:49business news on our website, euronews.com.

07:52From all the team here, thanks for watching and bye for now.

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