(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
The International Forum on Digital Technology and Business
Digital Bridge 2022 was held in Astana on September 28-29. The
President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, and leaders of
global companies, the best international and domestic IT experts,
also participated in the Forum. Moreover, it became the main IT
event of the year. The Forum brought together almost 25,000
participants, 300 IT companies, 150 venture capitalists and
business angels, over 300 speakers, and 100 startups from 15
countries.
This year's theme was - 'Central Eurasia as a new tech
platform.' The organizers were the Ministry of Digital Development,
Innovation and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan,
the Mayor's Office of Astana, and the international technopark of
IT startups in the Astana hub.
'In the near future, our country intends to become one of the
largest digital hubs in Central Asia. Through the partnership with
the biggest tech companies, we will train IT staff and develop
human capital. It is symbolic that during the Digital Bridge days,
UN Global E-Government Development Index updated the results and
became known that Kazakhstan ranked 28th in e-government
development, moving up one line! Even though all countries have
taken the course of digitalization, we are growing. They say that
to stay at the same level - you need to run like everyone else; to
grow - you need to run faster. So, we manage to be ahead of more
than 130 countries in digital development and remain in the top
30,' - said the Minister of Digital Development, Innovation, and
Aerospace Industry Bagdat Mussin.
Among the Forum attendees, there also were Mustafa Varank,
Minister of Industry and Technology of Turkiye; Sherzod Shermatov,
Minister of Information Technology and Communications of
Uzbekistan; Farid Ahmadov, Deputy Minister of Digital Development
and Transport of Azerbaijan; and Indira Sharshenova, Deputy
Minister of Digital Development of Kyrgyzstan.
At the Digital Bridge's panel sessions (there were 45), more
than 300 speakers (diplomats, heads of leading international
companies, world-renowned experts, and representatives of
government agencies) discussed current trends and the most
significant problems in IT innovations. They also covered such
topics as the digital transformation of various industries,
artificial intelligence, cloud services, GovTech development,
broadband Internet access, 5G, personal data protection, crypto
industry, digital mining, spatial data, remote sensing
technologies, satellite technologies, blockchain, digital
currencies, robotization, cyber security, venture investments,
etc.
For two days, state agencies, large companies, international
technoparks, and other organizations signed 29 memorandums and
agreements on cooperation in developing IT innovations. In
particular, the international tech park of IT startups Astana Hub
signed 11 memorandums, including an agreement between tech parks of
Turkic countries.
Thirteen tech parks from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Palestine, and Kazakhstan,
participated in the exhibition of tech parks.
'I believe this platform is one of the best initiatives that
unite the countries of Central Asia. For the global market, our
countries are very small, but together as Turkic-speaking
countries, we can reach a higher level,' said Chubak Temirov, the
head of the High Tech Park of Kyrgyzstan.
About 100 best Central Asian startups in Edtech, Healthtech,
Agritech, and Fintech were presented at one of the main zones of
Digital Bridge - Startup Alley. Also, 20 local and foreign IT
companies offered about 500 vacancies at the IT Jobs Fair.
At the exhibition of IT schools, 20 IT training schools from
different regions of the country presented their educational
institutions to potential students. Moreover, at Digital Bridge
Forum, the first ten students were presented with IT training
vouchers from the Tech Orda program. We will remind you that the
Astana Hub, with the support of the Minister of Digital
Development, Innovation, and Aerospace Industry, launched the Tech
Orda program, which provides funding for training qualified IT
professionals in the amount of up to 600,000 tenge for each
student.
During the Forum, the Demo Day was held, a joint program from
Astana Hub and Google for Startups – Silkway Accelerator, where 14
startup candidates pitched their IT projects before venture capital
funds, investors, and business angels.
The most exciting event of the Forum was the Astana Hub Battle
contest. This year more than 250 applications were submitted for
the contest, and 97 projects from various countries of Central Asia
were admitted to the presentation on the Digital Bridge 2022. Ten
of them made it to the finals and competed for $10,000 (1st place),
$5,000 (2nd place), and $3,000 (3rd place) in cash checks. The
winner was NBFIT, a startup from Kyrgyzstan, a fitness service that
helps women take care of their health and recover from childbirth.
2nd place went to Easy Tap, a Kazakhstani online service that helps
find part-time workers in retail and hospitality. 3rd place went to
startup Cibionyx, a service for creating a metaverse of remote
labor for blue-collar workers.
'First of all, Astana Hub Battle is an opportunity for startups
to be heard,' explained Magzhan Madiev, CEO of Astana Hub. - This
event traditionally gathers a large number of viewers. Besides, it
is an opportunity for investors. About 150 venture investors and
business angels took part in the Forum. That is why I am sure the
Forum will give investors and startups the opportunities they have
come for'.
One of the highlights of the Forum was the cybersports
tournament - Alaman Digital Bridge, with a prize fund of 2 million
tenge. The tournament winner was 'Wet Killers' from Kyrgyzstan.
The general sponsor of the Forum was Kaspi.kz. Sponsors and
partners - Kazakhtelecom, Freedom bank, Tengizchevroil, My Car,
Tech culture, Huawei, G42, Halyk Bank, Prime source, Glovo, SF,
Leica, BI Group, OneWeb, Citix, Global nomads.
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