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.
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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.