Baiterek Holding at Digital Bridge 2023: New horizons of digital transformation

The capital of Kazakhstan played host to the grand IT forum, Digital Bridge 2023, where experts and industry leaders convened. This year marked a historic event, with over 20,000 participants, representing 300 IT companies and 30 countries' delegations converging at the forum.

At this forum, Baiterek Holding showcased its cutting-edge initiative, the Bgov.kz business support website. Visitors were introduced to the website's key benefits and operational principles, including its ability to select government support measures for businesses offered by the Holding's subsidiaries, all within one cohesive platform.

A notable highlight of the event was the introduction of Amalia, an AI-powered news presenter. Amalia will provide regular weekly updates on current events related to the operations of the Holding and its subsidiaries. Her appearance, voice recognition, and speech are entirely generated by various neural networks, while the algorithms for responding to visitor queries are developed using ChatGPT. This remarkable AI integration was made possible through close collaboration with Astana IT University.

Moreover, the Holding's subsidiaries played an active role in the forum. The Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund demonstrated its digitized process for subsidizing and guaranteeing loans through the online.damu.kz website. This innovative approach significantly reduced application processing times, from 21 to just 3 working days, and, for micro and small business support, as little as 1 day.

Kazakhstan Housing Company also presented its digital products in conjunction with the Eurasian Bank.

As a sponsor of Digital Bridge 2023, Bereke Bank set up a stand at the event, where they introduced a new product: the ability to replenish a crypto wallet within the B-bank mobile application. The bank's emphasis on technology and digital service development enhances customer satisfaction.

On the final day of the exhibition, a panel session titled "Building Bridges: A Deep Dive into Stakeholder Partnerships for Innovation" was held. During this session, experts delved into GovTech development trends and strategies to foster partnerships for innovation in public services. The session was moderated by Usen Galym, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Baiterek Holding.

Distinguished guests attended the event, including Vincenzo Aquaro, Chief of Digital Government at the United Nations, and Tiziana Bonapace, Director of the ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division, along with representatives from leading financial corporations.

It is noteworthy that Baiterek Holding is making significant strides in the realm of digital transformation. In his address to the people of Kazakhstan dated September 1, 2023, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev outlined the imperative of substantial digitalization within the Holding to enhance the operational efficiency of state business support.

In alignment with these objectives and in pursuit of the goals outlined in the Development Plan of Baiterek Holding for 2024-2033, a comprehensive Digitalization Strategy is currently under development.

The anticipated implementation of this strategy promises to yield numerous benefits, including an integrated approach to business support, expedited application processing, an expanded portfolio of the Holding's products and services, as well as improved productivity and efficiency achieved through process reengineering, robust integration with government databases, the harnessing of Big Data, and the integration of artificial intelligence components.