In his opening remarks, Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Askar Zhumagaliyev noted the importance of digital technologies in the housing sector, which is primarily due to the social importance of the industry and a number of economic factors.

“The Head of State in his Address set the task of improving the quality of life of citizens and introducing transparency in current business processes in the housing and utilities sector. And here digitalization can help. For example, only when installing smart meters, you can save up to 36% on the payment for heat for a two-room apartment. For residents, this is a significant saving,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.

He also stressed the need to support domestic developers and manufacturers of metering devices.

Minister for Investments and Development Zhenis Kassymbek noted that this is the first industry-specific Day of Digitalization held by the ministry in such an important sector as housing and public utilities. He outlined several key tasks that need to be addressed primarily through digital tools — improving the quality of housing services, ensuring the safe operation of housing, transparency of tariff setting and costs, as well as advancing the state of municipal infrastructure and the quality of services to consumers.

“You can still enumerate many tasks, but it is important to remember that the digital transformation of the housing and utilities sector is possible only with the participation of all parties involved and should be carried out systematically and efficiently, taking into account all current problematic issues for their early elimination. Digitalization will allow moving to a new level of development, changing the attitude to the housing and utilities sector and seeing it as a modern and dynamically developing sector of the economy,” said Kassymbek.

The unified information system of the housing stock and housing and public utilities E-Shanyraq was presented at the event. According to Chairman of the Board of JSC KazCentre of Housing and Public Utilities Nursultan Dzhiyenbaev, the main goal of the system is to achieve a balance of interests of the population and state tasks.

“The E-Shanyraq system will allow to form a single information space in the housing and utilities sector and systematize all industry data at the republican level. Through the system, the state will constantly monitor and analyze changes in the industry, and promptly resolve emerging issues. The system provides for the digitization of technical passports of all apartment buildings, monitoring their technical condition. The order of houses to be repaired will be displayed, the audit of the apartment buildings management will be carried out with the assignment of a rating to the company, which will create a competitive environment and stimulate the development of the housing and utilities services market,” said Dzhienbayev.

Guests from foreign countries were also invited to the event. Deputy Mayor of Kazan Iskander Giniyatullin shared Tatarstan’s successful experience in digitization of housing and public utilities, Vice President and Board Member of the Russian Corporation “Galaktika” Sergey Petrov told about the economic effect of automating the activities of resource-supplying organizations in Russia, and the head for CIS of the transnational company DIEHL Beate Bachtrod made a presentation on smart meters and their role in the digital world.

For IT developers, a special pitch session was held, at which they presented their developments for the digitization of housing and communal services of Kazakhstan. The companies also presented their technologies at the exhibition of Kazakh IT solutions, which was held in parallel with the event.