The Head of the Digitalization Office D. Yegizbayev reported that the Smart Taraz project, which includes 20 projects in five key areas: education, health, housing and public utilities, transport, agribusiness and security, is being implemented within the framework of the state program Digital Kazakhstan.

In the health sector, 70% of the population of the region will have electronic passports. However, already today 34,000 residents of Taraz use the application to receive medical services. By 2019 the number of users will be 200,000 inhabitants of the region.

In the education system, the number of classrooms equipped with computers in 10 months 2018 increased from 22% to 58.5%. Until the end of 2018 it is planned to provide 100% coverage. Among the projects implemented are also “automation of services for the admission of children to the first class and preschool institutions,” in 2019 a project will be launched to produce robots for school classrooms. On the basis of rural libraries, 24 digital cabinets are open, it is planned to build 57 such centers. By the end of 2019, digital cabinets will work in all localities with a population of over 250,000 people.

A single dispatch center and a mobile application for shuttle buses have been introduced in the transport sector. In 2019 electronic bus tickets will be launched.

In terms of digitization of housing and public utilities, the urban water supply system has been automated in 2018, a smart quarter project will be implemented by the end of 2018, and 315 apartment houses will be connected to the unified information system e-Shanyrak. In 2019 it is planned to introduce a single settlement center for payments for utilities.

In the agrarian and industrial complex, 100% digitization of pastures will be provided in 2018. Also, a situational center for control and distribution of water resources along the Talas River has been opened in the region, and smart technologies have been introduced in four farms. In the future, the akimat plans to fully digitize 20 farms, and to introduce elements of digitalization based on knowledge distribution centers at 316.

The Prime Minister was informed that “digital cabinets” work in rural areas. Specialists of the Centers help residents in obtaining e-government certificates, and by the end of 2018, thanks to the integration of information databases, they will be able to advise on receiving services in all government programs. Currently, there are 32 offices in operation, by the end of 2018, 34 more will be activated. In 2019, 209 additional offices will be opened. The measures taken allowed for the period May-September 2018 to train digital literacy for 182,000 people. The overall indicator increased from 61% to 78.5%.

Today, about 99% of the population of Zhambyl region is covered by Internet access, these are 347 settlements out of 378. In 2018 and 2019, work is underway to increase the speed in those localities where the Internet is below 4 Mbps. In 2020, the settlements will be connected to more than 250 people with no Internet.

It should be noted that December 1 in the Zhambyl region, it is planned to launch the Taraz Hub project, which was created by analogy of the International Technopark of IT startups Astana Hub. This was reported by the project manager T. Omarov. The main goal of the IT center is to grow a new generation of IT specialists and train robotics and WEB programming.

“On the basis of the center, we plan to train all teachers of computer science, robotics and 3D modeling from the early 2019. As part of the Digital Kazakhstan program, we are implementing three educational projects. The first project is ‘smart kindergarten.’ This is the automation of kindergartens. All pre-school organizations of Zhambyl region are free of charge automated at 100% (508 organizations). The second project is ‘smart school,’ enrollment of children in the first classes, today 119 schools are automated, the remaining 326 schools are planned to be automated until December 15, etc. The third project is ‘smart college,’ all colleges in Zhambyl region will also be automated,” said Omarov.

Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev noted that when implementing projects in the field of digitalization, it is important to take into account the total economic effect for the region.

In order to visualize the progress of digitalization, the offices of robotics and Web-programming of the IT Lyceum were visited, where the Prime Minister was informed about the measures taken to improve the quality of educational services provided in the region. Modern digital technologies and programs make it possible to inculcate the skills necessary for the digital economy to the growing personnel.

According to the akimat of Zhambyl region, training in information technology is actively conducted in many schools, both in urban and regional ones. In 2018, 120 robotics rooms have been opened in the region. In all regional centers of the region, as well as in the city of Taraz, there are extracurricular classes in IT classes. In addition, about 100 students are engaged in robotics in the Taraz Technical Creative Center.