Kazakhstan's segment of Internet develops rapidly - A. Sarsenov

Could you tell us about the development of domestic content in Kazakhstan's segment of Internet?

At the moment we are working on providing access to Internet for every citizen of our country. Today every third citizen of Kazakhstan uses Internet; the content of Kaznet develops rapidly. This tendency has especially enhanced since 2008 when due to the efforts of the Kazakh Agency for Communications and Informatization the traffic of information transmitted inside of Kazakhstan's E-segment was stopped to be charged by providers and the speed of Internet connection was improved.

In such a manner provision of inexpensive and good hosting for internet site holders remains a topical objective in the light of further development of content component. Poor development of other infrastructure elements as convenient payment system, search portal oriented for Kazakh language speaking users as well as portals for children and teenagers can be noted as other problems thwarting progress of Kaznet.

Can price cutting and improvement of Internet connection help expand Internet use?

As it was noted earlier the level of internet access is high enough to date, but the problem of improvement of its quality or, in other words, increase of connection speed remains still. The payments for non-limit access to internet in Western countries can be compared with our ones (30-40 USD per month), however the users receive speed up to 1 Mb and more a second.

Therefore service quality increase not price cutting will underlie development in this direction.

As for statistics, out of 100 citizens 25 ones are provided with fixed telephone lines at present. This is the maximum number of service contracts which theoretically can be provided with internet with the help of hard-set communication links. At the same time provision of wideband access in this way has serious cover limits and requires large investments from the operators which will finally impact on users. Therefore development of Wi-Fi internet in accordance with 3G and 4G technology is the most promising way for sufficient extension of user database in Kazakhstan up to 100%.

Last year the Government provided wave frequency for 3G mobile communication and according to the instruction of Premier Karim Massimov pilot zones in Astana and Almaty cities will be organized for 4G technology demonstration. There was reached an agreement with operators regarding charge-free Kazakhstan's segment of 3G internet.

Can the residents of rural areas have better internet service?

The development of internet in rural district is a topical issue. We should remember that the President set an objective in 2007 to provide each settlement with telecommunication lines and now each rural district has at least one phone circuit. At the same time Wi-Fi communication was chosen with the purpose to reduce the volume of investments to infrastructure.

Please, tell us about the working results of the Holding for the last year and objectives for the current year.

As a whole, 2009 year ended with a positive result. The objectives set by the Kazakh Government have been completely fulfilled. The sales volumes of the Holding have been increased by 30%. The rates of affiliate companies have been significantly improved - National Information Technologies JSC demonstrated record-breaking profits during the whole time of its existing whereas Kazsatnet JSC for the first time ever got profit. This year the Holding intends to increase its profit providing growth by 27% against 2009 and sales volumes - by 57%.

As the same time the Holding plans to enhance the work with the commercial sector and, in the first instance with Kazakhstani one in order to contribute to its development and enter the global market. The opening of the International University for Information Technology in Almaty last year was an important step for us. The University was established in accordance with the Presidential instruction in April, 2009 in close cooperation with Carnegie Inc presenting American programs of Carnegie Mellon IT-University (the USA). It is also planned to open three colleges purposing at training specialists with professional education as well as specialized institute for staff retraining.

Has the number of citizens applying to the authorities been increased with the approval of E-Government?

I should note that E-Government of Kazakhstan is considered to be one of the most successful ones in the CIS. But in most cases it is understood just as the possibility to communicate in the weblog of the Premier or Akim whereas Infocommunication technology opens wider perspectives.

At present 59 state services can be rendered through internet whereas over 45 thousand users received these services last year. We have reached this during five years whereas other countries have come to this during fifteen years. We have laid basis for E-Government, identification, basic components for the infrastructure. Introduction of the individual identification number (IIN) and business identification number (BIN) will significantly ease the life of Kazakhstan's citizens from this year. The creation of common E-digital sign is unique itself. Now we unite all these two databases in order to provide an opportunity to make all operations with the help of one key. But that is not all. We will go further. For example, you take some document on real estate through E-Government portal and intend to bring it to some bank. This step can be cancelled at all to let the bank refer to the portal and ask all necessary data about you.

Speaking about our projects useful for the society I can bring an example of E-notary office, the investment project implemented by the Holding jointly with the Kazakh Ministry of Justice and Notary Chamber of Kazakhstan. It is introduced in Astana whereas 76 notary officers have been trained. The main point is that a notary officer can check the authenticity of documents online according to the common database. This will guarantee transparence and efficiency of the process and eventually is aimed at struggle against corruption.

Thank you for the interview.