IBM to build smart technologies center in Astana

A smart technologies center will open in Astana, manager of Smart Astana project and Director General of Astana Innovations Arsen Irgibayev told Tengrinews.kz. “A memorandum of understanding has been signed between Astana administration, Regional Development Commission of Kazakhstan Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Astana Innovations and IBM corporation. Preliminary negotiations were held with IBM. The corporation’s management expressed an intention to take part in the Smart City project currently implemented in Astana, in particular, they wanted to open Astana Smarter City Solution Center,” Irgibayev said. According to him, this will be the only such center in CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and Eastern European countries. There are such centers only in Western Europe, the U.S. and China. According to Irgibayev, Astana is a new city and that became the main reason for its selection by the corporation. “The center will include a platform for presentations, development and adaptation of new technologies for Smart Astana, as well as training and improvement of qualification of Kazakhstan experts. We are inviting global software companies to take part in the center’s work. Our local researchers and developers will be involved in the center’s work along with foreign expert, and that means additional jobs. The center will employ approximately 150 high-qualification experts,” Irgibayev said. The project manager also said that the center was going to be located at the territory aimed for EXPO-2017 exhibition and will possibly become the first building built on the allocated land, as all the parties are interested in its soonest launch of the project. The organizers hope that the issue of the building's construction will be solved within a year and the center will start operating by February 2014. By Shynar Ospanova