Mobile phones are the future of Kazakhstan's payment system: Massimov

Payment system in Kazakhstan could be rebased to mobile phones in future, Tengrinews reports citing Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov.

At a joint Parliament session last last month he responded to questions about effectiveness of information and communication technologies in Kazakhstan. "Now there is a debate on whether we need to develop our own payment system and what we should base it on. The payment cards that we have grown so used to are going to become a vestige of the past in 10 years from now. The trend goes towards cell phones. Potentially, in a relatively near future, cell phones will become a sufficient means for making payments in developed countries.”

PM Massimov believes it unnecessary for Kazakhstan to pass “all the stages of development” that the developed countries have gone through, but rather to take a look at “where all of this is going to” and adopt the technological advancement of the developed countries without having to go through the same process, he said. 

“Internet penetration is high in Kazakhstan, so as use of cellphones, so I think we will be considering this [mobile phones payment] option," he said, adding that he viewed that innovation as something worth spending some budget money on since “it will affect many aspects of people's lives: mobile phones will be used to make all sorts of purchases and pay all the bills."  

The Kazakhstan government, together with the Parliament and the country's banks are planning  to make a breakthrough in this direction in the coming three to five years, Karim Massimov said.

Reporting by Assemgul Kassenova, writing by Dinara Urazova, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina