Kazakh PM holds meeting on digital tenge implementation

Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov held a meeting on the implementation of the instructions of the Head of State on the digital transformation of the economy, given at an enlarged Government session in February 2024, El.kz cites primeminister.kz.

The current situation and further plans for the development of the National Digital Financial Infrastructure, implementation of projects aimed at ensuring traceability and improving the efficiency of budget spending through digital tenge were considered. With the participation of Timur Suleimenov, Chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, Askhat Zhumagali, Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Agency, discussed measures to ensure the openness of the financial ecosystem, consumer protection, and combating fraudulent transactions.

Approaches to the development of key components of the financial infrastructure - interbank payment card system, Open API, Anti-Fraud Centre, digital tenge were presented by Binur Zhalenov, Advisor to the Chairman of the National Bank. Today the Bank's systems process 90% of the total payment turnover in the country and about 30 million requests for digital biometric identification. The volume of illegal transactions timely blocked by the Anti-Fraud Centre amounted to 2 billion tenge, and over 36 thousand such incidents were detected. 108 organisations, including all second-tier banks, large payment organisations and MFIs, are connected to the technological platform. Also in July this year, together with the second-tier banks it is planned to launch the service of interbank payments by QR.

The progress of the pilot project with the use of digital tenge, launched in 2024 for the purpose of traceability of public funds spending was discussed.

Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Agency Askhat Zhumagali said that the project is being tested in the most corruption-prone areas. A total of about 250 billion tenge has been issued so far. The developers envisage linking unique digital tags to each monetary unit, which allows you to track their use at all stages from allocation to full utilisation of funds. The effectiveness of this method in the agro-industrial complex was considered on the example of the implementation of the programme ‘Auyl Amanaty’ with the participation of farms in Akmola region. Specially programmed digital tenges were used for crediting the purchase of farm animals by farmers and ensured full transparency of the process, excluding the possibility of fictitious transactions.

Within the framework of the approved Road Map, the project implementation this year will continue with the construction of railways and motorways in Karaganda, Pavlodar and Atyrau regions. It should be noted that domestic entrepreneurs attend the approbation voluntarily, which is evidence of their commitment to the Open Book principle of doing business.

In addition, a digital tenge-based pilot project digital VAT has been launched to improve the efficiency of administration and speed up the VAT refund procedure.

The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of further scaling of the National Digital Financial Infrastructure, as well as wider use of the digital tenge, which will provide serious budget savings.

"As noted by the Head of State, the possibility of marking and colouring money with the help of digital tenge may become key for controlling the spending of budgetary funds.

In general, a lot of work is being done by the National Bank together with other interested government agencies on digital transformation of the financial system. As for the digital tenge as the main topic of discussion, I support all your endeavours. We should pay mandatory attention to the fact that the introduction of the digital tenge will help to re-engineer the processes of finance taking into account the new realities. Business processes must change and become more transparent. Entrepreneurs should be guided by the following postulate: if you work with budget money, you should disclose where you spend it, show the whole chain of suppliers, contractors and subcontractors. It is necessary to expand the piloting of digital tenge,"Olzhas Bektenov emphasised.

Following the meeting, the Ministries of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace, Finance, Industry and Construction, National Economy will work out amendments to the legislation regulating the use of new digital instruments, as well as the development of a methodology for programming e-money.

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