Kazakhstan has joined the top 50 innovative countries in the Bloomberg Innovation Index ranking. The country ranked the 48th, climbing by several positions. Kazakhstan is the only country that represents the Central Asian region in the ranking. South Korea leads the world in innovation for three consecutive years, outpacing Sweden and Germany. The countries are assessed on seven indicators, including post-secondary education, research and development, high-tech companies, the number of registered patents and research personnel. Kazakhstan attaches a great importance to new technologies. As the Nobel Prize laureate Raekwon Chung noted today Kazakhstan demonstrates its economy’s steady transition towards innovation.

RAEKWON CHUNG, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE, SOUTH KOREA:

My congratulations to Kazakhstan government for preparing very important event next year Expo Energy, Future Energy which is a critical subject for the humanity. I would like to focus on different dimension of innovation.

One of the recent developments by the Kazakh researchers is a rechargeable battery of a new generation. The project has been selected to be presented in the Expo 2017 and even received the World Bank’s support within the Technology Commercialization project. The developers are planning to launch production soon. In comparison with existing analogues, Kazakhstani product is low cost and smaller in size, the developers say. And most importantly, the battery life is 10 times longer. It can be used in electric vehicles, for storage of renewable energy sources, as well as handheld devices, laptops and mobile phones.

NURZHAN UMIROV, RESEARCH FELLOW, INSTITUTE OF BATTERIES:

Our batteries have a high capacity. Also, another advantage is that we don’t use metallic lithium. Due to this, they are completely environmentally friendly and fireproof.

According to the data of the National Agency for Technological Development, more than 300 projects worth over 12 billion tenge have been supported across the country by the innovative grants.

Smart technologies have already become an integral part of life for the residents in Kazakhstan’s major cities. For example, 200 innovative projects were defined in Almaty, which will turn the city into a smart city. Some of them are being successfully implemented. For instance, smart cameras to observe traffic rules and e-payment have been introduced in public transport.