High time to eliminate digital gap between urban, rural areas - Abayev

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Minister of Information and Communications Dauren Abayev stressed the importance of eliminating the digital gap between the urban and rural areas in Kazakhstan, while speaking at the Astana Digital Forum on Thursday, Kazinform reports.

"In the modern world digital technologies can hardly be overestimated... The Internet is growing, social media are developing and digital technologies are gaining momentum," said Minister Abayev, adding that digitalization is rapidly becoming one of the key factors of competitiveness.

At the forum, Dauren Abayev also gave an insight into the key directions of the Digital Kazakhstan State Program.



The minister revealed that the Digital Kazakhstan program consists of several directions. According to him, it is important to develop good infrastructure, because there is a digital gap between a city and a village. To become competitive Kazakhstan needs to provide access to the Internet both in urban and rural areas, he said.

"We are working on that issue. We will provide access to the Internet to over 2 million people more by 2021," he stressed.