Valery Vavilov: “Kazakhstan has a huge potential”
Kazakhstan is building a very interesting and efficient infrastructure. The initiative of “Digital Kazakhstan” is super-important for the ecosystem, for start-ups. This opinion was expressed at the Third Annual Global Investment Roundtable (KGIR-2019) by Valery Vavilov, Director General and Co-founder of the multi-disciplinary blockchain company Bitfury Group.
A crucial point for any investor who chooses a country to start his business is the availability of modern infrastructure. One of the main advantages that Kazakhstan has managed to create is the principle of “single window” for investors. “The new AIFC is strongly inspired our team and me to do business here in Kazakhstan. We were looking for startups and where we can start. What did we need? Security, clarity, simplicity and we had to feel the support of innovation. Therefore, of course, the Astana International Financial Center surprised us, everything was ready there,” Valery Vavilov told the participants of the plenary session of KGIR-2019.
He also shared his understanding of the factors that influence the choice of an investor. “The most important thing for international business is security, the “single window” approach is also important,” he said.
In addition, according to Valery Vavilov, support for innovation is important. “Today we are moving from an economy based on natural resources to an economy based on data. There are various technology companies where we would like to create some new technologies that would help solve various problems. But if we are talking about the digital economy, on the one hand the world is already digital, on the other hand we still use paperwork. And I think that the initiative of “Digital Kazakhstan”, which has already been launched here, is super-important for the ecosystem, for start-ups,” the Russian entrepreneur said.
Valery Vavilov said that when he visited the Nazarbayev University for the first time in this city, he was “surprised and shocked at how technological this university is.” “I think that Kazakhstan has a huge potential in this ecosystem, which has already been built.
He also believes that there are two main factors which will be important for any country. “This is human capital, our brains and the second is access to data. Imagine that now the volume of data is growing very fast. Over the past two years, we, as humanity, accumulated 50% of all data, this is a huge number. That is why many people say “what will happen next, what data will be next?”. And the main data provider of any Government, any country is citizens. You know that there is a huge amount of services from which data is collected. And I think that in order to create an effective data management and storage system in this country, start-ups should be given access to this ecosystem, this is very important,” said Valery Vavilov.
However, in the opinion of Valery Vavilov, the work with databases is especially important at the present stage. “We need to know how to store and how to manage this data and thus we will unite the hands of startups, we need to create good cooperation with them,” he believes.
The CEO of Bitfury Group remarked that when we talk about data, we mean data at all levels. For example, we currently use various kinds of devices in order to collect any kind of data.
“This is not only about payment systems, this is only one vertical. Other verticals are how we collect data, for example, on various roads, on traffic jams. In the housing and utilities sector, how people consume electric energy, water, gas, and electricity. I'm talking about the whole universe of data that we use and collect. If we can, if a country can effectively store these data and provide access to these data to startups, they will be able to find solutions to all problems related to any problems in this area,” said Valery Vavilov.