In a recent development, the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations, and Aerospace Industry (MCDIAI) of Kazakhstan has denied reports claiming the withdrawal of the Digital Code project. The response came on April 26, 2024, from the department's press service.
The press service clarified that the MCDIAI of Kazakhstan did not retract the Digital Code project and labeled the information circulating on social media as fake news. The project has been forwarded to government bodies and the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken" as members of the working group responsible for its development.
The envisioned code is expected to serve as a guarantor of "digital rights" for individuals and legal entities, ensuring their security in the digital space and establishing effective protection mechanisms considering the risks associated with the development and utilization of new digital technologies and solutions. The code's approaches also aim at harmonizing and stabilizing legislation in the sectors it will regulate, including areas of informatization, information security, and communication.
The Ministry highlighted the global discourse on the necessity of a unified codified act governing digitalization, which has been actively debated in recent years. However, a unified approach to its development is yet to be established.
No country worldwide has codified such a unified act within its national legal system. Therefore, the idea of developing Kazakhstan's Digital Code aligns with the new global trends in digitalization. The Ministry, as the regulator of public relations shaping and implementing state policies in the sectors regulated by the code, has revised its development approaches. Excessive and unjustified strict legislative regulation of mechanisms, approaches, and tools in the sectors covered by the code as previously planned may lead to adverse effects.
Addressing risks such as the escalation of Kazakhstan's technological lag behind leading nations, brain drain of skilled professionals, startups, and foreign investments, the Ministry emphasized the importance of the revised approach to the Digital Code's development.
Following the regulatory policy, advisory documents related to the Digital Code and accompanying legislative drafts will soon be available on the open regulatory acts portal.
It was announced on November 23, 2023, that Kazakhstan would introduce the Digital Code. At that time, the MCDIAI had prepared an Advisory Document on Regulatory Policy for the Digital Code project, listing various challenges in the digitalization sphere.
