Ayazhan Mukanova has extensive experience in developing and delivering ICT policies. She was engaged in a number of digital projects and initiatives in the course of Kazakhstan’s digital transformation.
As s a Director of International Cooperation Department of JSC "Zerde" National ICT Holding", Ayazhan leads establishment of cooperative relationships with international partners. She has been working in ICT industry since 2014, starting with “National Information Technologies” company, where she was at the origin of the creation of the e-government of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In 2017, Ayazhan has contributed to the development of the State Program “Digital Kazakhstan”, which is the fundamental document for the digital transformation of the country.
Her broad expertise in e-government development enabled her to participate at the assessing effectiveness of the websites of Kazakhstan national authorities, which was eventually used a basis for their improvement.
Ayazhan continued to work on the development of e-gov portal of Kazakhstan by actively involving in activities on increasing Kazakhstan’s position in global ICT rankings, which resulted in significant improvement of Kazakhstan’s performance on digital government.
Ayazhan has organized a number of forums, conferences and webinars on global and regional level. One of the major events organized by her team was the “Digital Almaty” annual forum in 2018-2020 attended by the heads of government of the EAEU member States, political leaders, leading CEO’s, and international experts in the field of information technology. In particular, Ayazhan has organized several sessions with the United Nations on digitalization for achieving sustainable development. In 2020, Ayazhan successfully organized the UN-Kazakhstan high-level joint event in the framework of the 75th session of the General Assembly.
Ayazhan was coordinating the work of the Advisory board on Digitalization in Kazakhstan since 2018, providing a platform for cooperation of state and international bodies.
She has also spoken at a number of national, regional and global events in the field of ICT and digitalization, including Western Balkans Digital Summit (Belgrade, 2019), Incheon Law & Business Forum: Challenges Of Doing Business In The Digital Economy In Asia And The Pacific (Incheon, 2019), the panel session of Astana Civil Service Hub “Digital Practices and Solutions to Respond to the COVID-19 Induced Challenges in Governance” (Nur-Sultan, 2020).
Ayazhan also has a broad experience with analysis and research of Sustainable Development Goals. As an expert of the working group of the Committee of Statistics of Kazakhstan, she participated in the analysis of SDGs in the course of nationalizing the goals and indicators. In 2018, she has delivered a speech on the progress during the expert group meeting attended by the representatives of UN member states, international institutes such as Asian Development Bank, etc.
Ayazhan is citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan, graduated from Staffordshire University with a business computing degree.