Cyberport, Astana Hub Deepen Tech Ties Between Hong Kong and Kazakhstan

The Astana Times provides news and information from Kazakhstan and around the world. HONG KONG – Cyberport digital technology hub sees its collaboration with Kazakhstan’s Astana Hub IT park as a two-way launchpad, enabling Hong Kong to expand into Central Asia’s growing AI market while offering Central Asian startups a direct corridor into mainland China and the broader Asia-Pacific region. Cyberport Chairman Simon Chan and Editor-in-chief of The AT Zhanna Shayakhmetova during a meeting in Hong Kong on Aug.

Photo credit: The Astana Times Cyberport Chairman Simon Chan said Cyberport and Astana Hub share similar development priorities, particularly in finance and information technology making the hub-to-hub partnership a platform for business expansion. In June, Cyberport signed a memorandum of understanding with Central Asian’s largest innovation clusters Astana Hub and IT Park Uzbekistan during the visit of Hong Kong business delegation to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, led by Chief Executive John Lee. The partnership focuses on technology transfer, supporting tech companies in areas such as AI, fintech, smart city solutions and Web 3, and facilitating overseas expansion and global market access for innovation and technology companies from both regions.

“The finance sector as well as other sectors of the economy are growing fast in Kazakhstan. There’s also a lot of business opportunities. We hope through the collaboration, our companies, stakeholders and startups can open up the business there or find the collaboration with the Kazakh business entities.

Astana Hub itself is comprehensive and focused on AI,” Mr. Chan said in an interview for this story. “Hong Kong is one of the major Asian financial centers, not only Asian but also the international financial center.

We hope to build Hong Kong into an international IT hub as well. And Kazakhstan is an ideal place for our companies to open up their businesses or make collaboration with the tech companies or financial companies for more collaboration and widen their scope of business and to seek more business opportunities,” he said. Cyberport accommodates more than 2,300 companies, including 18 listed companies with a combined market capital of more than 500 billion HK dollars (US$63 billion), nine unicorns worth more than 150 billion HK dollars (US$19 billion).

Its innovation ecosystem includes AI, dat…