Documentary “Digital Revolutionaries: 20 Years of eGov” reveals the story behind Kazakhstan’s e-Government

Khabar Agency JSC, in collaboration with the team of NITEC JSC, has released the documentary “Digital Revolutionaries: 20 Years of eGov”, dedicated to the development and evolution of Kazakhstan’s e-Government, one of the key digital projects of independent Kazakhstan.

The film tells the story that transformed the everyday lives of millions of Kazakhstani citizens. Today, public services are accessible in just a few clicks, whereas 20 years ago obtaining even a simple certificate meant long queues, paperwork, and visits to multiple government offices.

The documentary takes viewers back to the early 2000s, when the idea of e-Government was just beginning to take shape. A small group of enthusiasts (IT specialists, economists, and public administrators) undertook what at the time seemed an almost impossible task: to completely rethink the interaction between the state and its citizens.

For the first time, the film presents first-hand accounts of how the eGov concept was developed in 2003, why the launch of the eGov.kz portal in 2006 was compared to “a journey into space”, what technological and legislative barriers had to be overcome, how the infrastructure was built, from databases to the e-Government Gateway, and how Kazakhstan ultimately became one of the global leaders in online public services according to the UN rankings.

The protagonists of the film are the key figures behind the country’s digital transformation, those who stood at the origins of eGov and continue to develop it today, including Kuanishbek Yessekeev, Saken Sarsenov, Bagdat Mussin, Askar Zhumagaliyev, Aziza Shuzheeva, and others. 

Link to the film: How Kazakhstan built one of the world's most advanced e-Government systems.   

Kuanishbek Yessekeev: “There were very dynamic working groups. The entire IT market took part. Processes were developed from the standards that would govern data exchange to the way the system itself would ultimately function”. 

Viktor Abramov: "It was a large-scale startup at the state level. We were not afraid to make mistakes, we experimented with new technologies and kept moving forward, even when no solutions existed".

Asset Turyssov: "The pandemic became a real crash test for eGov. At that moment, the system came of age and proved its resilience". 

Zhaslan Madiyev: “The results we are proud of today are the outcome of many years of hard work, bold decisions, and the professionalism of a large team”. 

Over the past 20 years, eGov has evolved from an informational portal into a fully-fledged digital ecosystem of public services. Today, it is no longer just a digital platform, but an integral part of the daily lives of millions of Kazakhstani citizens and a key element of the country’s digital transformation. To fully grasp the scale of this transformation, it is enough to look at a single year: in 2025 alone, more than 51 million public services were delivered online, nearly half of them via smartphones. Today, over 90% of public services are available in digital format.

 The film highlights that eGov is not only about technology, but also about people. Thousands of specialists who built the system from scratch worked without ready-made solutions, made mistakes, refined their work, and ultimately created one of the most advanced digital government platforms in the region.

The documentary “Digital Revolutionaries: 20 Years of eGov” is a story of courage, belief in ideas, and the transformation of an entire nation.