The Strategy for Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan until the year 2050 (Strategy 2050) created under the leadership of the First President Nursultan Nazarbayev envisions economic growth based on an open market economy with high level of foreign investments and internal savings. By 2030, Kazakhstan’s economy has to become knowledge-based and competing with the top 30 global economies. The accomplishment of this ambitious vision is only possible when coupled with a gigantic leap in innovation and technology transfer that would help transform the economy of Kazakhstan. As pointed out by Elbassy Nazarbayev Kazakhstan is a Eurasian country, so examining the path to transformation of economies in Southeast Asia has to be coupled with looking into the good practices and lessons learned of partners in Europe and North America. The transformative effort must engage all sectors of the economy and intellectual property (IP) plays a significant role in this process.

A lot has been done over the past several years to reform the IP sector of Kazakhstan. New legislation and secondary legislation that matches economic realities has been developed and is continuously being improved with support from global partners such as the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Bank, OECD, UNDP and others. Thanks to investment in education and professional trainings, largely due to the Bolashak Program, national experts are acquiring the knowledge and skills of their international counterparts. Kazakhstan is integrating its international IP commitments under WTO law, the law of the Eurasian Economic Union and the partnership and free trade agreements with the European Union, China, and Viet Nam. And while a lot has been accomplished much more remains to be done.

The three problems that the IP system of Kazakhstan has to resolve urgently are

digitization and digitalization in the IP sector,

commercialization of innovation, and

scaling and improving technology transfer, including of green technologies.

In addition to these factors more and better-quality data and indicators would allow Kazakhstan to monitor and speed up its transition.

As an entity with a broad development mandate and one of the first UN agencies to adopt a Digital Strategy, UNDP is partnering with the Ministry of Justice and other stakeholders to support the strategic development of the IP system of Kazakhstan in order to boost innovation and technology transfer.

With a concept for the strategic development of the sector until 2025 on its way and technical support provided on IP in the digital world, enforcement and dispute resolution, the project, supported by the World Bank is progressing despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As mandated by its Strategic Plan, UNDP uses its role of an integrator to help connect the dots between IP, economic and competition priorities and compelling social objectives in health, food, education and other areas, making sure that no one is left behind.