Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, during a working trip to the Pavlodar Region, inspected the implementation of the President’s instructions on the Data Center Valley project based on the Ekibastuz energy hub.
To establish a special zone for hosting computing infrastructure, cloud services, and AI capacities, a land plot of 200 hectares has been allocated near Ekibastuz GRES-1, with the possibility of expanding the territory to more than 1,300 hectares in the future.
“By the President’s instruction, we are launching a large-scale infrastructure project—the Data Center Valley. This will provide a strong impetus for the development of the high-tech sector of the economy. All government bodies and responsible organizations must work with maximum dedication and efficiency to deliver results,” Olzhas Bektenov emphasized.
The Prime Minister was presented with the design concept of the Data Center Valley. Progress reports were delivered by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry Zhaslan Madiyev, Akim of Pavlodar Region Asain Baikhanov, and Chairman of the Board of Kazakhtelecom Bagdat Mussin.
The Data Center Valley ecosystem will be created on the basis of the power capacities of the Ekibastuz energy hub. The concept предусматривает phased development of the facility with clearly defined parameters for capacity commissioning and the use of existing power infrastructure. The project includes the construction of 15 km of power transmission lines and step-down substation infrastructure with a capacity of 300 MW, expandable to 1 GW in the future. The project provides for the creation of 500 new high-skilled jobs in energy, operation of computing capacities, artificial intelligence, and related fields. Accordingly, emphasis is placed on training highly qualified IT specialists.
Special attention is given to creating favorable conditions for investors, including infrastructure, tariff formation, and tax incentives based on special economic zone principles. The projected investment volume for the project is about $30 billion. Negotiations with major international companies are currently underway.
The Prime Minister noted the strategic importance of the Data Center Valley in the context of Kazakhstan’s digital economy development. The Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry, the Ministry of Energy, the Pavlodar Region akimat, together with Kazakhtelecom, were instructed to ensure all necessary conditions and infrastructure for accelerated project implementation.
“This is the industry of the future. It is important to leverage our competitive advantages. All prerequisites for the project are in place—electricity, climate, and the Trans-Caspian cable. Therefore, submit all decisions that need to be made and move forward without unnecessary bureaucracy. I will personally oversee this project. We must complete this entire path as quickly as possible and proceed to operations, signing contracts and supplying capacities to global companies,” Olzhas Bektenov emphasized.
Source of information: https://primeminister.kz/en/news/olzhas-bektenov-inspected-the-implementation-of-the-presidents-instructions-on-the-data-center-valley-project-in-ekibastuz-31031