On 25 October 2019, KPMG in Kazakhstan and Central Asia announced an initiative that would enable the corporate sector to get access to the startups’ innovative and creative solutions.
Saken Zhumashev, Managing partner, KPMG in Kazakhstan and Central Asia: “KPMG Digital Village is a platform for scouting and developing innovative solutions for our clients, which are the major local companies. The objective of KPMG Digital Village in Central Asia is to develop an innovation ecosystem in the region. We want to adapt the experience of our colleagues from KPMG Global Innovation Services Network in Kazakhstan. We were inspired by what KPMG Digital Village in Singapore as member of this network has done in this field, and we use their model as a benchmark”.
KPMG Digital Village Central Asia will focus on 3 key components of corporate innovations: innovation culture, scouting and developing innovative solutions, and setting up mechanisms for working with them.
“Everyone could benefit from such ecosystem: the corporate sector may identify and deploy innovative solutions and tools, achieve its business outcomes in more efficient and prompt way; startups will have an improved access to corporations and opportunity to enter into the global arena, while drawing on expertise and support of KPMG’s global innovative network. Investors could make the most of new opportunities to expand their investment horizons. For us it is an opportunity to assist our current and future clients in improvement of their business processes and contribute to development of the innovation culture and emerging technologies in Central Asia”, Saken added.
Madiyar Toleugali, Lead expert, KPMG Digital Village Central Asia: “In my opinion, location of KPMG Digital Village Central Asia in Astana Hub represents a good strategic choice. This place is the largest innovation cluster in Central Asia which attracts the most talented people as a magnet. Astana International Financial Center, Astana IT University, Alem school (Ecole 42 analogue) and Nazarbayev University are located next to us.
I am happy that our company is in the heart of a regional startup ecosystem and seeks to promote openness by supporting the young minds and encouraging innovations.”
Hans Winterhoff, Global Lead KPMG Innovation Services Network, commented: “Innovation is value from ideas. One of KPMG´s primary tasks is the development of innovative solutions (products and services, with the respective technologies) to improve the competitiveness of our customers and assist startups with commercializing of their developments worldwide. Today 38 out of 153 countries are connected to the KPMG Global Innovation Services Network. We are very pleased that starting this year Central Asia has also become a part of our network and KPMG Digital Village model is being carried forward”.
One of the KPMG Digital Village cases in Singapore:
KrisPay, a digital wallet developed in partnership with Singapore Airlines and Microsoft, is the world's first blockchain-based airline loyalty program for frequent customers. KrisPay allows Singapore Airlines customers to convert their miles into KrisPay units and use thereof to pay for goods and services provided by the Airlines’ partner merchants To help meet the requirements for the innovative KrisPay blockchain solution, the KPMG Digital Village team brought a wide range of experience in solutions architecture, application build and graphic design and cyber security.
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*** KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax, and Advisory services, operating in 153 countries with over 200,000 people in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity.
KPMG in Central Asia and Kazakhstan provides Audit and Advisory services to major national and international companies and has its offices in the cities of Almaty, Astana, Atyrau and Bishkek, employing over 650 people.
For more details please go to www.kpmg.kz.