Blog
CHINA | KAZAKHSTAN | CAMBODIA | MYANMAR
How do telecom companies choose their suppliers?
Kazakhstan’s digital ecosystem, shaped by historical legacies, modular infrastructure, and a strategic balancing of suppliers, highlights how developing countries can navigate and sometimes resist binary geopolitical alignments. Its telecom firms actively negotiate between long-term goals and immediate challenges, creating distinct pathways in a world increasingly polarised between U.S. and Chinese tech
BRI projects in extractive industries in Bolivia and Kazakhstan
In a recently published article in the European Journal of Development Research, authors examine the ways Chinese state capital accommodates host countries’ priorities, especially in fostering structural transformation through investments in the extractive sectors of Bolivia (lithium and iron/steel) and Kazakhstan (petrochemicals).
China-Central Asia cooperation in BRI scholarship
DIGISILK researcher Oyuna Baldakova explores how Chinese scholarship conceptualises the role of Central Asian states in the future of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The regional analysis is based on three recently translated articles by Chinese universities and think tanks
Smart city in the making: How Almaty is turning data into a public resource
Almaty has been laying out ambitious plans to strengthen its position as a major socio-economic hub in Kazakhstan by transitioning into a smart city by 2025. The "Smart Almaty" initiative increasingly relies on digital data as a public resource, warranting critical examination into the deployment of the technologies and their social impacts.
Bitcoin in the Steppes: Geopolitics behind Crypto Mining in Kazakhstan
In the steppes of northern Kazakhstan, to the south of Ekibastuz, a medium-sized city bordering a huge open-pit coal mine, lies the country's most powerful cryptocurrency mining farm. The thousands of processors inside, whose needs can reach 180 MW of electrical power, are connected to high-voltage power lines in Pavlodar province, the energy hub of Kazakhstan.
DFCA23: Exploring the Digital Future of Central Asia
Connectivity has become more essential than ever, but how is it evolving, what is working, what are the biggest challenges? DIGISILK, with the support of the ERC, and CCASC invited a group of academics, policy-makers, and NGO workers from Central Asia to discuss these topics for 2 days of closed and open-door sessions in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and online.