Korea exports AI statistics know-how to Kazakhstan SEOUL, September 14 (AJP) - The agency that counts Kazakhstan's people, prices and harvests signed an agreement Monday to rebuild how it does that work with South Korean help, putting artificial intelligence and government administrative records at the center of the effort. South Korea's Ministry of Data and Statistics (MODS) signed the memorandum of understanding with Kazakhstan's Bureau of National Statistics of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms of the Re September 14, 2026

Kazakhstan turns from steppe image to AI testbed SEOUL, September 14 (AJP) - Beggars at bus terminals and market stalls in Kazakhstan set out a coin tin and, beside it, a transfer number. Most people walking past do not reach for change. They open an app and send the money. The app is Kaspi, and almost everything in the country now moves through it. Order coffee in an Almaty café and nine of 10 customers take out a phone, because a QR code taped to the wall does the work a card terminal used to do. The same application ha September 14, 2026

Tokayev arrives for summit as Kazakhstan eyes AI and minerals deals SEOUL, September 14 (AJP) - Kazakhstan will press South Korea this week to widen a partnership built largely on car plants into artificial intelligence, data infrastructure and processed critical minerals, an agenda President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev carried into Seoul on Monday at the start of a state visit. Deputy Prime Minister and Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyung-hoon met the Kazakh leader at the airport. Tokayev came at the invitation of President Lee Jae Myung, and the two wi September 14, 2026

Uzbekistan seeks tourism pact with Korea before summit SEOUL, September 14 (AJP) - Hours before a South Korea-Uzbekistan summit in Seoul on Monday afternoon, the Uzbek government proposed a dedicated tourism agreement between the two countries' tourism authorities, seeking to turn eight years of visa-free travel into a working commercial relationship. Uzbekistan received about 7.75 million foreign tourists between January and July, up 22.6 percent from a year earlier, and earned roughly $3.9 billion from tourism services over the September 14, 2026

Lee holds five bilateral talks before Central Asia summit SEOUL, September 14 (AJP) - President Lee Jae Myung will begin three days of back-to-back diplomacy with the leaders of five Central Asian countries from Monday, ahead of South Korea’s first multilateral summit with the region. Lee will hold a bilateral summit with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Monday afternoon, followed by talks with the leaders of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan on Tuesday and Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday. He is also scheduled to meet Asia September 14, 2026

Alatau City draws S. Korean partners ahead of Seoul summit SEOUL, September 14 (AJP) - Two South Korean technology firms agreed this month to build a digital model of Alatau City, a Kazakh new town that remains largely empty land, in the latest of a series of Korean commitments to the project ahead of Wednesday's first summit between South Korea and five Central Asian countries. The agreement was signed on September 9 at the World Smart City Expo in Busan by AST Holdings, ILJOO GnS and the Alatau City Authority. The following day, in September 14, 2026

Tajikistan bets on hydropower and AI 35 years after independence A country that spent the first years of its independence in civil war now counts about 300 hydropower plants, and the next thing it plans to build is an artificial intelligence center in its capital. Emomali Rahmon set out that agenda on Sept. 8 at the National Theater in Dushanbe, where Tajikistan marked 35 years of independence. The president named industrialization, green energy, digitalization and artificial intelligence as the priorities ahead. The starting point was bruta September 13, 2026

Uzbekistan bets on IT exports 10 years after scrapping dual exchange rate Until September 2017, any company operating in Uzbekistan had to pick one of two exchange rates, and neither option was good. The government set the official rate at about 4,200 som to the dollar. On the street, a dollar fetched close to 8,000. Foreign firms either took the loss at the official counter or broke the law at the unofficial one. That ended on Sept. 5, 2017, when the central bank stopped pegging the som and lifted limits on foreign currency purchases. The two rates September 13, 2026

Uzbekistan secures SCO security center and bids for AI forum SEOUL, September 12 (AJP) - A new body charged with countering security threats facing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's member states will be based in Tashkent, handing Uzbekistan a permanent institutional role at the center of the bloc's security work. Leaders approved the regulation establishing the Universal Center for Countering Security Challenges and Threats at the meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Bishk September 12, 2026

Korea pledges policy funds for Uzbek regional partnerships SEOUL, September 11 (AJP) - South Korea will put state financing behind partnerships between its local governments and Uzbekistan's regions, Deputy Prime Minister Koo Yun-cheol told a forum in Seoul on Friday, five days before the city hosts South Korea's first summit with the five Central Asian nations. Speaking at the same event, Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Khodjaev put bilateral trade at nearly $2 billion last year and said the two governments aim to raise it to September 11, 2026