Just a few years ago, an exporter’s journey towards government support involved a lengthy chain of consultations, paper applications, document exchanges and waiting for decisions. Today, Kazakhstan’s export ecosystem is undergoing a large-scale digital transformation. Access to support instruments has become comparable in speed and convenience to the services offered by leading fintech companies.
The direction of this transformation is being set at the highest level of government. At a time when the Head of State has tasked the Government with doubling non-resource exports and accelerating the digitalisation of the public sector, the Export Credit Agency of Kazakhstan (ECA), a subsidiary of Baiterek Holding, has made significant progress. The Agency has fully transitioned its interactions with businesses to digital channels.
Today, entrepreneurs have access to two advanced digital tools: the Exporter’s Personal Cabinet and the Exporters’ Showcase. These solutions represent a fundamentally new, human-centred model of interaction between a national institution and businesses, offering transparency, real-time access and reduced bureaucracy.
Digitalisation of Exports: From the Idea of Support to a Service Model
Modern exporters no longer compete on product quality and price alone. The speed of decision-making, access to financing, rapid risk management and the ability to find buyers quickly are becoming decisive competitive advantages.
For this reason, export credit agencies around the world are gradually transforming from traditional support institutions into digital platforms that bring together services, data and customer support.
Kazakhstan is moving in the same direction. The ECA provides comprehensive insurance, guarantee and export transaction support instruments, mitigating the risks of non-payment by foreign counterparties. However, Today’s key challenge can be framed differently: How quickly and seamlessly can an entrepreneur access these instruments? The answer has been the comprehensive digitalisation of the entire customer journey.
Exporter’s Personal Cabinet
Launched by the ECA, the Exporter’s Personal Cabinet was designed as a single point of access to all support measures. In effect, the outdated model of “apply, submit documents and wait” has been replaced by a flexible, constantly evolving digital service.
The Personal Cabinet offers a comprehensive range of capabilities. Entrepreneurs can register and authenticate online, select the required insurance product through an intuitive interface and submit applications entirely electronically. They can also track each stage of the review process in real time, communicate directly with a dedicated ECA manager, agree on terms remotely and sign contracts using an Electronic Digital Signature (EDS).
The platform’s architecture is particularly important. The service is built on the “single window” principle and is closely integrated with the Bgov digital business support ecosystem and Baiterek Holding’s call centre. Entrepreneurs no longer need to switch between multiple platforms, duplicate information or repeatedly complete authorisation procedures.
For businesses, this offers several practical benefits. First, it reduces the time required to obtain support. Second, it makes the process more transparent, allowing companies to understand exactly what stage their application has reached. Third, it reduces administrative burdens and the costs associated with accessing support services. For regional enterprises, this is especially important: access to support institutions is no longer determined by geography. Today, the portal is used by more than 150 exporters, with 25 financial and insurance instruments available to them.
Exporters’ Showcase
While the Personal Cabinet helps businesses access support instruments, the ECA’s second digital product addresses a different challenge: helping Kazakhstani companies find customers.
This specialised export platform is aimed primarily at foreign buyers rather than domestic users. Essentially, it serves as a high-tech digital showroom for Made in Kazakhstan products. Instead of simply listing companies, the platform focuses on presenting specific products, their unique characteristics and export potential, while providing direct access to manufacturers.
The catalogue currently covers key sectors of the economy, including agriculture, food production, chemicals, light industry, metallurgy, machinery manufacturing and construction.
The platform allows foreign partners to search for goods by category and keyword, navigate from a product listing to the manufacturer’s profile and obtain the information needed to establish initial contact.
However, the platform’s main distinguishing feature is its verification mechanism. The portal features only manufacturers that have successfully undergone comprehensive checks by the ECA. This “seal of quality” helps overcome trust barriers among foreign counterparties, encourages the conclusion of contracts and significantly lowers barriers to entering new markets.
In 2026, the Showcase features 465 domestic manufacturers and more than 1,200 products.
Artificial Intelligence at ECA
At recent technology Demo Days, the Agency demonstrated that it views digital transformation not simply as the development of attractive website interfaces, but as a fundamental restructuring of internal business processes through the use of artificial intelligence.
One example is Intelligent Underwriting, which uses AI to analyse large volumes of data and rapidly assess the risks associated with foreign counterparties. This enables insurance limits for Kazakhstani exporters to be approved several times faster.
Another example is Blink, a specialised AI-powered service designed to support negotiations. During meetings with foreign partners, the system transcribes audio in real time, identifies key tasks and automatically generates ready-to-use meeting minutes, reducing the need for manual processing and minimising the risk of human error.
Export Today: Data, Speed and Trust
The development of the digital ecosystem and greater transparency in business processes are accompanied by concrete performance indicators. During the first eight months of 2026, the Agency provided financial and insurance support to 78 Kazakhstani exporters, totalling more than 514 billion tenge.
The socio-economic importance of state support has also increased: 63% of the projects supported by the ECA involve small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The aggregate multiplier effect of the measures implemented reached 1.7 trillion tenge.
In the modern era, exporting is no longer simply about the logistics of delivering products. It increasingly depends on data, rapid decision-making and reliable insurance protection. In 2026, the Agency plans to further deepen the digitalisation of its services, introduce portfolio insurance for joint export loans with second-tier banks and expand the range of digital pre-export financing instruments.
In line with the priorities outlined by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the ECA’s digital capabilities will continue to provide accessible and reliable infrastructure, strengthening the competitiveness of domestic manufacturers in foreign markets.
Kazakhstan is focusing not only on increasing the volume of non-resource exports, but also on improving the quality of the export environment itself, making it more technologically advanced, data-driven and business-friendly.
For businesses, the ECA’s digital capabilities are not a promise for the future, but practical tools available Today. Companies taking their first steps towards exporting can begin by exploring market opportunities and registering on the ECA’s digital platforms.
Mukhtar Zhamishzhanov is the Deputy Head of the PR Service, Export Credit Agency of Kazakhstan.