Innovation and digitalisation mean open, transparent and convenient opportunities for citizens and business.

While 59.5 per cent of the global population are active internet users, Central Asia is one of the least digitally connected regions in the world. However, national governments, particularly in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, have lofty digital ambitions. That process is enhanced by young entrepreneurs with creative ideas that offer various solutions and a large consumer market of some 75 million people.

Bruno Balvanera, a non-executive independent director of the supervisory board of Asakabank in Uzbekistan, a former managing director for Central Asia at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and an advisory board member at Tech Emerging Europe Advocates, speaks with Andrew Wrobel and shares his views on social and economic development in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the five countries included in the Tech Emerging Europe Advocates community, as well as how investment can drive innovation, entrepreneurship and digitalisation in the region.