Central Asia’s payment leaders push for interoperable rails within 24 months

By AI, Created 9:49 AM UTC, May 20, 2026, /AGP/ – Industry leaders at GITEX AI Central Asia & Caucasus Kazakhstan in Almaty said the region has a narrow 24-month window to build sovereign, interoperable payment systems. The panel argued that AI-driven routing, account-to-account rails and stablecoin settlement could shape regional commerce for decades.

Why it matters: - Payments are becoming strategic infrastructure, not just a back-end transaction layer. - Panelists said Central Asia and the Caucasus can still shape their own payment rules before outside infrastructure and AI-driven routing set the terms. - The region’s payment design choices over the next 24 months could influence cross-border trade, digital commerce and financial sovereignty for years.

What happened: - A panel titled “Global Payments Dialogue: Interoperability, AI & Cross-Border Rails” took place at GITEX AI Central Asia & Caucasus Kazakhstan in Almaty on 4–5 May 2026. - The event was hosted by the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan in partnership with Astana Hub and the Akimat of Almaty. - Shota Dighmelashvili, Editor in Chief of Forbes Georgia, moderated the session. - Gani Uzbekov, Founder and CEO of S1LKPAY, and Bogdan Zadorozhny, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of 8B, spoke to a policy and institutional audience that included regional regulators, central bank representatives and infrastructure operators.

The details: - Uzbekov said real interoperability means many local systems working together so smoothly that the user does not see the complexity. - Uzbekov said a payment may feel like “two seconds and a tap,” but that experience depends on decisions across rails, currencies, compliance layers and settlement networks. - Uzbekov said AI agents and super-apps will increasingly choose payment methods for users, which will favor platforms that can operate across multiple rails. - Zadorozhny said national QR and account-to-account systems are about jurisdictional control, not only lower costs. - Zadorozhny said countries that build their own QR and A2A rails decide who sets the rules of the digital economy. - Zadorozhny said the rails being designed in Almaty, Tashkent, Tbilisi and Baku in the next 24 months will influence the next two decades of regional commerce. - Zadorozhny said cross-border B2B settlement in emerging corridors still averages more than 6% in fees and takes 2–4 days to clear. - Zadorozhny said stablecoin rails can serve trade settlement, treasury and intra-regional remittances. - Zadorozhny said consumer stablecoin use cases remain overhyped. - Zadorozhny called for cross-border compatibility to be built in from day one. - Zadorozhny said national payment systems should be programmable, machine-readable and interoperable by default. - Dighmelashvili said the future of payments looks effortless to users but requires trust, regulation, settlement, merchant adoption and cross-border compatibility underneath.

Between the lines: - The panel framed payments as part of a larger race for digital sovereignty, where control over rails can translate into control over trade rules. - The AI angle matters because machine-driven payment selection could make interoperability a gatekeeper for regional commerce. - Stablecoins were presented as a practical tool for business settlement, not a consumer trend, which suggests the near-term use case is infrastructure rather than retail hype. - The region’s policy push appears to be shifting from digitizing payments to making those systems compatible across borders from the start. - Kazakhstan’s broader tech ambitions added context to the discussion, including 90% public-service digitization, Central Asia’s largest hyperscale data centre, and a top regional AI-readiness ranking. - The release also cited World Bank expectations for Central Asia and the Caucasus GDP growth of nearly 4.7% in 2025–2026, $95 million in venture capital investment over the past year, and a regional IT services market projected to reach $5.6 billion by 2029. - The release said the Alem.ai hub is projected to generate $5 billion in AI exports by 2029.

What’s next: - Regulators, payment networks and infrastructure builders in Central Asia and the Caucasus are likely to continue shaping QR, account-to-account and cross-border rails over the next two years. - The region’s systems will need to be compatible with AI-driven routing, tokenized settlement and other emerging commerce models if leaders’ vision is to hold. - 8B’s message suggests the next test will be whether national payment systems can scale beyond domestic use without losing control of local rules.

The bottom line: - Central Asia’s payment future is being decided now, and regional leaders want interoperability to be the foundation before AI and cross-border commerce lock in someone else’s infrastructure.