KPMG International and its network of member firms around the world recognizes the importance of innovation to the technology industry and the global economy as a whole. KPMG's publication series, The Changing Landscape of Disruptive Technologies, now in its sixth year, provides perspectives about tech innovation trends, top barriers to commercialize innovation and insights into tech innovation best practices.

The first part of this study, Global technology innovation hubs: Forging new paths to outpace the competition, unveils the cities and countries that are leading as top innovation hubs. The report captures technology innovation findings based on the views of 767 business executives globally from companies, venture capital firms and other investors that focus on tech. This publication also features the point of view of 16 KPMG professionals who are technology country industry leaders across North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (ASPAC) to better assess each market's advantages and challenges.

Konstantin Aushev, Head of IT Advisory, KPMG in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, comments: “Technological innovations are not simply an intrinsic part of our daily lives and work – they are becoming the focus of work by more and more organizations operating in all areas of the company. Approximately 30% of organizations are establishing a separate position of director for innovation. This picture is particularly noticeable in China – compared to last year, the country is positioning itself in the world with far more confidence as one of the leaders in technological innovation. Naturally, the size of the markets and level of investments in China and the USA are incommensurate with the situation in Kazakhstan. At the same time, however, we can recommend that organizations take a number of steps, which do not entail significant costs, to create an innovation-friendly environment. When we implement engagements on business, IT and digital strategies for state and private organizations, we see that senior management on our market is paying more and more attention to this issue during the transformation of the organizational model and the structuring of key performance indicators and business processes.”