VI Innovation forum is held in Almaty

In his speech the Almaty city’s governor Bauyrzhan Baibek noted that thanks to the systematic support of the Head of State for the years of Independence, Almaty has been formed as a large metropolis with a non-primary economy, a city of business and private capital, a regional industrial and innovative hub.

"Today, in the global competition for markets, leading megacities are moving from service cities to innovative smart cities. The basis of the concept of Smart Almaty is the balance of interests of the economy, the environment and society. Based on the best world practices and the needs of citizens, we have identified key areas. Together with the international company IDC, we’ve carried out a comprehensive analysis of the maturity of Almaty as a Smart City, identified weak zones and developed 7 basic projects aimed at a systematic solution of these issues. At the same time, we do not aim only at the introduction of digital technologies. "Smart City" is a transformation of approaches and a culture of interaction between the population and the authorities. Technology is only a tool to improve interaction and increase the effectiveness of all management processes. As President Nursultan Nazarbayev said, "Modernization is impossible without changing a number of habits and stereotypes." We are ready for changes, any creative ideas, offering all together to move along this path," - said the head of the metropolis.

So, one of the priority projects is "Comfortable city", that is, Almaty is a city for people, not cars. City is without fences, including mental ones. Together with the residents, the first sketches of pedestrian streets, parks, squares, the concept of renovation of a tram depot, etc. have been developed. This vector has chosen within the framework of the Almaty 2020 program developed jointly with international experts with the wide participation of residents. This practice has been noted by the Commission of the UN Economic and Social Council as the best for the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.

The city continues to implement a large-scale transport reform. To ensure the transparency of transportation, a transport payment card has been introduced, 1.3 million cards have been sold - this is 70% of the population. To unload the roadway, innovative parking lots are installed. Together with foreign consultants from Systra, the revision of the integrated road traffic management scheme is being completed, at the same time the allocated lines are being implemented, their length will reach 92 km this year. The construction of BRT has started. New comfortable buses are being purchased. a 21 km long cycle corridor is formed from Orbita to the Green Market, the Almaty bike rental system is installed, 50 stations are installed, and another 150 will open before the end of October.

To increase the openness of state structures, a pilot project has been launched - the public reception "Open Almaty", where the appeal is viewed as a concrete life situation. Today the reception of appeals is on-line, the call center and the front office of the executive committee will be additionally opened in the autumn. On the principle of "one window" people will be taken by the employees of the executive committee and law enforcement agencies.

The next direction is an affordable service for the tenants. As practice shows, more than 2,000 complaints are received annually by the COA. Almaty "Portal COA" is launched, where you can find out which COA the house belongs to, the mode of its work, discuss drafts of normative documents, ask the question. Rules have been developed for spending COA budgets, approving tariffs for maintenance and repair, renting free premises and preparing for the heating season. A package of proposals has been included in the Law on Housing Relations.

In order to provide the public with reliable information about the current expenditures of institutions, suppression of extortion and illegal actions, the "Open Budget" project is being implemented. This will also allow investors to analyze budgets sent to urban projects, use them to develop their proposals on the principles of PPP.

In order to destroy the monopoly on the information of individual state bodies and officials, Big Data is being consistently formed. For example, the data on the portal of the General Plan of Almaty has been opened - schemes of red lines, power of thermal and electric systems, water supply have been placed, which reduced the time for the development of engineering projects by 2 times. One of the main priorities of the city development program is to increase security. In Almaty, a project on digital prevention and monitoring of violations was introduced 5 years ago. With the help of camera-video recording, the level of thefts in public places has significantly decreased, more than 2 million traffic violations have been recorded. For the third year in the city's schools there is a video-fixation system. Scaling of the project with connection to the kindergarten system is planned to be implemented on the basis of the PPP principles in the service contract.

In the course of his speech Bauyrzhan Baibek noted that today Almaty became a developed regional magnet, financial and tourist center. The high scientific and cultural potential, the comfort of the urban environment attract financial and human capital to the city. The recently published Worldwide Cost of Living rating called Almaty one of the most comfortable and inexpensive cities, attractive for life and work.

At the same time, Almaty is a city of young people, a city of new ideas.

In the megapolis, a good infrastructure for innovative solutions - more than 80 research institutes, a third of the country's universities, where 140 thousand students study. 40% of the cost of scientific research in the country falls on our city.

In addition, Almaty is a city of business and private capital, a regional industrial and innovative hub. Today, more than 80% of the city's economy is formed by trade and services. One third of GRP provides small and medium business, where 7 out of 10 Almaty workers are employed. GRP for one resident of the city is 17.5 thousand dollars. There are offices of more than 60 international organizations and transnational companies in the city. Together with the UN is working to open the Regional Hub in the autumn next year. The National Bank, as well as the head offices of key Kazakhstani and foreign banks are located in Almaty. They provide access to credit resources. Thus, 63% of the country's loan portfolio has issued in Almaty. $ 3 billions of it are loans to SMEs.

According to Almaty city’s governor , the main role is played by human capital in the postindustrial, innovative economy. "the Almaty city’s people are creative, they have developed a spirit of entrepreneurship, they love and know how to do business. Our citizens - this is our main competitive advantage," - added B. Baibek.

During the VI Innovation Forum there are presentations and discussions on the stated topics, examining cases on the modernization and development of clusters and technology parks, new strategies and successful practices in the economy, implemented with the help of digital telecommunications and smart cities. It is noteworthy that one of the speakers of this forum has been a robot who spoke on the topic: "How the Internet of things, artificial intelligence and robotics will change the quality of life of mankind in the next 10 years."