B. Sagintayev took part in the Almaty Investment Forum 2021
Akim of the megapolis Bakhytzhan Sagintayev in an online format took part in the work of the teleconference "Megacity of the New Silk Road", which took place within the framework of the Almaty Investment Forum 2021.
An important accent of the event is on the concept of "Mega-city, metro-city, poly-city". In international terminology, different names of cities are used: metro city, agglomeration, mega city, polycity. The concept of a "mega-city" means a giant city with a high level of urbanization and the development of global initiatives, creating an attractiveness of the city for people and attracting external funding. The polycity is characterized by a large number of growth points, enterprises, a multidirectional economy associated with production, tourism, and the service sector. The concept of the metro city development assumes active interaction between the city and the suburbs. As part of the panel sessions, which were held in a discussion format, the speakers discussed what challenges and opportunities the city can expect, what actions the state, society and business need to take for the effective development of Almaty, how the city will change, reaching the five millionth agglomeration, and others.
The speakers of AIF 2021, organized by the Akimat of Almaty, JSC "SPK Almaty" and the Kazakhstan Growth Forum, were the first heads of government bodies, ministries and departments of the Republic of Kazakhstan, banks, enterprises, IT and investment companies, foreign experts from various fields of activity.
The whole range of positions on various issues was presented at the forum, and important topics of concern not only to business, but also to all residents of the metropolis were discussed. Over 1000 forum participants learned about the projects that are planned to be implemented in the city, as well as in what direction Almaty will develop as a city of five million economic potential, a digital and tourist hub of the Silk Road.
The key event of the forum was a teleconference on the topic “Mega-city of the New Silk Road” with the participation of Almaty akim Bakhytzhan Sagintayev, mayors and representatives of the cities of Bishkek, Kazan, Samarkand, St. Petersburg, Istanbul, Tashkent and Shenzhen.
During the discussion, the following initiatives of Almaty were proposed to develop cooperation between the cities of the New Silk Road: creation of an innovative ecosystem for the joint development of start-ups and technologies; development of a transport and logistics hub, the tourism potential of Almaty and innovative companies on the platform of cities on the initiative "One Belt - One Road".
Almaty retains the status of the most prosperous metropolis in Central Asia and is the center of Kazakhstan's economic competitiveness. GRP per capita is 16.7 thousand US dollars. The volume of the city's economy exceeds US $ 32.5 billion. This is a fifth of the GDP and almost a quarter of the country's taxes. Since 2019, Fitch has confirmed Almaty's credit rating at 'BBB', which is in line with the country's sovereign rating. In the economy, over 52% is occupied by medium and small business, where six out of 10 Almaty residents are employed, over 74% of the city's working population has a higher education, thus, Almaty acts as an integrator of human capital.
At the event, the exhibition "Projects of the Year" was presented, during which 24 projects were presented for the amount of over 2,260 billion tenge. Projects include: gasification of the Almaty CHPP; construction of the International Terminal of the airport in Almaty; electric public transport; TargetEYE - collection of data from city surveillance cameras; Smart Parking Technologies - smart parking; construction of a museum of contemporary art; development of a management system for agricultural (farm) production; Solar Tree - solar panels and other significant projects and initiatives for urban development.