Current challenges of Almaty development are identified

Almaty, like other fast-growing cities, is facing the challenges of urbanization. This is stated in the document "The main priorities of the Almaty Development Plan until 2025 and medium-term prospects until 2030", published on the website of the Almaty Development Center for general discussion.

The challenges are divided into 4 categories: social, economic, infrastructural, environmental.

The following are classified as social:

- outstripping population growth due to intra–country migration: 3 out of 5 new Almaty residents are newcomers;

- pendulum migration (more than 400 thousand people enter daily), increased crime risks;

- high morbidity rate, 2.3 times higher than the average in the Republic of Kazakhstan from diseases of the circulatory system;

- high demand for social services – 19.6 thousand shortage of places in schools, more than 60% of state polyclinic networks are overloaded by 1.7 times.

Economic:

- the growth of real incomes of the population by only 2% since 2015;

- high inflation (8.8% since the beginning of 2022), while high inflation expectations remain;

- 25%, or 380 thousand Almaty adults, do not have access to social health insurance;

- 9 out of 10 crimes are committed by the unemployed;

- a significant share of the shadow economy - 28.3% of the city's GRP (5.4% of the country's GDP);

- every fifth unemployed young person in the country lives in Almaty (14.4 thousand people).

Infrastructure challenges:

- imbalances in the quality of life of city districts: in the southern part – the concentration of educational facilities (60%), culture (85%) and park areas (75%); in the northern part – industrial zones, warehouses, dilapidated housing (61%);

- growing traffic flows, congestion of 470 thousand urban and 230 thousand incoming cars;

- lag in the development of engineering networks: 1/5 of the courtyards and streets of the city are not illuminated, the wear of electrical networks is 65%, losses in networks are 14%, losses in cold water supply are 30%, more than 40 thousand people consume imported water;

- obsolescence of the housing stock: more than 1.7 thousand dilapidated and dilapidated houses (almost 1/5 of all Moscow railways), where about 75 thousand citizens live.

Environmental challenges:

- high index of atmospheric pollution: 7 (norm up to 5): exceeding the maximum permissible concentration of NO2 in

2 times, PM2.5 – 3 times;

- an increase in the volume of waste, out of 430 thousand tons of solid waste, only 17 are processed%;

- uneven landscaping: an average of 12 square meters in the city. m per person, in the western and north-western regions 5-7 sq. m/ person 485 thousand out of 4 million trees – 12% are emergency and weakened.

The document is under general discussion until July 1, 2022.