Astana to rival world's biggest cities by 2050 - mayor
According to astana.gov.kz, the Kazakh capital city will start implementing the Astana - Global Smart City initiative as part of the preparations for the EXPO event this year.
"By 2020 Astana should become the leader in terms of attraction of investment, talents and tourists among the biggest cities of our marco-region, namely Baku, Tbilisi, Urumqi, Kazan, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg. It should successfully compete with the biggest cities of the Eurasian macro-region by 2030, including Moscow, Istanbul, Ankara, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. By 2050 Astana will rival the world's biggest cities," mayor Issekeshev said at the session at the Astana city administration on Wednesday.
Given that local authorities will focus on two priorities in the economic strategy of the city - economic development and transformation of Astana into the Global Smart City.
According to Issekeshev, Astana should become the center of business, event and medical tourism in line with the National Plan "100 specific steps".
"We mainly prioritize the development of tourism and creation of the financial center. We want to increase tourist inflow by 1 million foreign tourists per year in the mid-term perspective. For that to happen, we need to create the points of attraction for tourists - museums, galleries and sports centers.
Secondly, we need to hold 2-3 international or regional events per month. And, thirdly, it is crucial to commercialize sports and cultural facilities and enlist help of international companies that will help manage those facilities," Issekeshev stressed.
Successful launch of the international financial center was mentioned as one of the factors that will help transform Astana into a successful global city.
"In that respect we will work together with the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC). I would also like to specially focus on implementation of the Smart Astana project. Tremendous work on the project was done in 2016. It is necessary to continue that work in 2017 and implement key projects that will have positive social effect," the Astana mayor added.
