Winners of contest on the best social advertisement on sustainable - «green» transport awarded in Almaty
The contest was organized by the Akimat of Almaty city with the support of "Almatyzharnama" and UNDP-GEF Project "City of Almaty Sustainable Transport". The goal of the contest was to engage young designers in producing social advertisement serving to promote sustainable transport to improve urban environment and safety on the roads, UNDP Kazakhstan reports. More than 30 pieces of work have been submitted to the contest to compete in two categories: "Sustainable transport: what is your choice?" and "Cyclists and pedestrians as equal participants of the traffic". With every coming year the number of private cars in Almaty increases, resulting in a wide array of environmental issues and problems related to noise and lack of space for pedestrians and cyclists. Opening the award ceremony, Mr.Ilyin, the deputy Akim of Almaty city, shared the vision and plans of the city administration targeting promotion of sustainable transport policies and addressing issues concerning parking, lack of cycling infrastructure, etc. He also noted: "We are glad to see the rapidly increasing number of citizens of various ages who prefer cycling to cars. However, there is still a lot to be done and certainly certain goals to be achieved. Therefore, we are glad to have support of such partners as UNDP and "Almatyzharnama". The organizers of the contest do not consider the contest to be a one-time event as such events are an essential part of a bigger vision and work of the UNDP in the area of sustainable development and "green" economy. Nailya Milyukova, the head of "Almatyzharnama" in her speech has underlined that there are many issues in the city that will benefit from lobbying them via social advertisement. She also noted the significance of active youth engagement and participation in such projects. Ardak Kazbalinova, a 5th year student of the Kazakh National Academy of Arts named after Zhurgenov, and Alan Alishev, an independent designer and representative of the Cycling Community of Kazakhstan have been awarded with MacBookPro laptops with Retina display. In her interview with journalists, Ardak Kazbalinova, the winner of the contest, said: "I have decided to participate in the contest as it seemed to be a great opportunity to help people realize how important their preference of sustainable transport is for the future of their children. The victory is a new step in my self-development and self-realization". With the support of the Group of Companies RTS, the project's partner, the three best creative works will be posted around the city and urge citizens to use "green" transportation and support city's transition to sustainable policy and contribute to the improvement of the status of pedestrians and cyclists in addition to currently developing cycling infrastructure, modernization and improvement of the quality of the public transport services.
