Baku, Azerbaijan, August 8
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
The issues of development of Almaty suburbs and Almaty region’s neighboring territories were discussed in Kazakhstan, Trend reports with reference to the press office of the region’s akimat (administrative center).
The Governor of Almaty city Bakytzhan Sagyntayev and the Governor of the Almaty region Amandyk Batalov participated in the meeting to discuss the issues.
A list of main issues has been defined during the meeting and it included the construction of housing and social facilities, development of transport and road infrastructures, provision of food safety and development of tourism potential. The emphasis was also made on creation of new work places and employment via entrepreneurship development.
“There is a deficit of free land for construction of affordable housing. There is an increasing demand for housing, which exceeds the construction rates,” the statement said.
“The food provision of Almaty is another serious issue which demands the coordinated action. During last five years, the population of the city has increased by 20 percent and exceeded 1.8 million people. The annual volume of socially important food products, i.e. vegetables, meat, milk products, fruit and eggs, is 1.1 million tons,” the statement said.
“Almaty region could become the main supplier of the agricultural product to the city, but currently it supplies less than a half of the consumed volume. The increase of supply volume and creation of sale network without intermediaries will allow to keep the prices affordable,” read the message.
Significant attention was given to the issues of providing citizens with job and new work places. The development of small and medium business in accordance to the needs of residents and local labor market is necessary to solve this issue, the report said.
One of the main drivers for creating new work places is the development of tourism potential. In accordance to the research, some 80 percent of foreign tourists who visit Almaty are interested in visiting tourists attraction of the region.
“In order to create accessibility and comfortable conditions the region needs to develop transport and roadside infrastructure. The possibility of creating regular tourists routes using comfortable buses from Almaty to National parks of the region should be looked into,” the statement said.
“I am sure that today’s meeting will create conditions for creation of new growth points on the cross-border of Almaty city and Almaty region. This is a great start of the joint work,” Sagyntayev said.
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