Akim of Almaty Yerbolat Dossayev reported on the current development of the megalopolis at the enlarged Government session chaired by Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

According to Dossayev, as of today the infrastructure that was destroyed during the January events has been fully restored, the economy of the city is on the path of sustainable growth and the level of public security has been significantly improved.

"Damage was compensated to 1,640 affected businesses in the amount of 16.2 billion tenge, 95% of which were paid until June 1 of this year. All natural persons were compensated for property damage in the amount of 613.5 million tenge," Dossayev said.

In order to ensure the safety of the residents of Almaty, the installation of 3,050 video cameras in crowded places will be completed by the end of this year. A total of 16.8 billion tenge has been additionally allocated for safety of the citizens this year. Restoration of the city akimat building with a completion date of Q2 2023 continues, construction of a modern media centre on the site of the destroyed Qazaqstan TV channel building has started with completion by the end of 2023.

In order to further improve the quality of life of the residents of Almaty and solve the systemic issues of social, engineering and transport infrastructure, in September this year the Development Programme of Almaty City till 2025 and the medium-term perspective till 2030 was approved. 

"Thanks to your active support and the measures taken by the Akimat of the city, the short-term economic indicator has accelerated to 6.2% over 11 months of this year, providing a leading position among the regions. The growth was driven by the manufacturing industry, which ranks 1st in the country in terms of growth rate," Dossayev said. 

The high level of investment activity was sustained by a 16% increase in private investment, the Akim of Almaty said. Over 11 months of the year more than 1.2 trillion tenge of investments were raised. Since the beginning of this year the number of actively operating SMEs grew by 38.5% (up to 285.6 thousand). 

"Support of 2.1 thousand SME projects (94 billion tenge) contributed to creation of 55.7 thousand jobs, of which 70% are permanent. This has reduced the unemployment rate to 5%. The above measures, according to our forecasts, will ensure growth of Almaty's economy up to 5% in 2022. In 2023, the main task of the Akimat will be to ensure sustainable economic growth in accordance with the Almaty Development Programme. The emphasis will be placed on the development of high-tech and clean production, tourism, the IT sector and the creative industries," Dossayev explained.   

To further diversify the economy of the city, the expansion of the ISA area by 189 hectares was supported. It is planned to launch 7 small industrial parks, create a venture fund for creative industries, and finance about 2,600 projects in priority areas amounting to 40 billion tenge. A total of 1.5 trillion tenge of investment will be raised. Thanks to this, Almaty's economy will grow by 4.4% in 2023.

It is worth noting that quality development of human capital is a priority in the work of the city Akimat. Particular attention is paid to education. As of December 1 of this year in Almaty 16 schools and annexes for 13,5 thousand places are put into operation, by the end of the year 5 more objects for 4570 pupils are commissioned (3 schools, 2 annexes). 

In order to eliminate "chronic" deficiency of school places the construction of 22 schools for 37 100 school places will be started within the National Project "Comfortable School" in Almaty. 

Necessary means in amount of 11 billion tenge for purchase of land lots and connection to the infrastructure are provided in the approved budget of the city for 2023-2025. 

Under the "1000 Schools" project 36 schools for 27,150 pupils places will be commissioned during 2023-2025 at the expense of the IB. This will generally reduce the shortage of pupil places to a 'manageable' level by the end of 2025.

In 2023, the School Bus pilot project will be launched, reaching more than 7,700 children from 29 schools. 

"From the new school year, we launched a project to provide free hot meals to pupils in grades 1-4, as well as children in the SUSN category. The coverage is 133,000 children or almost 45% of the total number of pupils. In pursuance of your instructions, in 2023 a comprehensive security system with panic buttons, access control and video cameras will be introduced in all 212 schools in the city," Dossayev explained. 

As part of improving the healthcare system in 2022, medical institutions were equipped with equipment worth 16.4 billion tenge, 4 PHC facilities are at the completion stage and design documentation for 7 facilities has been developed. 

"In 2023 it is planned to prepare modernization projects for 10 multi-purpose hospitals, construction of 4 PHC facilities, as well as design of 6 new polyclinics and 3 PHC facilities. These facilities will be implemented with due regard for the unified standard of primary health care in Almaty being developed. In general, 31.5 billion tenge is foreseen to improve the availability and quality of medical services in 2023," Dossayev said. 

The Almaty Development Programme prioritises the development of public transport, taking into account the renewal of the bus fleet and its greening. In that year, 2 metro stations were launched and 550 new buses and trolleybuses were purchased. Two main streets have been completed, 25 km of new roads have been built and 200 km of roads have been repaired. 

Thus, 300 new gas-fired buses and 100 trolleybuses will be purchased and 80 stops will be installed in 2023 as part of the transport infrastructure development. There will be an average repair of 200 km of roads, the development of 30 km of pavements, as well as the completion of 2 interchanges. As a result, the proportion of roads in good and satisfactory condition will reach 89% by the end of next year. To ensure the connectivity between the districts of the city a master plan for the development of transport framework of Almaty to 2040 will be developed taking into account the development of the Almaty agglomeration.

"As of today, a number of districts of the city have no central water supply and sewerage system. Over 11 months of this year 203.9 km of water supply and sewerage networks have been constructed. In 2023, construction of a water intake on the Kargaly River and updating of design and estimate documentation for the Ermensai water intake will be completed; construction of a water intake on the Aksai River will be continued. Once commissioned, these facilities will provide 170,000 residents with high-quality water supplies. In addition, 217 km of new water supply and sewerage networks will be constructed to supply 170,000 people. The construction of 2 Almagul and Tuzdybastau substations and supply lines for 540,000 households will be finished," Dossayev said.  

In order to provide heat to 450 thousand consumers in 2023 will be completed reconstruction of 2 boilers "Southern District Boiler" and "Premiere". At the same time, in order to reduce wear and tear, the volume of reconstruction of heating networks will be increased 3-fold to 15 km in the coming year. In order to significantly reduce the depreciation of utility networks, starting in 2023, a new tariff policy "Tariff in Exchange for Investment" will be introduced gradually over three years in order to improve the quality of public services. 

Akim of the megalopolis focused on an important problem for all regions. Today Almaty is facing overloading of its engineering networks due to system errors in design and construction. 

As part of improving Kazakhstan's ranking in Doing business, the project approval stage has been abolished since 2016, leading to an unbalanced system of engineering networks. Today, this is a serious problem not only for the city of Almaty, but also for other regions.

To resolve the situation, it is proposed to resume the stage of approval of design solutions for connection to engineering networks. 

In addition, within the framework of implementation of the instructions to return Almaty the status of the "Garden City", 335 thousand trees have been planted and 5 new park areas have been created for 11 months of this year. In 2023 320 thousand trees are planned to be planted. Moreover, 8 parks are to be reconstructed and built, and 13 public spaces are to be designed. 

At the same time, today in Almaty less than 30% of green areas are covered by irrigation system, which affects the survival rate of new plantings.  For this purpose, from next year a new approach is applied, providing for planting of trees after installation of irrigation networks. 

Also, in the 1st quarter of 2023 for the first time will be adopted the Rules of maintenance and protection of green spaces. 

Air quality remains an issue of concern to Almaty residents. An additional 500 sensors will be installed in 2023 for environmental monitoring and identification of sources of air pollution. On November 25 this year a loan agreement was signed with the EBRD to modernise CHPP-2. The conversion of CHPP-2 to gas will provide a significant reduction in emissions.

The akim also stressed that further increase of the income growth of the population is a priority in the work of the city Akimat. At the same time, the main challenge remains the maintenance of high growth rates of prices. For 11 months of this year, inflation was 18.9% (annual inflation - 19.5%). The largest increase in prices since the beginning of this year was recorded for sugar (89%), stationery (82.6%), rent (75.7%). 

"Today, the cost of rent and prices of sugar have stabilized. A total of 2.6 billion tg from the local budget has been allocated for centralised sugar procurement next year. From November 16 to the end of this year there is a moratorium on price increases by large retail chains on all food and non-food products sold in Magnum and Small. Inflationary expectations remain high amidst unstable external factors and rising food prices globally. According to our estimates, inflation in Almaty next year will be in the corridor of 10-12%," Dossayev informed.