According to the results of 2021, the share of Almaty in the country's economy was tentatively 18%. The share of the city in the country's income rose to 25.6%. This was announced by Akim of Almaty city Erbolat Dossaev at the expanded government session chaired by the Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

The indicators of the development of the city's economy over the past year showed a high growth rate. For the first time, the volume of investments in the city's economy amounted to 1,200 trillion tenge, of which 81.5% are private investments.

According to the mayor, the akimat together with the Government of Kazakhstan are taking prompt measures to restore the city as soon as possible.

“Today, 88% of the affected SMEs in Kazakhstan are in Almaty. To provide them with the necessary support at the initiative of the Almaty Akimat on February 2 this year. By decision of the Government Commission, the procedure for compensating damages for affected SMEs was simplified by providing the opportunity to receive compensation in the amount of up to 5 million tenge, and payments to affected entrepreneurs were also started. In general, from a total of 1,527 affected entrepreneurs, according to our forecasts, 675 with damages up to 3 million tenge will receive compensation by Feb. 21, 2022, through city charities. The introduction of a simplified mechanism for payments up to 5 million tenge will allow 578 more entrepreneurs to receive accelerated reimbursement. Thus, in an expedited manner, 1253 SMEs or 82% will receive damages within the next 2-3 weeks. The remaining 274 subjects after receiving the results of the necessary examinations and assessments,” said Dossaev.

To reduce the time for obtaining the necessary results of examinations with the support of the Government, the number of forensic experts has increased from 8 to 30. To date, 456 million tenge has been paid on 260 applications.

To date, restoration work continues in the city after the January demonstrations. Thus, the work of 587 street surveillance cameras that failed was restored. In addition, by June 2022, 3,050 cameras will be connected in crowded places and another 200 Sergek complexes will be installed in remote areas of the city. Particular attention will be paid to the issues of street and yard lighting. This year, the installation of outdoor lighting will be completed on 1,066 partially unlit streets and 486 courtyards.

In the structure of the Almaty economy, the service and trade sector occupies more than 80%. Also, SMEs are the main source of creating new jobs and increasing the income of the population. 6 out of 10 Almaty residents are employed today in this area. In addition to measures to support entrepreneurs within the framework of existing state programs, funding for the Almaty Business 2025 regional program will be increased from the current 12 billion tenge to 20 billion tenge at the expense of the local budget.

In this year at least 50 thousand jobs will be created, incl. over 31 thousand - at the expense of business. The main challenge for the implementation of new investment projects and the expansion of the current business is the chronic shortage of qualified personnel. Therefore, in order to meet the needs of the market, the state order in organizations of vocational technical education will be increased.

“In 2022, we plan to ensure the growth of real incomes of the population up to 5%, the growth of GRP by at least 4.5%,” the akim of Almaty reported.

As Erbolat Dossaev noted, the rise in food prices has a negative impact on the real incomes of the population. In this regard, it is planned to take a set of measures to stabilize prices. For these purposes, 11 billion tenge was allocated from the local budget in 2021. Today, a significant increase in funding is being considered within the framework of the "turnaround scheme" and "social shops" in the city's markets. A decision will be made by the end of February. 204 contracts for direct deliveries of products to convenience stores, 19 memorandums with producers of bread, sunflower oil and buckwheat for deliveries to stores at fixed prices were signed.

Against the backdrop of a significant growth in the city's population, a serious challenge is the lack of student places. Last year, 33 new schools were introduced in Almaty, which made it possible to create 15,719 new student places and reduce the deficit by 46%.

As of Jan. 1, 2022, the deficit of student places is 19,611. In order to further reduce the deficit, the construction of 46 secondary education facilities will continue in 2022, of which 22 will be commissioned this year for 14,245 seats.

“Within the framework of the announced Year of Children in Almaty, in order to reduce the queue for kindergartens this year. work will begin on the opening of 82 preschool institutions for 10,340 places, of which 60 private kindergartens and 2 public kindergartens with the creation of 6,560 places will already be opened in 2022. The state order will be expanded by 73,147 places for additional education of children and the construction of 2 modern Centers for Innovative Creativity, the modernization of 4 Houses of schoolchildren will begin,” the head of the city said.

Also, according to Dossaev, not all 207 public schools meet safety requirements. In this regard, in March of this year, the akimat intends to adopt a two-year program, as a result of which, by Sep. 1, 2023, the issues of replacing CCTV cameras, installing turnstiles and panic buttons will be completely resolved in all schools in the city.

As for the healthcare sector, over the past 2 years, work here has been mainly aimed at combating the COVID-19 virus. In connection with the spread of the Omicron strain and the easing of quarantine measures, this year will focus on the development of primary health care. Thus, the equipment of medical organizations will be brought up to 100%. To reduce the burden on the healthcare infrastructure, the design of a medical cluster south of the Kuldzhin tract has begun.

“Improving the ecological state of the city is one of the main goals for ensuring the quality of life of Almaty residents and seriously affects their mood. According to our estimates for 2021, the main sources of pollution are transport — 56%, thermal power plants and industrial enterprises — 39%, the private residential sector during the heating period — 5%,” Dossaev informed.

Based on these estimates, in 2022 the efforts of the Almaty Akimat will be directed to the following:

1. There are only 15 electric buses for the entire public transport fleet in the city. Further development of public transport will be directed exclusively to the acquisition of ecological types of rolling stock. In the 1st quarter of this year 300 units of public gas transport will be purchased, which will increase the share of environmentally friendly transport to 37.4.
2. The implementation of the Zhasyl Almaty program to plant 1 million trees will continue. More than 300,000 seedlings will be planted this year. The indicator of the area of ​​green spaces per inhabitant will increase to 12 square meters.
3. Also in this year, 60 air quality measuring devices will be installed at the expense of grants. After the measurements and their analysis, a master plan for improving air quality will be developed with the involvement of ADB and PF AirVision.

Against the background of population growth and high pendulum migration, the issue of developing transport, social, housing and other infrastructure is particularly acute. At least 100 km of new roads will also be built as part of the Zhana Almaty Comprehensive Development Plan.

In addition, the new akim of Almaty reported that he had made a decision to redistribute the previously planned 2 billion tenge for the average repair of Al-Farabi Avenue from the VOAD to Saina Street for the construction and repair of roads in especially needy areas of the city, where today there is no or poor-quality roadbed. The search for reserves will continue. In 2022, work will be completed at 2 interchanges and the punching of Auezov Street. Planned in May this year, the commissioning of 2 metro stations will increase the daily passenger traffic from 30 to 86 thousand.

Till March 15, 2022, in order to resolve the accumulated problems as soon as possible, at the request of the population and non-governmental organizations, certain areas of the comprehensive development plan "new Almaty" will be revised. For the development of new districts, in 2022, the construction of 18 water supply and sewerage network facilities will be completed, covering about 62,000 residents,” Dossaev said.

At the expense of the republican budget, the construction of a water intake on the Kargaly River will be completed, which will provide water to 50,000 people in the Nauryzbay district. Also this year, the reconstruction of electrical networks with a length of 147.2 km and the construction of 2 substations will be completed, which will provide reliable and uninterrupted electricity to 400 thousand residents of the city. In addition, it is planned to carry out repairs in 313 yards, which will ensure 100% improvement of city yards.

A special issue is the development of the Almaty agglomeration. The current problems of Almaty have developed due to the expansion of the city's borders, which has imposed a significant burden on the entire infrastructure of the city.

“Akimats of Almaty and Almaty region intend to start joint work on the formation of the Almaty agglomeration, paying special attention to such problems as commuting, the fight against the shadow economy, ecology, the joint development of transport and other infrastructure,” said Dossaev.

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