As part of the Global Innovation Summit 2019, held on September 17-18 in Nur-Sultan, Deputy Mayor of the capital Malika Bekturova spoke about the strategy "Nur-Sultan 2050". This document was developed on behalf of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the support of the Strategy Partners consulting company (part of the Sberbank group) and the Center for Research and Consulting (Nur-Sultan).

"Nur-Sultan in 2050 will combine comfort for local residents and attractiveness for mobile talent, unique Kazakh culture and a high degree of openness, and will become one of the best places to live in Eurasia. This is the target vision laid down in the capital's development strategy, which was briefly presented at the Global Innovation Summit 2019," Bekturova said.

The life expectancy of citizens in 2050 will be 82 years, while the population of the city will be 2.4 million people.

"The capital will become a truly safe city by world standards, crime will be substantially reduced, including due to the widespread use of security technologies. In terms of economic development, Nur-Sultan will reach the current values of prosperous North American and Western European cities. And the inflow of foreign direct investment will exceed 2.2 billion US dollars, " the speaker said.

She emphasized that one of the main areas to focus on is attracting more tourists.

"This is the capital, infrastructure is important here. The main tourists we attract are MICE tourists (business and event tourism). And events such as this summit, as well as the conferences and championships we are holding in Nur-Sultan, are what we are trying to use to attract more people to the city," said Deputy Mayor of Nur-Sultan.

The city will also become more integrated into global economic relations: the number of representative offices of multinational companies and international organizations will grow, the air passenger traffic will reach 11 million people, and the number of foreign students at city universities will reach 15 thousand people. All this will allow Nur-Sultan to meet the status of the capital of the state in 2050, which is one of the 30 most developed economies in the world.

"In the future, Nur-Sultan, first of all, should be a comfortable and hospitable city. A comfortable city is a modern housing, public health and a developed health care system, affordable and high-quality education for all, a comfortable and ecological urban environment adapted to the harsh local climate, and an efficient transport system. It is also a safe and inclusive city without suburbs, where basic social benefits are available within walking distance in all areas",  said Alexander Idrissov, Executive Partner of Strategy Partners

In his turn, Alexei Prazdnichnykh, a Partner at Strategy Partners and co-head of the Strategy-2050 team, added that Nur-Sultan of the future is also a competitive and steadily growing city.

"The key components of the economic success of the capital are high-quality jobs, globally competitive clusters, a developed innovation ecosystem and high entrepreneurial activity, favorable conditions for doing business," said Prazdnichnykh.

Thus, the strategy developers believe that by 2050 Nur-Sultan should become a city highly integrated into the world's political, economic, social and cultural agenda. The capital should become a full-fledged international transport hub, be implemented as an international financial and business hub, as an international center of university education, become an important center of business and event tourism in the Eurasian space, a popular platform for political dialogue and hub of international organizations.

"The long-term vision of Nur-Sultan is a platform city, a frontier city, a place where the best cultural traditions of Turkic, European and Islamic culture are combined. A city that builds its economy on knowledge and creativity. For this purpose, it provides the best conditions in the region for talented and creative people, " added Anuar Buranbayev, Partner of the Center for Research and Consulting and co-head of the team of developers of the Nur-Sultan 2050 Strategy.

To achieve the ambitious goals of the Nur-Sultan 2050 Strategy, an action plan of the city administration is proposed, which should become the basis for a new five-year program for the development of the territory. This document highlights 9 key areas of urban development: a growing and sustainable economy, quality and affordable housing, high-quality healthcare, education and international-class competencies, international connectivity, an integrated transport system, a comfortable urban environment and attractive hospitality infrastructure, modern engineering infrastructure, and flawless security.

It should be noted that Strategy Partners is one of the leading strategic consulting companies operating in Russia, Kazakhstan and other countries in the Eurasian region.

The Center for Research and Consulting is a Kazakhstani analytical centre established in 2013. The company conducts research in the field of economic policy and provides consulting services in the field of strategy, operational efficiency and change management for businesses and government organizations.