Almaty got into so-called ‘middle-income trap’ - President

«Processing industry accounts for 13.9% of the city’s economic growth. Another contributor is investments. The city has attracted 930bln tenge of private investments since the year beginning, which is nearly 20% higher compared to the previous year,» said the President.

Entrepreneurship is developing progressively - the number of small and medium-sized businesses has increased by 30% since the beginning of the year, he noted.

«Most of the city's residents are employed in this sector. About 70% of all investments in Almaty are attracted to three sectors only - real estate, transport and trade. Low diversification of economy leads to slowdown in people’s incomes. The city got in the so-called middle-income trap, to escape which we need a deep diversification of economy. We must focus on development of processing industry, tourism, IT and creative industries,» said Tokayev.

He stressed the importance of boosting competition, attraction of investments and improvement of labour productivity.

The President pointed out necessity to fully utilize the potential of Almaty Industrial Zone and Alatau Innovative Technologies Park, where more than a thousand of productions will be placed and more than 20,000 people will be employed.