EXPO 2017 to give impetus to SMART City project implementation in Astana - i-CANADA Chair Bill Hutchison

"Smart city is an intellectual community of the future where communications are based on the latest technologies. The fundamental components of the intellectual community are economic, environmental and social ones," Hutchison said.

"For Kazakhstan EXPO-2017 is a communication with the international community, showing the country's openness to business, commitment to innovation and leadership in the "green" economy.

Also, according to the Canadian expert, the macroeconomic stability of Kazakhstan and the country's growth prospects are a unique opportunity for the project Smart City.

"In my opinion, Astana has the unique opportunities for the successful implementation of the Smart City project. They are macroeconomic stability and growth prospects, focus on innovation and sustainability of leadership," Hutchison noted.

He noted that in the field of innovation the Nazarbayev University plays a special role, since it is planned to create an innovation cluster on its basis.

According to him, successful implementation of the project Smart city will give significant results in the environmental, economic and social spheres.

"The social component is of particular importance. Sometimes people think that smart city is a technology, but in fact, technology is only the way of achieving economic and social prosperity," head of the association i-CANADA believes.