Kazakh president issues call to develop country's large cities

"I think we need large clusters for the development of new cities. The population of Almaty and Astana is reaching 1.5 million and one million respectively. We need several more cities. This can be Shymkent, Aktobe or Karaganda, as well as other cities. Where millions of people live there will be culture and science development. That's to say, this is our future. These cities should be comfortable, and have prospects for life with a modernised system of housing and communal services and a developed cultural life," the president said.

According to the president, Astana is a 'smart' city where it is comfortable to live, Kazinform refers to trend.az.

"Nowadays all modern cities are built in such a way that there would be more space for people to go on foot and use public transport. This is communication and a free life for people. We want to show an example of such a modern city of the future a 'smart' city. There will be formed agglomerations and knowledge-based regional economy centres around large Kazakh cities," Nazarbayev said.