In order to form the Almaty agglomeration as a long-term pole of Kazakhstan's growth with the city-core of the world level in 2013, an Interregional Action Plan for the development of the Almaty agglomeration until 2020 was adopted. The plan provides for the implementation of 67 activities on three main tasks.

Minister of National Economy T. Suleimenov reported on the implementation of the Plan.

According to the Ministry of National Economy, the agglomeration territory is 9.4 thousand km² (939.5 thousand ha). The attraction zone of Almaty city includes the cities of Talgar, Esik, Kaskelen, Kapshagai and settlements of Enbekshikazakh, Jambyl, Ili, Karasai and Talgar regions with close economic, labor and social ties. The population in 2017 amounted to 2.9 million people, of which Almaty city — 1.8 million people. The density of the population of Almaty is 2.6 thousand people for 1 km². In general, according to the results of the last year, the city's share in the country's GDP is about 22%.

First. Territorial and institutional development of the Almaty agglomeration. A town planning document — Interregional Scheme of Territorial Development of the Almaty Agglomeration — was developed and approved. In total, of the seven planned activities of the first task, six activities have been completed, one activity is on performance.

Second. Economic positioning of the Almaty agglomeration in the national and regional markets. The Industrial Zone was created in Alatau District of Almaty City with a priority on innovative and environmentally friendly production. A new model for managing the Information Technologies Park special economic zone was implemented on the basis of an autonomous cluster fund.

"Work has been carried out to develop the sphere of services, including ecological tourism. For example, the implementation of measures to develop and popularize state national natural parks of Sharyn, Altyn Emel, Ile Alatau and regional resorts Alma-Arasan, Almaty, Kazakhstan and others," T. Suleimenov stressed.

In total, of the 20 planned measures of the second task, 19 have been fulfilled, one activity should be implemented — the concept of Smart City.

Third. Infrastructural coordinated development of the city-core of Almaty, its suburban zone and the zone of attraction. The construction of the Sayran and Moscow metro stations has been completed, at present two subway stations of Saryarka and Dostyk are under construction. In total, 36 measures were carried out from 40 planned as part of the third task, four remain on performance.

At the same time, the ministry prepared a project for the development of the Almaty agglomeration until 2030.

"In pursuance of the instructions of the Head of State, a draft long-term plan for the formation of the Almaty agglomeration until 2030 has been developed, which provides for more than 150 measures," said Roman Sklyar. The project approval date is July 1, 2018.

So, on the territory of the Almaty agglomeration, production and logistic sub-zones will be created, which are intended for redeployment of industrial and storage enterprises taken out of Almaty city. In the last five years, 31 industrial enterprises have been handed over to the territory of the peripheral agglomeration zone. Work is also underway to remove existing enterprises in Almaty into industrial zones.

The area of promising places for innovative technology park and industrial zones is 3,482 hectares.

"The industrial zone in the Alatau district is located on an area of 500 hectares, of which 390 hectares are allocated for enterprises for the production of building materials, furniture and engineering products, as well as food, light and pharmaceutical industries. In the industrial zone there are six production zones: engineering, food, pharmaceutical, chemical, furniture and light industries," Sklyar said.

In addition to the industrial zone in the Alatau region, the following industrial zones will develop further: Arna, Boraldai and Kairat. According to Sklyar, “the implementation of the project ‘Construction of Four Satellite Cities of Almaty’ — the construction of four mini-cities (working names of which are GateCity, GoldenCity, GrowingCity, GreenCity) united in one conglomerate city will have a big impact on the development of urbanization processes.”

Akim of Almaty city Bauyrzhan Baibek reported that by the end of the year, the private sector will be provided with gas, and by 2021, another thousand private houses in the suburban zone of Almaty agglomeration will have the access to the gas. In addition, work has begun on the project to transfer gas to CHPP-2. The Almaty Akimat has developed a long-term scheme for the development of public transport of the city on a multimodal basis. Long-term plans for the development of the network of health and education organizations in Almaty and the Almaty region for 2015-2025 have been developed and approved. In addition, work was carried out to develop a feasibility study of the concession project for the construction of light rail lines (LRT) in Almaty.

Lazzat Turlashov, deputy akim of the Almaty region, noted that housing construction will be provided with all measures of state support: allocation of land, engineering infrastructure, industrialization of construction. During the construction of the BAKAD (the Great Almaty Ring Road), additional jobs will be created. The launch of the project will give an impetus to the development of the country's economy.

Based on the results of the consideration of the issue, the Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev instructed the Ministry of National Economy together with the interested state bodies and akimats to ensure the quality implementation of measures to develop the Almaty agglomeration.

"Almaty agglomeration should develop as a multifunctional region with a competitive economy, a high quality of life and the environment, solve problems of interaction between city and regional akimats in terms of planning the spatial development of the region, population, migration," said Sagintayev.