AKIPRESS.COM - Kazakhstan's biggest city Almaty hopes to become a significant transport, logistics and tourism hub on the new Silk Road, the city's mayor Bakytzhan Sagintayev told the Almaty Investment Forum 2019 held on Wednesday, Xinhua reports.

Sagintayev said to achieve the goal, the city would prioritize "the development of finance and insurance, information and communication technologies, logistics and distribution."

Almaty will also promote international tourism, modernize urban infrastructure, develop itself as a smart and cultural creative city by attracting investment and talent from around the world.

Sagintayev announced that under the "Almaty Development Strategy until 2050," Almaty is expected to enter top 100 best cities in the world in terms of quality of life and business opportunities.

Thanks to its quality higher education and comfortable living conditions, Almaty, the largest regional economy in Kazakhstan, has favourable investment environment, said Sagintayev.

"Almaty sits in the center of the new Silk Road. It means opportunities for tourism development, new growth sectors, and creation of new investment clusters," said Arthur Abubakirov, acting head of the Almaty Invest, a structural subdivision of Almaty Social-Entrepreneurial Corporation.

The Almaty Invest Forum 2019 aimed to stimulate business development, attract foreign investors and create new jobs. More than 700 businesspersons, including 126 representatives of international companies, attended the forum, at which over 30 agreements and memoranda of understanding totaling 2.3 billion U.S. dollars were signed.