aSTaNa |6 aDvaNCED high-TECh prODuCTiON aND iNNOvaTivE pOliCiES rEquirE aN iNCrEaSE iN maNpOWEr rESOurCES, ThE priOriTizaTiON Of EDuCaTiON aND SCiENCE aND ThE CrEaTiON Of aN iNNOvaTiON SySTEm.
<strong>September</strong> 2010|7 devoted to achieving its strategic development goals: ensuring sustainable economic development, maintaining a favourable environment and sustainable infrastructure, establishing a socially sustainable urban community and improving municipal management systems. To ensure sustainable economic development Astana constantly improves not only its image as the administrative centre of Kazakhstan but also as a city with a diversified economy and the high involvement of the competitive private sector. A competitive economy, work efficiency improvement, new goods and services production will become the basis for an increase in standards of living that will ensure a high employment rate. This, in turn, will create favourable conditions for domestic and especially foreign investments. high-TECh fuTurE It is important to note that in the near future Astana will become the centre for technological progress; it will become the capital city of the information community, i.e. a national innovation centre. Under certain conditions it is possible to construct new high tech and science clusters focused on alternative energy and energy efficiency, biotechnology and medicine, information, telecommunication and electronic technologies. Even now, arrangements are being made to increase competitiveness and create equal opportunities. At the moment the global economic development means transitioning from industrial and post-industrial types of development based on intellectual resources, to knowledgebased and high technologies. Thus, economy diversification and utilization of intellectual resources are perceived as the main directions for the further development of Astana City’s competitive advantages. Innovative economic development implies both modernization of the existing city and suburban enterprises, and establishment of new high-tech, science-intensive industries with high added value. With this goal in mind, a modern Astana university and scientific complex named after President Nazarbayev has already been built. The ”New University of Astana” project will give the young citizens of Kazakhstan an opportunity to receive an education equal to that of the highest standards in the world without having to leave the country. Advanced high-tech production and innovative policies require an increase in manpower resources, the prioritization of education and science and the creation of an innovation system. For this reason, a satellite science town in the suburbs of Astana will soon be founded. The town will consist of a large techno-park with a technical university, research centres and numerous small innovation enterprises, pooled into several clusters of information, telecommunication, high tech and science-intensive industries. Astana authorities will merge neighbouring enterprises with other related institutions: universities, research centres, techno-parks. To financially support the cluster development and the improvement of the quality of life, the city authorities aim to make a profit through the cost reduction of the merged enterprises. Public and private research institutes, design bureaus, higher educational institutions, science and technology enterprises, and state institutes for micro-financing serve as the basis for high-tech, IT, education and biotechnological cluster development in Astana. The focus will be on the science-intensive cluster creation to make Astana the national centre for sustainable production, technology, education and science-intensive activities of Kazakhstan. Thus, in the near future Astana will become a completely transformed innovative city in the heart of Eurasia which serves as a model for future city-building and opens huge possibilities for foreign investors.
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