March 24, 2026
Times of Central Asia - Alatau: Inside Kazakhstan’s $20 Billion “City of the Future”
Details about the ambitious plans for Alatau city were presented to a joint session of Kazakhstan’s parliament on March 20. Authorities are moving ahead full-speed on the project to build the new city that one day could be home to some two million people.
According to the plans, Alatau will be a unique city, not only in Kazakhstan, but in the world.
Alatau city is being built on the site of what was the village of Zhetygen, some 50 kilometers north of Almaty. It will occupy an area of some 88,000 hectares, “larger than both Singapore and Seoul.”
Relieving the congestion of Kazakhstan’s commercial capital was one of the major concerns when selecting a site for the new city. Another consideration was Alatau’s location along the Middle Corridor, the developing East-West trade route linking Europe and China. Alatau city will have an airport and railway junctions.
Read the full article on the Times of Central Asia.
Bruce Pannier is a Senior Fellow at the Turan Research Center.