"Astana will be a hub for international companies" Interview with Marat Omarov
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This interview took place in Astana during Antonio Buscardini's visit to the Expo2017 facilities.
In previous editions of the world Expo many facilities that were created had to be demolished or simply abandonned. What will Astana do in order to avoid this situation?
We are developing the post-Expo2017 for quiet a long time. Our aim is develop the Astana International Financial Centre. We want to attract national and international companies to our city and offer them the best conditions. I can give a few examples: the sphere will be the museum of the future. Among the 105 countries we will keep 24 best practices that we will include in the museum of the future - one of the stands will be used for this purpose. The energy hall will be a place for concerts or international fairs. We are talking about 113 hectares and we are keeping an eye on it.
Are you planning to sell part of the stands?
No, everything will belong to the State.
Are you going to reduce the rental fee in order to attract international companies?
Yes, that will be one of the concepts.
Kazakhstan is not known to be a global player on sustainable energy. Why did you choose “Future Energy” as a topic?
We know that Kazakhstan is not a player for sustainable and green energy. That is the reason why we decided to host an Expo on this topic. We want to show the intention to switch to this policy. We know that this will not happen in one day but we don’t want to be at the end of progress. Following this Expo we hope that we will have a solid guideline for our country.
Is the budget controlled or you spent more then foreseen like in all Expo”s?
The budget is not only controlled but we have even saved a little bit. But anyway the budget will be public.