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Busworld is organising its second new exhibition of 2019. This time Busworld is going to Almaty, also known as Alma-Ata, the largest city in Kazakhstan, a raw diamond in the size of Western Europe were Busworld in collaboration with Business Media Central Asia will meet the nations bus and coach companies on June 25 to 27.
Being in the heart of the Central Asian region, Kazakhstan is the connection to Russia, China, Uzbekistan, etc. It is is not only an economically booming country but has also an interesting bus market. The cities have invested in new low floor vehicles, coming from Western Europe, China and Korea. A few years ago, Iveco supplied 350 CNG buses to Astana in favour of the World Expo in Astana in 2017, the theme was “Energy of the Future”. Just recent public transport bus operator AlmatyElektroTrans LLP in Almaty announced it has the intention to purchase this year 100 12-meter and 100 18-meter CNG buses. Almaty wants to modernise its bus transport system rapidly. AlmatyElektroTrans LLP already has 587 gas buses in operation. However there is a limited amount of domestic manufacture of buses and coaches, meaning tremendous opportunities to supply this exciting and growing market.
Kazakhstan recently began promoting itself as a tourist destination. There are regular direct flights to Almaty from quite a number of Western European cities, from Turkey and several Southern and Eastern Asian countries. Tourists are attracted by a wide variety of scenery and activities, with very attractive prices. The development of this new tourist activity will demand a serious level of transport infrastructure provision including new bus routes, new bus and coach services and last but not least: new fleets.
The area of Kazakhstan of 2,700,000sq km is equivalent in size to Western Europe. The capital is Astana, but the largest city is Almaty. The Government moved to the capital in 1997. The current population is around 18.5 million people and 50% of them live in urban areas. Kazakhstan has the largest and strongest performing economy in the region. It is estimated that, since 1993, there has been more than $40 billion in foreign investment in Kazakhstan in the oil, natural gas and mineral extraction sectors. With its ‘Kazakhstan 2050’ strategy, the country aims to be among the Top 30 global economies in the world in 30 years’ time.
A large-scale project called "New Silk Road" on the territory of Kazakhstan is linking the continents by train. This will transform Kazakhstan into the largest business and transit hub of the region. Literally, it will become the bridge between Europe and China.