CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 02/2018

LE MONDE 20 TH ANNIVERSARY OF ASTANA
City of the future
The headquarters of the oil
company KazMunayGas.
FACTS &
FIGURES
This year, Astana is celebrating its 20 th birthday.
Within a very short period of time, Kazakhstan’s
capital city has developed into an internationally
renowned hub for politics and culture, business and
the sciences.
Text: Gerald Sturz
PHOTOS: BEIGESTELLT/BOTSCHAFT VON KASACHSTAN
Early morning in Astana. Slowly, the limousine,
bringing the visitor from the airport to his hotel,
glides through the capital city’s streets. Past
towers that look like football cups, a giant pyramid
and various golden monuments. Bewildered, the visitor
rubs his eyes. Is what he is seeing merely a hallucination?
Perhaps caused by the little sleep he managed
to catch on the airplane, the early hour, the slight jetlag?
Buildings are passing by him that make him
think he’s found himself in some kind of futuristic
city, a metropolis of tomorrow, a kind of grand, visionary
project.
Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital city, is indeed a modern
city. Perhaps the most modern capital city in the
world. And this year, it is celebrating its 20th birthday.
A steppe village called Akmola used to stand in its
place before President Nursultan Nazarbayev decided
to move the capital from the strategically inconvenient
Almaty to the north.
It required an iron will, immense assertiveness and
impressive resources to realise a project like Astana.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev had all of this.
Astana’s architectural concept is actually based on
one of the President’s own ideas. He called for the development
of a unique style that would harmoniously
connect the cultural traditions of the East with those
of the West. In fact, the architect who designed the
masterplan was Kishō Kurokawa from Japan. Dozens
of famous architects and hundreds of domestic and
foreign construction companies participated in the
building of the new Kazakh capital.
On 6 July 1994, Astana was declared the new capital
of Kazakhstan and in the summer of 1998, Astana
was first presented internationally.
This is an important date in Kazakhstan’s history
as an independent nation. A new political centre was
constructed right in the heart of the Eurasian continent
and was ultimately declared a “World City” by
UNESCO. “We can say that Kazakhstan’s capital city
has been a triumph of our independence. Astana is
our symbol that looks toward the future, connected to
our history, culture and our worldview,” says President
Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Today, Astana is a modern and safe city. It is the
centre of culture, education and business. Astana has
also become attractive to tourists. The city boasts a
unique energy. Various new and quite exceptional objects
of world culture were erected here, such as the
Astana Opera, the National Museum, the Palace of
Astana
Official name:
Astana.
Astana is the Kazakh word for
capital city
Astana is the capital city of
the Republic of Kazakhstan .
Population: 1,000,000. This
makes Astana the second largest
city in Kazakhstan after Almaty.
Today, representatives from over
100 nationalities live in the city.
History: Astana has had many
different names throughout time.
The municipality that was founded
in its place in 1832 was called
Akmolinsk until 1961, Tselinograd
until 1992, Akmola until 1998.
Infrastructure:
Astana is an important
transportation hub. The city is
located on the New Silk Road that
connects China with Europe. The
airport is located 15 kilometres
south of the city. It is the base of
Air Astana. It offers countless
international connections to
Europe.
Economy:
Most notably, Astana harbours
the headquarters of the most
important Kazakh state-owned
enterprises. Among them are the
“KazMunayGas” oil company,
“GE Transportation” locomotive
assembly plant and helicopter
assembly plant of “Eurocopter”.
The “KazakhTelecom”, the
“Eurasian Resources Group”
mining company and the private
credit institution “Tsesnabank”
also have their bases here.
Astana: Kazakhstan‘s new capital.
Visionary project.
View of the center of
Astana. In the foreground is
the Baiterek monument.
Nazarbayev Center.
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