Almaty stands on 38 place on creativity in the world …
Do not ask what you can give to the city, ask what the city can give to you… According to some participants of the V Innovative forum "Almaty — the City, Comfortable for Life and Business" which was held on July 7 in Almaty, present time qualitatively differs from a former era in the fact that the labor power (and especially its most creative part) became much more mobile. Moreover, if it can not be realized in a particular city or country, it is called "voting with their feet." Therefore, the main challenge for the mega-cities of the future - to create conditions for the so-called "creative class".
Photo © Vladimir Tretyakov
The answer to the question about how to do this, was dedicated to the Innovation Forum, organized in hotel "Rixos" by Administration of Almaty city in association with the Autonomous Foundation cluster "Park of innovative technologies" and Almaty Development Center. Co-organizers of the event were the Almaty Management University and the Agency for Strategic Communications "Success."
The forum has brought together the famous international experts from Russia, Israel, South Korea, USA, Mexico, Germany and other countries. The business community, state bodies, startups, popular futurologists and urbanists have been presented. During a forum experts have considered questions of development of a human capital: including, investments into a creative class citizen, creation of conditions for their deduction, attraction, further development and work; development of city transport systems: informatization and technologization of transportation in the city; development of architectural concepts of the city: planning, designing and analysis of city spaces; development of city ecosystems.
The particular interest of participants was caused by recommendations of experts specifically to the city of Almaty – how to attract, keep and hold innovators in the southern capital of Kazakhstan.
In particular, Victor Filippenko, the chairman of the board of G20 Fund, has noticed: "Now specialists ask a question: what this city, this country can give to me, how I can realize my ambitions on this territory? This is high-quality difference from a former era when labor force mobility has not been so developed. What Almaty city can give to involve highly qualified specialists or entrepreneurs who create products with a high value added? Such people are very necessary because they not only put themselves in the work, but also because they are able to change an ecosystem of the countries, and cities. Moreover, such systems are more competitive in the global market. What Almaty can give to attract such people?"
Photo © Vladimir Tretyakov
Sanzhar Kettebekov, the CEO of AKF "PIT" continued the theme of how Almaty should attract innovators. As an example, the speaker cited the experience of Chile, where the government fully supports startups, including from other countries, and gives them a variety of preferences. "Now our goal - to attract 500 startups untill 2020. "We have already received about 700 applications from the different cities, including Minsk, Odessa, Kiev", - said S. Kettebekov. According to the guest, further 40 of them will be trained in Almaty TechGarden, and at the last stage will be selected 10 of the best from these startups, and will work with them on the base of FEZ (free economic zone).
Baurzhan Baibek, Mayor of the southern capital, called Almaty the city of enterprising people: "84% of innovators of Kazakhstan are concentrated here, 1/3 youth, and the majority part of the most successful and talented people live here". The reason, according to the Mayor, that the city of Almaty is comfortable for the birth of new ideas and implementation of innovations. However, it is necessary to continue to develop, and this forum, according to B. Baibek, will allow to make high-quality breakthrough in an innovative development of the city. "It brought together representatives of 20 countries, people who can share the experience of successful cities, here deputy mayors of 4 regions of the country, representatives of all regions of Kazakhstan, experts, scientists and startups, "- said the mayor.
Photo © Vladimir Tretyakov
The forum was organized by four panel sections, the moderator of one of which, entitled "HUMAN CAPITAL: CREATIVE CITIES OF THE FUTURE", was the president of the Almaty Management University Assylbek Kozhahmetov. It is worth noting an unusual section format for the time limit of speeches used in an hourglass, and each of the 4 main speakers was provided for the speech exactly 9 minutes, for people from the audience who wanted to speak, open seat were worked ( «empty chair" with green backlight ). Those who interested can click on the special button and open seat lights up red. As soon as the man uttered, rose from his chair, the chair become green again. For independent speakers 4 and a half minutes were allotted for performance.
The deputy Mayor of the Almaty city Arman Kyrkykbaev became one of guests of section: "In 2015 Almaty took the 38th place from 93 possible on a creativity index in the world. In Almaty there are all three "T" concept of creativity: talent, tolerance and technologies.
The guest also gave a survey conducted by administration of the city in March of this year: For example, it was found that 99% of young people like to live in Almaty; 65% consider that education in universities and colleges, and broadly in line with the needs of the youth and expectations of the labor market; 68% of respondents want to continue their education; 60% want to establish a business in Almaty.
Itay Sened, the head of institute of strategic political decisions, Israel, has noticed: relying on own opinion and experience, he does not believe that it is possible to study on success of others (the countries). "But, if you invest in research works, - he has emphasized, - this small group of creative people will be able to develop whole country". "Universities influence quantity of startups in the city - it is unconditional. The youth and universities are an engine of development of the cities", - I. Sened has concluded.
Gani Uzbekov, the chairman of the board of Capital Bank, speaking at the section cited interesting data. According to this data, London takes 1 place in a rating of the innovative cities, and Almaty - 424 of 445... "Our students amaze the world with intellectual superiority in various competitions and contests. So there is a potential, but where it goes? Why it "disappears" on the next stages - in universities, enterprises? "- Wondered banker. According to the speaker, in Kazakhstan it is necessary to create all conditions for the development of the existing potential.
Eldar Abdrazakov, the shareholder of Sentras group, has shared the vision of what is talent: "The talent for us is a knowledge, vigor, creativity, readiness for cooperation. But actually not only it. For example, we in the industry cannot master bolashak students. Knowledge in itself is not valuable to business because there is no experience, there is no skill of work with them. We still have not determined with what is talent. Usually it is not the one who successfully graduated school, and very inconvenient in communication, the creative geniuses living with "revolving objects", and it is necessary to learn to work with them", - the guest considers.
The guest from Kiev, Vsevolod Zelenin, the representative of NPU of M.P. Dragamanov, have once again introduced the idea, which was already formulated by Victor Filippenko: "If we do not create a condition for creative people, then all of them will leave. Neither the city, nor administration, nor business, but creative people are important", - the speaker considers. The talent, in his opinion, is capability to resolve extraordinary topical issues, and it has determined creativity, relying on Mihai Chiksentmikhai's statement: "Creativity - a core competency of gods". So let the creative class create the space for life – there is a need to give carte blanche.
Professor of architecture school (Paris) Juan Luís Morales on the example of two cities: Paris and Havana, - have shown how the creative component can stimulate imagination of people in architecture: "Creativity should be a resource for a development of the city and exert impact on people. For this purpose it is necessary to create experimental cultural spaces and incentives for development of talent of citizens. Take benefits from art, dare, be courageous!", - the famous architect has called residents of Almaty.
Finally, sections were summed up their results and identified recommendations for the further development of Almaty.
Signing of the Memorandum between Almaty Management University, Almaty TechGarden and Tel Aviv University became an important result of conference. Except Sanzhar Kettebekov and Assylbek Kozhakhmetov, Saniya Arapova, the vice-president of Association of friends of Tel Aviv University participated in signing of the Memorandum. According to the Memorandum, Almaty TechGarden and Tel Aviv University on the base of AlmaU will promote the idea of innovation management and prepare managers to Kazakhstan innovative development programs.
