My idea is the new capital itself, President Nazarbayev

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ASTANA. KAZINFORM President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev told about construction of Astana in the interview with Kazakhstanskaya Pravda Daily.


"We witnessed that the contest announced for Astana city planning stirred great interest among the global town planning centres. It is an excellent opportunity for an architect to plan a new city in the open steppe. It is an opportunity for a stretch of imagination and revealing of inspiration. Above 50 projects from Japan, the US, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Russia, Finland, etc. were submitted to the contest. 27 of them were selected for further consideration. Outstanding architect Kisho Kurosawa won the contest for his remarkable project," the Presidents said.

"The new capital itself is my idea. I just specified that the city should never turn into a megapolis stretching in all directions. And Kurosawa proposed the Principle of life original design," the Head of State noted.

Nursultan Nazarbayev has also shared his views of his travels to capital cities of the world and fusion of architectural styles of Astana.

"The key is that the Astana city infrastructure is being formed now in the contemporary manner. In 2010 we held the OSCE Summit in Astana. The city proved then that for a short period of time it has set a course for perfection. It wasn't easy to welcome delegations form 55 countries and render service to thousands of people, solve compolicated tasks of service, logistics and security. The capital city has got through then," the President resumed.

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