Kazakhstan used its annual finance forum in New York to place its most ambitious technology-driven urban development project in front of a room of major United States institutional investors, with Alatau City Authority Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Digital Officer Bayan Konirbayev presenting the digital and financial architecture underpinning the USD 20 billion smart city being built near Almaty. The panel session was held at Citigroup headquarters in Manhattan, where Konirbayev outlined what he described as a shift toward a tokenised economy, in which assets and investment instruments would be tokenised and governed under a new legal framework, supported by public-private partnership structures, national-currency fintech solutions, and a digital twin intended to improve transparency and help track tokenised transactions.
Alatau City is being developed on the principle of “digital by default,” meaning residents and businesses will be encouraged to conduct as much activity as possible through digital channels, while still providing support for those who prefer traditional means. The city is planned across four districts covering an area larger than both Singapore and Seoul, with a Golden district designated as the hub of knowledge, healthcare, and innovation, housing technology centres and educational institutions capable of accommodating 40,000 students. Konirbayev projected that the city would grow from approximately 50,000 current residents to 1.8 million by 2050, with the tokenised financial model and digital twin infrastructure positioned as core mechanisms for managing investment flows, tracking asset ownership, and maintaining transparency across what would become one of Central Asia’s largest urban development projects. The broader forum discussion also covered digital ecosystems and smart infrastructure as investment cooperation priorities, with participants from Blackstone, Cerberus, and JPMorgan among those present at the event.
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