This is a translation of Adam’s post on the Russian-language blog.  

Aktau is the city that claims to be referred to as the forth capital after Almaty, Astana and the oil capital, Atyrau.

“Aktau City” is another new city following Astana’s Left Bank, which will be constructed by the Caspian Sea. It is planned to be built on a site of 400.000 sq.m and at the cost of for $20.0 bln. to become a tourism cluster, an entertainment center and a resort to extend Aktau in the north-west direction. US, Australian, UAE and European architects will take part in the project. As the country’s President says, the idea to build a resort with expected population of 1 mln. people emerged during his multiple visits to Emirates. The main developer is Kazemir Aktau Co. in co-operation with Saraya Corp.

Kazemir Aktau positions itself as a division of Kazemir Group, which has been created to make investments to “the number of sectors of Kazakhstan economy”. Company is headquartered in Almaty and has offices in Aktau and Dubai. It’s not known who is standing behind Kazemir. The name of Mr. Amangeldy Makhashov, working in Kazemir as an Advisor is absolutely unknown, though he is the only publicly mentioned person, who represents the Kazakh part. As for Saraya, it is known that this Company was established in 2005 and is currently developing luxury tourism projects, having in its portfolio resorts in Jordan, UAE and Oman.

According to the press-release, Aktau will become the city of “energy, tourism and style”. The strategy of a “world-class city” is the “incarnation of Mr. Nazarbayev’s intentions to develop the modern economy and prosperous free society with high life and labor standards”. It is suggested in the Project that the city’s profile will be combined. Namely, there will be a 5-star resort-type hotel, villas, spa-center, seafront residences for sale, as well as business center for oil and gas and transportation companies. It is planned to finish the project in 2011, and fully complete it by 2020.

Meanwhile, the archeological monuments were found on the territory allocated for construction. The local historians were taking actions for non-admission of destruction of the monuments. Eventually, as it’s reported, the local authorities and investors have reached understanding and decided that the archeological monuments will be conserved within the park zone as an open-air museum. The scientists also intend to continue negotiations with the investors to receive funds for continued researches.

Apart from Aktau City, there is also a project of Kinderly, a Kazakhstani DisneyLand. The first resort of world-class level on the area of 1.7 thousand hectares on the Caspian seafront (with artificial sand beaches, hotels and parks, sports and entertainment facilities for golfing, yachting, surfing, diving, night-clubs, shopping centers, restaurants, aquarium, botanic garden and ethnic park). The resort will be divided into 4 target customer-oriented zones. It’s assumed that the Project will provide 15,000 workplaces, and a half of the 300,000 tourists annually will fall on the in-country travellers. Estimated year of the project’s opening – 2015.

Additionally to the tourism cluster, it’s planned to develop an Aktau industrial center on the basis of Aktau Seaport, an offshore haven with 0% tax on income, property, land and imported materials required for production. A range of projects - including plants producing pipes and sea steel structures, transportation, logistics and trade centers - has been offered already. This free trade zone includes also the trade seaport itself and the trade center.