Representatives from the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) took part in the Eurasian Mountain Resorts Alliance (EMRA) CEO Summit, which kicked off on September 9 in Almaty. The alliance unites leading mountain resorts from Central Asian countries.
The summit’s highlight is the international expert and investment forum titled “The Almaty Mountain Cluster as the Backbone of the EMRA Interstate Tourist Route.” This forum brought together more than 50 mountain resort CEOs and tourism development experts from Austria, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and South Korea, along with representatives from Kazakhstan’s government agencies.
Discussions centred on the creation of the Almaty Mountain Cluster, a key focus of Kazakhstan’s 2029 National Development Plan, which identifies the cluster as one of the top three priorities for tourism development.
Sergey Paseko, Executive Director of the EDB Directorate of Transport and Infrastructure, attended the forum and highlighted the Bank’s track record in financing large-scale infrastructure projects. He emphasised the EDB’s interest in supporting promising tourism infrastructure initiatives in Eurasian countries.
During the forum, participants discussed collaboration opportunities for building new facilities across Central Asia. In particular, the idea of the Almaty Mountain Cluster, according to participants, is to connect the Shymbulak and Oi-Qaragai resorts via a system of state-of-the-art gondola cars. This system is designed to link several large mountain gorges around Almaty, such as Kim-Asar, Butakovka and Kotyrbulak, creating a unified tourist zone with 150 km of ski slopes in winter and over 100 km of hiking trails in summer.
“The Almaty cluster has the potential to become a major tourist attraction for visitors from across the Eurasian region. Both Kazakhstani and international companies with experience in building and managing mountain resorts are eager to participate in the project, although the state is set to play a crucial role in bringing all stakeholders together,” said Andrey Kukushkin, EMRA Secretary-General.
In July 2024, the National Investment Agency under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, Vasta Discovery and the EDB signed a trilateral Memorandum of Cooperation to establish the Baytik Mountain Resort in Kyrgyzstan. The future resort will feature 15 cable cars, 36 ski slopes with a total length exceeding 57 km, four tourist villages and a ski complex designed to meet international standards for top-class competitions, including the Olympic Games and World Cup events in alpine skiing and snowboarding.
