A Kazakh delegation held an investment roadshow in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on 10 June dedicated to Alatau, the new city being built near Almaty, and came away with 24 agreements worth up to 6 billion dollars. The delegation held bilateral meetings with major Chinese groups including China Resources and Ping An, and is continuing to Hong Kong for talks with investment funds and banks.
Organisers said they are modelling Alatau on Shenzhen, one of the world’s centres of innovation and digital governance. The roadshow followed talks on 9 June between Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev and the mayor of Shenzhen, where Kazakhstan invited Chinese firms into Alatau projects in artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, logistics, green energy and high-tech manufacturing.
The model for Alatau, and much of its money, is Chinese.
Alatau is Kazakhstan’s planned city of the future, a project of roughly 20 billion dollars positioned on the Middle Corridor near Almaty. The Chinese interest sits inside a wider relationship: bilateral trade reached a record 48.7 billion dollars in 2025, and Chinese investment in Kazakhstan has passed 29 billion dollars over the past two decades.