Cities as a growth point of economic space in Kazakhstan: trends and prospects

The purpose of work is to study development trends and problems of Kazakhstan cities and to justify new directions of its development as growth points of economic space, as well as to develop proposals to overcome the depression of single-industry towns. The following tasks were solved to achieve this goal: we investigated basic postulates of the theory of urbanization and agglomeration development as they relate to the practice of urban development in Kazakhstan; we analyzed main trends in the development of cities of republican and regional importance; we identified problems in the development of small and single-industry towns. In the process of work the following research methods were used: comparison and analogy, systematic approach, ranking Kazakhstan regions in terms of the gross regional product per capita, methods of statistical and comparative economic analysis to identify trends and problems of development of large, medium, small and single-industry towns in the country, generalization and systematization. The statistical method is based on the reporting of the Committee on Statistics of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan (RK). The paper also used the official statistical information, and results of the author’s study. Research findings: Based on the study of the principles and regularities of urbanization and agglomeration development and analysis of the main trends of development of modern cities in the country, the study has revealed the problems of development of small and single-industry towns. The paper substantiates proposals to overcome their depression, puts forward recommendations on the formation of new directions of the economic development of the cities of Kazakhstan, such as the formation of a “green core” city economy.