2017 WU OC signed Memorandum of Cooperation with -Cluster Montagne-

ALMATY – During a working trip to France, the Delegation of Almaty visited sports venues of the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region, the ‘Mountain Planet’ exhibition in Grenoble and held several meetings with various French companies and signed a memorandum of cooperation with ‘Cluster Montagne’ one of the largest associations specialized in the development of skiing infrastructure.

The delegation of Almaty, comprising of the Deputy Mayor of Almaty Arman Kyrykbayev, the Head of the Almaty 2017 Winter Universiade Organising Committee Asset Abdualiyev and Director of LTP ‘Chimbulak Development’ Yerzhan Yerkinbayev.

During the visit the delegation of Almaty met with the Vice-President of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region Philippe Meunier. Both sides agreed to exchange experiences on security services during the sports competitions. As a fact, this summer, Lyon will hold several matches of ‘Euro-2016’ football tournament.

“We are glad to support Almaty in organizing the Winter Universiade, as well as in the preparation of the skiing slopes. As far as we will host the ‘Euro-2016’ this summer, we would like to share our experience in organizing sports events”, stressed the Honorary Consul of Kazakhstan in Lyon Hervé Bronner.

The delegation of Almaty also met with the representatives of the Prefecture of Lyon and with a number of local companies, including: ‘ABest Engineering’ which provides snowmaking systems and develops international stadiums and Olympic venues; ‘PGI Management’, a leading company in the management of business processes of skiing complexes etc.

In order to learn from the experience of the ‘Cluster Montagne’, the delegation of Almaty also visited the sports venues in Premanon, Brevent, Lyon and the ski resort in Chamonix. The Almaty 2017 Winter Universiade Organising Committee and ‘Cluster Montagne’ signed a memorandum of cooperation as well.

The ‘Cluster Montagne’ is the leading company in France which evaluates the improvement of mountain development and the implementation of the French experience in construction and exploitation of ski resorts in other countries.

“We are glad that the Almaty administration wants to develop the infrastructure of winter sports. Last year, I have been to ‘Silver Edelweiss’ which was held in ‘Shymbulak’. I have a very pleasant impression from that event. Apart from that, I would like to note that the ‘Alatau’ venue is one of the most stunning sports venues I have ever seen in Asia. You have everything needed to move further in this direction. We believe in the development of ski sport in Kazakhstan. We hope that the Winter Universiade will be stunning and we will do everything possible from our side to help you”, the Director of ‘Cluster Montagne’ Benoit Robert noted.

In turn, the Head of the Almaty 2017 Winter Universiade Organising Committee Asset Abdualiyev noted that the promising partnership with ‘Cluster Montagne’ will give opportunity to appraise the potential of ski sport in Almaty and define priority areas of further development. He also noted that during the working visit the direct collaboration with the world’s largest developers of sports equipment and snowing systems was established.

(Source: Almaty 2017 OC)