ASTANA – The Kazakh team driving an electric car in the Almaty-Paris international auto rally to promote EXPO 2017 stopped in Austria May 9-10 before continuing to the French capital.
Drivers Sanzhar Altayev and Aidar Myrzakhmetov were welcomed in Vienna by Secretary General of the Austrian-Kazakh Society Thonas Wanker, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) staff and representatives of the UN Secretary-General’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative. The parties discussed future energy issues. Austria and four international organisations located in Vienna – UNIDO, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the SE4All and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) plan to participate in EXPO 2017.
The electric vehicle with the EXPO 2017 logo visited attractions in Vienna, including, Heroes’ Square in Hofburg Palace and Schwarzenberg Square, where a monument to Soviet soldiers stands, and attracted interested from Vienna residents.
Altayev and Myrzakhmetov, heads of Kazakhstan’s IT-company AlmaCloud, left Almaty on April 16.
“This trip is absolutely free of charge and displays our patriotic convictions. The theme “In search of new sources of energy” is based on complex issues of development of green technologies in our country,” said Altayev.
Rally participants crossed the borders of several countries, such as Belarus, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France. The total length of the route from Almaty to Paris is more than 7,000 kilometres.
“Our campaign has caused a genuine attraction among Europeans. They expressed their interest in the upcoming international exhibition in Astana. Many promised to take part in it,” he added.
During the tour, participants visited processing plants, IT-companies as well as European farms. They also saw a potential expansion of the AlmaCloud company in the European market.
“I would like to say that during our trip we discovered opportunities to promote our business in Europe. We managed to reach a preliminary agreement on the opening of our offices in Geneva and Paris,” Altayev mentioned.
After Paris, travelers headed to Brussels. Then they will travel to Amsterdam, Berlin and Hamburg, where cars will be loaded on a ferry to Riga and further to Almaty by rail. The Kazakhs themselves will go to Almaty by plane from Hamburg.
