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Foreign investments in the amount of $12.3 billion were attracted to the economy of Kazakhstan in the first half of 2018, Ranking.kz reported.

This is 15.4 percent more than a year earlier ($10.6 billion). Interestingly, 92.4 percent of all investment flows to Kazakhstan in the six months accounted for only 10 countries.

The absolute leader in investing to the country was the Netherlands — for January-June 2018, the investments amounted to $3.8 billion. The second largest investor was the US with $2.8 billion, and Switzerland with $1.3 billion, ranked third.

It is worth noting that in the entire history of economic relations with Kazakhstan, the Netherlands invested $54.2 billion (75.8 percent of all investments) in the country’s mining industry, while $5.3 billion and $5 billion were directed to the manufacturing industry and professional, scientific and technical activities, respectively.

The US investors had a similar industry investment portfolio. The mining industry accounted for 91.6 percent ($28.2 billion) of total investments. Also, investors from the US are interested in the financial sector of Kazakhstan ($1.3 billion), as well as in professional, scientific and technical activities ($479.6 million).

Investment preferences of Swiss investors are completely different from the interests of the Netherlands and the US. The main Kazakh industry that attracts Swiss investors is the manufacturing industry – $3.1 billion (65.8 percent of total investments). Next come wholesale and retail trade, car and motorcycle repair ($480.1 million), and information and communications ($408.2 million) The total investments from Switzerland amounted to $4.7 billion.

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