Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The gross direct investment flow from the United Kingdom to Kazakhstan increased by 17.2 percent in the first half of 2019, reaching $336.5 million.

The UK is one of Kazakhstan’s main strategic partners. In 2018, the gross inflow of direct investments from the UK reached $593.1 million, an increase of 11.1 percent compared to 2017 ($533.8 million). Thus, over the past 10 years, the influx of direct investment from the UK to Kazakhstan amounted to $8.8 billion.

In 2018, trade between Kazakhstan and the UK totalled $1.3 billion, a slight decrease of 1.9 percent per year. The main share in the turnover is the export of Kazakh goods and services - 63 percent, or $793.9 million, while imports from the UK reached $466.8 million, or 37 percent.

At the same time, in January-August 2019, trade between the two countries decreased by 18 percent compared to the same period of 2018 and amounted to $678.4 million. The reason for the decline was a decrease in exports from Kazakhstan to the UK by 30.2 percent.

As of the end of September 2019, 644 legal entities, branches and representative offices with British participation were registered in Kazakhstan, of which 395 were active. As many as 345 small, 20 medium and 30 large companies with British capital are operating in Kazakhstan.

The UK is also one of the three largest investors in Kazakhstan. As of the end of June 2019, the accumulated amount of investments from the UK to Kazakhstan made up $22.8 billion, which is 6.3 percent less than in the same period of 2018 ($24.4 billion).

The most attractive industry in Kazakhstan for UK investors is professional, scientific and technical activities; the share of which is 34.3 percent of the total, or $7.8 billion.

Meanwhile, $5.3 billion has been invested in public administration and defense, as well as compulsory social security. Closing the top three industries with the largest amount of British investment are transportation, accommodation and food ($2.6 billion).

Investors from the UK also significantly financed financial and insurance activities ($2.4 billion) and mining and quarrying ($1.8 billion).

Diplomatic relations between Kazakhstan and the UK were established on January 19, 1992.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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