Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Kazakhstan’s economy continues to show upward trend of development. Major international organizations forecast economic growth in this country.

This was noted at the meeting of the Coordinating Council on Attracting Investments at the Astana International Financial Center, chaired by Prime Minister Askar Mamin on October 21.

Economic growth rates amounted to 4.3 percent in January-September 2019. The International Monetary Fund raised its forecast for economic growth in Kazakhstan in 2019 from 3.2 percent to 3.8 percent, in 2020 - from 3.2 percent to 3.9 percent. The Asian Development Bank raised expectations about the growth of Kazakhstan’s economy in 2019 from 3.5 percent to 3.7 percent. Moody’s rating agency raised the country's credit rating from stable to positive. The position of Kazakhstan in the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum has been improved from 59th place to 55th.

Head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for Kazakhstan Agris Preimanis and the director of the ADB representative office in Kazakhstan Giovanni Capannelli, have noted the positive dynamics in the economic and investment policy of Kazakhstan.

By 2024, the Kazakh government expects to bring the level of investment in fixed assets to 30 percent of GDP. To date, a pool of investment projects has been formed that will allow attracting over 41 trillion tenges ($160 billion) of investments in 2020-2024. The main drivers of investment growth will be basic industrialization, agriculture, transport, tourism and trade.

Prime Minister Askar Mamin said that in order to ensure a faster pace of economic development, they need to qualitatively strengthen the work to attract foreign direct investment in the country.

He ordered to improve the existing investment infrastructure, unify preferences for investors in special economic and industrial zones of Kazakhstan, step up the development of public-private partnerships, and increase the share of export-oriented projects with high added value.

“We should better approach the issue of developing and preparing investment projects. For this, it is necessary to use the potential of consulting companies and international financial institutions such as the EBRD, IDB, ADB and others as part of the technical assistance provided to the country," Mamin said.

In order to increase investment activity in the regions, the prime minister instructed to study the implementation of projects structured under the AIFC law and using its jurisdiction.

“In the regions, there are deputy heads of administrations who are directly involved in attracting investments. It is important to make maximum use of the existing potential and existing tools of the AIFC financial market. I believe that today's meeting of the Coordinating Council will allow us to launch a qualitative development of cooperation between the regions and the AIFC," Mamin stressed.

He instructed the central state bodies, national companies and state administrations to ensure the fulfillment of the tasks set and the achievement of the approved target indicators for attracting investments.

Minister of Economy Ruslan Dalenov reported on the results of a hearing by central and local executive bodies and organizations on work to attract investments. Chair of Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs Ablay Myrzakhmetov reported on import substitution and AIFC Governor Kairat Kelimbetov spoke about the approaches of the center to attracting investments in the regions.

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

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