Kazakhstan’s foreign investment soars to $8.7

By Azernews

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The volume of direct foreign investment made in Kazakhstan increased by 15.8 percent year-on-year in the period of January-September, reaching $8.7 billion, Prime Minister Askar Mamin has said.

“The EU is one of the key investors and the largest trading partner of Kazakhstan,” Mamin said in an address to the meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions of the European Union member states.

He emphasized that the enforcement from 1 March 2020, of the Agreement on Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation between Kazakhstan and the EU will mark the beginning of a qualitatively new stage in the Kazakh-European relations. The document covers 29 areas of activity, including trade, investment, innovation and infrastructure development.

At the same time, Mamin called on the EU ambassadors to continue an open and active dialogue to promote trade, economic and investment cooperation between the two sides.

He added that the First President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Head of State Kassym-Jomart Tokayev pay great attention to cooperation with the EU countries.

In turn, the heads of diplomatic missions noted the positive dynamics of work to create comfortable conditions for doing business in Kazakhstan.

“Kazakhstan is making steady progress in the Doing Business rating and has enormous potential for further improving the investment climate and business environment. The Dialogue on Investment Cooperation between Kazakhstan and the EU plays a major role in this,” said Sven-Olov Carlsson, head of the EU Delegation to Kazakhstan.

The parties discussed preparations for the upcoming visit of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to Brussels, a roadmap developed by the Kazakh side for the implementation of the Agreement on Enhanced Partnership, as well as issues of tax policy and anti-corruption support of investors in Kazakhstan.

Ambassadors of Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Finland, Sweden, representatives of Portugal, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, as well as large European companies attended the meeting. 

At the next meeting of the Dialogue on Investment Cooperation between Kazakhstan and the EU in April 2020, it is planned to discuss specific steps to implement the agreement, the transition of Kazakhstan to a green economy and preparations for the upcoming 12nd WTO Ministerial Conference in Nur Sultan in June 2020.