INTRODUCTION
Saparbek Tuyakbayev Chairman, Kazakh Invest
However, regional and global competition for FDI continues to increase and it is no longer sufficient to just promote the many benefits of investing in Kazakhstan, ranging from the government’s numerous incentives to the country’s geo-logistical importance to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which links the latter with Europe via 3,000km of Kazakhstan. Therefore, in August 2017, the Government of Kazakhstan introduced the new National Investment Strategy (NIS), developed with the assistance of the World Bank, to further enhance the investment climate in Kazakhstan and attract investment focused on increasing efficiency and competitiveness. To achieve this, the NIS not only specified a number of primary investment targets with active potential for increased efficiency – amongst them food, industry, oil and gas downstream, metallurgy – but also identified the priority countries where relevant investors were most likely to be located.
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n just over a quarter of a century since its economic birth as a sovereign nation, Kazakhstan has risen to become the industrial engine house of Central Asia. Initially dependent on revenue from natural resources, in the main oil and gas, it has increasingly focused on creating a sustainable, diversified and technology-driven economy, which will elevate Kazakhstan in to the ranks of the world’s top 30 most-developed nations by the middle of this century – the objective of President Nazarbayev’s over-arching Strategy 2050. Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been and will remain vital to Kazakhstan’s development, particularly in its pursuit of the transformational industrial efficiency and competitiveness flowing from rapid breakthroughs in a range of digital technologies – including artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology and biotechnology. Kazakhstan has done well in attracting FDI since Independence: indeed, around 70 per cent of all FDI in Central Asia is located in Kazakhstan.
BUSINESS KAZAKHSTAN 2018
Simultaneously, Kazakh Invest was launched as a onestop-shop, with an international network of foreign representatives and regional offices to operationally implement the new strategy and introduce new approaches to attract investment. Internationally, Kazakh Invest works closely with Kazakhstan’s embassies and an increasing number of investment counsellors seeking investors appropriate to the country’s closely defined requirements. Also, in Kazakhstan itself, the agency has a close network with regional and city leaders and links into the country’s Special Economic Zones. Kazakhstan’s market is ready for investment inflows. We have stable institutions, a favourable investment and business climate, legal framework, a well-qualified workforce, developed infrastructure, broad export opportunities to the neighbouring markets, and sophisticated government that is dedicated to investors’ well-being and growth. We maintain constructive dialogue with existing investors and we will be happy to welcome new companies in Kazakhstan. Come to Kazakhstan – a land of great opportunities – to grow together.
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