3 reasons for investing in Kazakhstan
“Why investing in Kazakhstan? There are some good reasons for this, I think. The first reason is an attractive investment climate. The Government has launched reforms which helped improve the country’s investment climate in the past three years. In particular, the Government appointed Investment Ombudsman and reformed its court system. Visa regime and work permit issuance regimes were simplified. Incentives for investors were introduced too,” EBRD Director for Kazakhstan Janet Heckman said at the conference “Kazakhstan: New Investment Opportunities.”
In her opinion, infrastructure, agro-industrial sector and oil&gas are the most investment attractive sectors in Kazakhstan.
“As per the UN data, the volume of trade turnover among the countries of the Eurasian continent will reach $1.2trln by 2020. Two years ago, this figure made only $800bln. The Government of Kazakhstan decided to capitalize its geographical location at the crossroads between China and European Union. For this reason, the country invested huge funds in infrastructure to improve its transit potential – construction of motorways, railroads, air ports, Aktau Sea Port. We see enormous opportunities here for those specializing in infrastructure development, logistics and manufacturing construction materials,” Ms. Heckman added.
As for the second area – agro-industrial complex – Janet Heckman said that Kazakhstan holds a leading position in agro-industrial complex, namely in export of wheat and ecologically clean products.
“Kazakhstan leads in production of ecologically clean food stuffs. Kazakhstan may export its products to China, Central Asia and Russia,” she stressed.
According to her, foreign companies may invest also in oil and gas sector because the company is rich in energy resources.
“Chevron’s $36bln worth TCO expansion project is an example of biggest investment in Kazakhstan’s oil and gas sector in the past 10 years. Such investments provide great opportunities for companies-suppliers,” she noted.
The EBRD is also involved in development of a new Natural Resources Code which will be submitted to the Parliament in 2017.
“We hope that this will help Kazakhstan increase its competitiveness,” she explained.