ASTANA (TCA) — At the meeting of Kazakhstan’s Government on August 15, Minister for Investment and Development Zhenis Kassymbek presented measures for implementing the National Investment Strategy for 2018-2022, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.
Kassymbek reported that the National Investment Strategy was developed jointly with the World Bank, with the main emphasis on attracting foreign direct investment in non-resource sectors focused on exports.
If successfully implemented, in five years the Strategy will increase the gross inflow of direct investments into the economy by 26%, and investments aimed at increasing exports will increase by up to 50%. Domestic investments in the fixed capital of the non-primary sector of the economy are expected to grow by 46%.
Together with the World Bank, priority sectors have been chosen to improve efficiency, which can be divided into two groups: “industries with active potential”, such as the food industry, deep processing of oil, gas and minerals, as well as machine building, and “promising industries”, such as ICT, tourism, and finance.
In the Strategy, public-private partnership (PPP) is defined as one of the main tools for attracting FDI, especially in capital-intensive infrastructure and social projects. Particular attention is also paid to retaining existing investors and encouraging reinvestment.
The Strategy identified 36 potential countries to invest in Kazakhstan, with 11 priority countries (the USA, Russia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, China, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, and the UAE). To work with each of the countries together with the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, an individual approach and a concrete action plan will be developed.
At the same Government meeting, Minister of National Economy Timur Suleimenov presented the Action Plan for the implementation of the National Export Strategy of Kazakhstan for 2018-2022.
Suleimenov explained that the National Export Strategy is aimed at increasing the export of non-resource-based goods by 50 percent by 2025 compared to 2015.
Today Kazakhstan products are exported to 117 countries. Last year, Kazakhstan ranked 52nd among 204 countries with a share of 0.23% of global exports.
Raw materials and non-primary goods of low conversion mainly represent Kazakhstan’s exports. At the same time, in the past 10 years, the export of services has almost doubled, reaching $6.3 billion in 2016.
