ASTANA (TCA) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) believes that the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) will serve as an anchor for reform and the development of the domestic financial sector, EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti said in a speech at Kazakhstan Foreign Investors’ Council in Astana on May 27, which he co-chaired with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
The theme of this year’s Foreign Investors’ Council was the plan to create the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC).
“In a Memorandum of Understanding we recently signed with the National Bank of Kazakhstan and TheCityUK, we affirmed our support for establishment of the regulatory framework, strategy and other elements of the AIFC,” the EBRD President said. “Under this memorandum, the EBRD will help establish adequate regulatory frameworks in such areas as capital markets, money and derivatives markets, and corporate governance.”
He said that half of EBRD financing in Kazakhstan is already in the local currency, the tenge, and that the EBRD will look at the AIFC as an issuance platform for tenge bonds. “After our successful experience some time ago with tenge bonds on international markets, we are now assessing what is needed for the EBRD to issue tenge-denominated bonds on the domestic market.”
Chakrabarti also spoke about AIFC’s potential to give momentum to the development of a green financial system in Kazakhstan. “The national strategy of a Green Economy is something that resonates powerfully with us at the EBRD. We believe it essential for Kazakhstan’s financial system to be able to support the financing of sustainable energy and climate change mitigation projects. The AIFC can play a key role here,” he said.
One of the newest ways of climate financing is through green bonds, and the EBRD hopes that the AIFC develops in such a way as to encourage green bond issues in Kazakhstan in the future, said the EBRD President.
