Samruk-Kazyna - The Times Of Central Asia

Viewing results 1 - 6 of 8

Bank Membership

Oman Set to Join Eurasian Development Bank as First Gulf Shareholder

Oman is set to become the eighth shareholder of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) and the first Gulf state to join the institution. An agreement was signed in Astana on October 6 during Sultan Haitham bin Tarik Al Said’s state visit to Kazakhstan. The EDB’s current shareholders are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Oman would become the first member from outside the former Soviet Union. The agreement, signed by Omani Finance Minister Sultan bin Salim Al Habsi and EDB Chairman Nikolai Podguzov, sets out the terms of the EDB’s operations in Oman. “This agreement reflects our shared intention to build a bridge between Central Asia and the Gulf region,” Podguzov said. Russia remains the bank’s largest shareholder, although its stake was reduced from about 66% to 44.8% in 2023. By the end of June 2026, the EDB’s cumulative portfolio comprised 348 projects with total investment of $22.1 billion. The bank finances projects including transport infrastructure, energy, and digital systems. On October 6, Kazakhstan and Oman signed an agreement on the mutual protection of investments, while Samruk-Kazyna and the Oman Investment Authority agreed to establish a joint investment vehicle to finance projects. As a landlocked country, Kazakhstan is seeking additional routes to the Indian Ocean, and the two sides discussed using Omani ports to transport its goods. Oman has proposed developing a trade corridor through its seaports. The talks in Astana also covered direct air links and other logistics projects. Kazakhstan is seeking to increase exports of grain, meat, and other agricultural products to Oman. In 2025, honey from Kazakhstan was exported to the sultanate for the first time. On October 5, the two countries’ chambers of commerce signed a memorandum aimed at expanding business ties, including in agriculture and logistics. Founded by Kazakhstan and Russia in 2006, the EDB has gradually expanded its membership, most recently with Uzbekistan in 2025.

Trade and Investment

Oman Trade Corridor Could Link Kazakhstan to Indian Ocean

Kazakhstan could gain a new trade route to the Indian Ocean through Oman’s ports, offering an alternative to its traditional northern and Caspian corridors. Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, the sultan of Oman, raised the proposal during talks with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Astana on October 6. He arrived in Astana on October 5, becoming the first Omani sultan to visit Central Asia “We look forward to developing cooperation in transport and logistics, including the development of a trade corridor through Oman’s ports, as well as strengthening air links between our countries,” the Sultan said. For landlocked Kazakhstan, Omani ports would provide another potential route to the Indian Ocean. Kazakhstan is already developing the Middle Corridor across the Caspian Sea and the South Caucasus, while Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and the United Arab Emirates are studying the CASA railway project through Afghanistan to Pakistani ports. No route, transit countries, cargo volumes, costs, or launch timetable have yet been announced for the Omani proposal. The talks came immediately after Kazakhstan signed an agreement aimed at settling a long-running dispute over Dunga, an oil field in western Kazakhstan near the Caspian coast. KazMunayGas controls a 60% interest in the project through Dunga Operating GmbH, while Oman Oil Company Limited and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP) each hold 20%. The dispute concerned costs accumulated under the production-sharing agreement that Kazakhstan considered non-recoverable. On October 5, the Energy Ministry and KazMunayGas signed an agreement to resolve the disputed issues. The agreement will now be sent to the foreign partners, Oman Oil Company Limited and PTTEP, for signature. A new development plan for 2026-2039 provides for production of 67.4 million barrels of oil, as well as capital and operating investment. Omani capital is also present in Kazakhstan’s gold industry. Maaden International Investment, an Omani state-owned investment fund, held 31.7% of Solidcore’s voting rights as of March 31, 2026, making it the company’s largest shareholder. Solidcore operates gold-mining assets in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan and Oman have assembled a portfolio of five major joint projects worth around $3 billion. Two projects totaling approximately $1.1 billion have already been implemented in the energy and railway sectors, while others, including ore-processing projects, are at various stages of development. Oman Investment Authority and Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna are among the main partners. During the visit, Samruk-Kazyna and the Oman Investment Authority exchanged an implementation agreement on establishing a joint investment fund and a term sheet for a Rixos hotel project at Blue City in Oman. KazMunayGas and OQ Exploration and Production also agreed to cooperate on investment opportunities in oil and gas exploration and production. The package of agreements covered areas including transport, agriculture, technology, healthcare, mining, and renewable energy. Despite a joint investment portfolio measured in billions of dollars, merchandise trade between the two countries remains modest. On October 5, the Chamber of International Commerce of Kazakhstan and the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry signed a memorandum of understanding. Kazakhstan proposed expanding exports of grain, meat, and...

Energy Investment

Kazakhstan’s Energy Sector Without Local Business: The Anatomy of Major Projects

In late June 2026, construction began on a 1 GW wind power plant in Kazakhstan’s Zhambyl Region. The project is valued at $1.4 billion. Companies based in the United Arab Emirates, Masdar and W Solar, hold 80% of the project, while Kazakhstan’s quasi-state sector holds the remaining 20% through Qazaq Green Power and the Kazakhstan Investment Development Fund. This ownership model has become typical across Kazakhstan’s energy industry. Nearly all major new energy infrastructure projects rely on foreign capital. The country’s largest renewable energy developments involve international investors, including France’s TotalEnergies and Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power. Even when agreements collapse, the government continues to rely on foreign partners. After financing problems ended cooperation with Russia’s Inter RAO, construction of new thermal power plants in Semey and Ust-Kamenogorsk was quickly reassigned to a Kazakh-Singapore consortium. A similar pattern appears across the sector: foreign investors provide most of the capital and technology, while Kazakhstan’s state-linked companies take minority stakes through Samruk-Kazyna or its subsidiaries This has created an unusual situation. Despite an acute shortage of generating capacity and guaranteed long-term demand, Kazakhstan’s largest private businesses have largely stayed away from electricity generation. Instead, domestic capital continues to favor sectors with greater liquidity and shorter investment horizons, ranging from finance to residential real estate. The reasons lie in straightforward economics, where financing costs and regulatory conditions outweigh the sector’s potential returns. The Financial Equation Power generation is one of the most capital-intensive infrastructure industries, with investment payback periods typically ranging from 10 to 15 years. Such projects require access to long-term financing at low interest rates. For Kazakhstan’s private sector, those financing instruments are largely unavailable. Under the National Bank’s tight monetary policy, with the benchmark interest rate standing at 17%, commercial borrowing costs for businesses routinely exceed 20% annually. Financing the construction of a power plant with local-currency loans at those rates is, mathematically, unviable. Such projects are virtually guaranteed to become unprofitable. Rather than engaging in complex, long-term infrastructure financing, Kazakhstan’s banking sector has increasingly concentrated on faster and more profitable lending. Official statistics from the National Bank of Kazakhstan illustrate this imbalance. As of May 2026, banks’ claims on households had reached approximately $60 billion, while lending to non-financial private enterprises, the real economy,stood at about $29 billion, less than half that amount. In practice, commercial banks have largely withdrawn from financing major industrial investment projects, preferring consumer lending with higher liquidity and quicker returns. Foreign corporations, meanwhile, enter Kazakhstan with access to international capital markets. They secure financing from global development institutions or sovereign wealth funds in their home countries at significantly lower borrowing costs. As a result, domestic private investors often lose the competitive race before projects even reach the investment decision stage. Unequal Conditions for Investors A second obstacle for domestic investors lies in Kazakhstan’s regulatory framework. Electricity tariffs have historically been kept under government control to limit inflationary pressures and avoid sharp increases in household utility bills and production costs. To attract major international energy companies,...

Wind power

Masdar Launches Construction of $1.4 Billion Wind Farm in Southern Kazakhstan

Construction has begun on one of Kazakhstan’s largest renewable energy projects, a 1-gigawatt wind power plant in the southern Zhambyl Region, as the country moves to address energy shortages and expand green generation capacity. The $1.4 billion project is being developed by a consortium of Kazakhstani companies and investors from the United Arab Emirates. The shareholders include Abu Dhabi-based clean energy company Masdar with a 40% stake, W Solar with 40%, Kazakhstan’s Qazaq Green Power, part of the Samruk-Kazyna fund, with 18%, and the Kazakhstan Investment Development Fund with 2%. The official groundbreaking ceremony took place on June 29 in a teleconference format, with the launch signal given from Astana by Kazakhstan’s Vice Minister of Energy Sungat Yessimkhanov, Samruk-Kazyna CEO Nurlan Zhakupov, and Masdar CEO Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi. Commercial operations are scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2029. “Partnership with Masdar contributes to the development of renewable energy and Kazakhstan’s progress toward carbon neutrality,” Yessimkhanov said. “This project will strengthen regional energy security and bring advanced technologies into the renewable energy sector.” The project’s key technical feature is its integration of wind generation with battery energy storage. The facility will include an energy storage system with a capacity of 300 MW and storage volume of 600 MWh. Officials say the battery system will help address one of the main challenges of renewable energy by stabilizing electricity supply during fluctuating weather conditions and peak evening demand. The wind farm is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2.5 million tons annually, supporting Kazakhstan’s national climate targets. Masdar has been expanding its presence across Central Asia. In 2024, Uzbekistan signed an agreement with the UAE company to build Central Asia’s first solar power plant with battery storage in the Bukhara region. In 2022, Masdar also reached an agreement with Turkmenistan to build the country’s first utility-scale solar plant, with a planned capacity of 100 MW. The company faces growing competition from Chinese firms in the region. In May, China Energy International Group launched construction of a 500-MW wind farm in central Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan aims to generate 15% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 as part of its broader strategy to reduce dependence on coal and improve long-term energy security.

Trade and Logistics

Kazakhstan Proposes Kenyan Trade Hub to Access Eurasian Markets

Kazakhstan has proposed establishing a Kenyan trade and logistics hub on its territory to facilitate the export of Kenyan goods to Eurasian markets, as Astana seeks to position itself as a key transit link between Asia, Europe, and Africa. The initiative was announced by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan during the Kazakhstan-Kenya Business Forum, held as part of Kenya’s President William Ruto’s state visit to Astana. “We are committed to opening a Kenyan trade hub in Kazakhstan that will provide your businesses with direct access to the entire Eurasian region,” Tokayev told representatives of the Kenyan business community. Kazakhstan hopes to expand exports of grain and other agricultural products to Africa, while Kenya could increase supplies of tea, coffee, and flowers to Central Asian and broader Eurasian markets. Astana is also promoting itself as an important part of international transport corridors. According to Tokayev, approximately 85% of overland transit traffic between China and Europe passes through Kazakhstan. The country is actively developing the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, commonly known as the Middle Corridor, which is increasingly viewed as an alternative to traditional transit routes through Russia. Tokayev proposed integrating the Middle Corridor with East African maritime routes by using the potential of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Kazakhstan specifically expressed interest in cooperation with the ports of Mombasa and Lamu, which are regarded as the region’s largest logistics hubs. “It is necessary to connect the Middle Corridor with Africa’s vital maritime arteries,” Tokayev said. The two sides also discussed the development of direct cargo air links between Kazakhstan and Kenya, as well as the possibility of launching direct passenger flights between Astana and Nairobi in the future. Beyond logistics, Kazakhstan and Kenya plan to expand cooperation in the extraction of rare earth metals and critical minerals, resources in growing global demand amid the energy transition and the expansion of digital technologies. During the forum, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, Samruk-Kazyna, and Kenya’s National Mining Corporation signed an agreement on joint geological exploration and subsoil development projects in Kenya. Tokayev also proposed establishing a Kazakhstan-Kenya Business Council and a specialized expert group focused on transport and logistics infrastructure development. According to the president, these steps should accelerate the creation of an intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation. Ruto said Nairobi was interested in creating a “new economic bridge” between Central Asia and Africa. “The logistics ports of Mombasa and Lamu will be available to companies from Kazakhstan interested in entering East African markets,” Ruto said. The visit comes as Kazakhstan seeks to diversify its trade routes and expand economic ties with countries of the Global South. Earlier, authorities in Kazakhstan announced plans to expand the country’s maritime fleet on the Caspian Sea to increase the capacity of the Middle Corridor.

Artificial Intelligence Joins Board of Directors at Samruk-Kazyna

For the first time in Central Asia, a neural network has been appointed to the board of directors of a major state fund. The SKAI system (Samruk-Kazyna Artificial Intelligence), developed around a domestic language model, now holds voting rights on the board of the Samruk-Kazyna National Wealth Fund. A Digital Voice in Governance SKAI was officially introduced in Astana at the Digital Bridge 2025 international forum. The system is described by the fund as the first AI-powered and independent board member in the region with decision-making powers. According to Samruk-Kazyna, SKAI analyzes internal and external regulations, board decisions dating back to 2008, and other corporate documentation. Its deployment is expected to improve “transparency and the quality of corporate governance” by enabling more data-driven decisions. Nurlan Zhakupov, Chairman of the Management Board of Samruk-Kazyna, hailed the development as a “quantum leap.” “Technology and people are beginning to make decisions together. Digitalization is moving beyond processes; it’s becoming part of leadership philosophy,” he said. Security and Supercomputing Cybersecurity was a top priority in SKAI’s development. It operates within a closed network on the Al Farabium supercomputer, owned by Kazakhtelecom, a portfolio company of the fund. Kazakhstan’s most powerful supercomputing resources, built with NVIDIA hardware, are being used to support the system. SKAI runs on Alem LLM, a large language model trained on Kazakh data, allowing it to process sensitive documents domestically without information being transmitted abroad. SKAI is expected to participate in upcoming board meetings as part of Samruk-Kazyna’s broader digital transformation agenda. AI at the Heart of National Strategy The initiative aligns with Kazakhstan’s national digital transformation strategy. Speaking at the Digital Bridge 2025 forum, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev reiterated the goal of becoming a fully digital nation within three years. “We have set a clear objective: Kazakhstan must become a truly digital nation within three years. This is an ambitious task,” Tokayev said. He also reaffirmed Kazakhstan’s intent to engage in global AI governance efforts under the United Nations and welcomed China’s initiative to establish an international organization for AI cooperation. Institutions and Infrastructure In 2025, Kazakhstan launched the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, as well as the region’s first AI Council. The government is also preparing legislation, including a dedicated Artificial Intelligence Law and a Digital Code, which will form the foundation for AI governance in education, healthcare, and the economy. Tokayev announced the establishment of Kazakhstan’s first AI-focused university and the Alem.ai International Center for Artificial Intelligence. He described the center as a “historic step” intended to become a platform for ethical AI development and a core institution within Central Asia’s emerging tech ecosystem. “Alem.ai will be a place where artificial intelligence technologies are implemented efficiently and ethically,” the president said. Established in 2008, Samruk-Kazyna manages national assets and spearheads economic modernization. The Government of Kazakhstan remains its sole shareholder. The fund’s Chairman of the Board of Directors is Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, and the Chairman of the Management Board is Nurlan Zhakupov. Samruk-Kazyna’s total assets are...