ASTANA (TCA) — Within the framework of the Kazakh-British intergovernmental commission, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Kazakh Invest national investment support and promotion agency and UK Export Finance British Export Credit Agency on October 8. The document was signed by Saparbek Tuyakbayev, Chairman of the Board of Kazakh Invest, and UK’s Minister of State for Trade Policy George Hollingbery.
The memorandum is aimed at attracting funding for Kazakhstan projects in the field of energy, transport, roads and railways, mining and water projects in the amount of up to 2.5 billion pounds sterling. The total loan amount can reach up to 85% of the total project cost, the loan period from 2 to 10 years with an interest rate from 1.5 to 3.5%, Kazakh Invest reported.
The parties hope that the Memorandum will become an important mechanism for strengthening commercial ties between Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom, and will create the basis for increasing the volume of bilateral investments.
In the framework of the Memorandum, the Parties agreed to consider the possibility of financing large projects in the priority sectors of the industry of Kazakhstan. Mutual efforts of the parties will be focused on the areas of water supply, drainage, irrigation, petrochemical chemistry, mining metallurgy, agro-industrial complex, and medicine.
During the meeting, Saparbek Tuyakbayev noted that Kazakh Invest, within its competence, intends to support the UKEF initiatives on the implementation of investment projects and help create favorable conditions for their implementation.
The UK is in the top 10 trading partners in terms of trade volume, as well as among the six largest investors in Kazakhstan, which is almost 5% of the total volume of attracted foreign investments. Trade between Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom increased by 1.5% to $1.28 billion in 2017. For the first quarter of 2018, the total turnover of mutual trade amounted to $252.6 million. More than 800 legal entities, branches and representative offices with British participation are registered in Kazakhstan.
