National companies Kazakhinvest and "KazakhExport" Export Insurance Company JSC will be established in the Republic of Kazakhstan
According to the result of the first nine months of the year 2016, gross inflow of foreign direct investment to Kazakhstan grew by 27.3% thus accounting for $ 4.5 billion. For the further growth of investments and exports, two new national companies will be founded in Kazakhstan. The head of the department Zhenis Kasymbek stated this at the board of the Ministry of Investment and Development of Kazakhstan, the correspondent of the business information center Kapital.kz reports.
"We continue working on improvement of the country's investment climate in accordance with the standards and recommendations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In October last year, the OECD Investment Committee decided to recommend the OECD Council to invite Kazakhstan as a participant. We expect that this decision will be made in March-April of this year," Zhenis Kasymbek said.
He recalled that for a year now the principle of "one window" for investors had been introduced. At the end of 2016, more than 5,500 appeals of investors were received and more than 8,000 government services were rendered.
"Now work is under way to develop an automated system for the support of investors. We plan to complete this work by the end of the first half of this year. The institute of the investment ombudsman functions. The work on attraction of investments at the external level was strengthened, in particular, we defined advisers on attracting investments in ten priority countries, also the main investors of our economy," Zhenis Kasymbek said.
According to him, at the regional level, there are councils for attracting investments under the akims of the regions. Now the process on reformatting the system for attracting investments started on behalf of the head of state. Here the ministry faces a number of specific tasks.
First, by the end of June this year, a national strategy for attracting investments should be developed, where priority sectors and prospective niches will be identified in order to attract investors in the current economic situation.
The second task is to strengthen the work of the ministry in coordinating the work of national companies, state bodies and akimats in attracting investments. "To do this work we have involved the experts from the World Bank. A specialized national investment company, Kazakhinvest, will be established on the basis of the national agency for export and investment Kaznex Invest, which will act as a single negotiator with targeted transnational companies and large investors on behalf of the government. All procedures for the reorganization and creation of the national company are planned to be completed in the next two weeks,"- Zhenis Kasymbek said.
“This is a joint work on specific projects, which will be offered to investors. In this regard, by the end of March this year a list of promising projects that require financing in the relevant sectors and regions should be formed. We are currently proceeding with state bodies, national companies and akimats. Until the end of the first half of the year these projects will be designed in accordance with international standards," Kasymbek assured.
He also added that the agency will continue to work to attract major investors and multinational companies. In this regard the earlier agreements with investors had been already audited and a detailed monitoring should be carried out for their implementation with specific deadlines. In addition, a target list of transnational companies with which Kazakhstan will work on projects should be identified, as well as a schedule of negotiations with them before the end of this year.
"We will also strengthen the implementation of joint projects. In particular, 18 projects are being worked out with Russia. There are also a number of projects with Iran, France, Japan, South Korea, China, Poland. In general, we have about 300 similar proposals and projects. In addition, we are working to promote the privatization program and further increase in the effectiveness of the FEZ," Zhenis Kasymbek said.
"For example, if we exported ferrochromium by more than 188 thousand tons compared to the year 2015, the growth was 21% in volume terms, but in money export earnings decreased by 15 million dollars. The same situation is with cathode copper: in volume the exports increased, but in value terms it decreased by more than $ 90 million US Dollars. In this regard, the work to help our exporters was strengthened: agreements were reached on entering the markets of Russia, China, Iran, Turkey and the European Union countries. In addition, trade missions, financing of export deals, cost recovery, insurance of export contracts, etc. are organized. As a result, there is an increase in exports of finished goods, such as electrical technology, finished metal products, plastic products, construction materials," Zhenis Kasymbek said. The panel also discussed issues of export promotion. Kazakhstan exports more than 960 commodity items to 117 countries. For the 11 months of last year, exports in the manufacturing industry amounted to $11.5 billion dollars, although there has been a slight decrease in such industries as metallurgy, chemistry and oil refining, by ca. 6.5%, mainly due to decrease in world prices.
And here the Minister for Investment and Development stressed that to strengthen this work, a national export council will be established under the government, and a specialized national company KazakhExport will be established on the basis of KazakhExport company, which shall unite all the levers to promote Kazakhstan's exports. As Zhenis Kasymbek concluded, the year 2017 in general will be the year of recovery of processed exports.
