At a press conference in the Government, the Governor of Astana International Financial Center Kairat Kelimbetov spoke about the preconditions that contribute to the creation of an investment hub at the AIFC.

The AIFC is identified as a single center for coordinating work on attracting investments and promoting the investment image of Kazakhstan. It will become a regional investment hub.

“No additional budgetary funds will be required and will not be provided for this,” said Kelimbetov.

According to him, on the contrary, it is a closer cooperation of all coordination institutions, which will lead to the optimization of certain budgetary expenses, which contributes to savings.

“The Government’s decision is being taken to approve a special Roadmap, which implies a number of measures: this includes making certain adjustments to legislation, transport connectivity and infrastructure issues with international financial centers, tax optimization issues. Now there are a lot of benefits in various fields. The greatest contribution from the decision is the joint work of all financial institutions,” said Kelimbetov.

Today, the AIFC competes with the countries of the Eurasian region, with all world markets.

“Today, investments remain in developed countries, less than in developing countries. There is a very big competition even in the post-Soviet space, and therefore it is important that we take forward decisions. Today, Kazakhstan has a huge advantage, since we are the only country in the post-Soviet space that has created an ecosystem that works on the principles of English common law. To this end, on behalf of Elbasy, amendments were made to the Constitution. All this will give us the opportunity to speed up the processes of attracting investments,” noted Kelimbetov.

He stressed that when creating the AIFC, it was very important to create a new ecosystem through legislation, because the principles of English common law are very important and familiar to world investors.

“From 2016 to 2018, preparatory work was done and all institutions were formed. This is the AIFC Court and the International Arbitration Center. The AIFC has a regulator that acts on the principles of English common law, can evaluate the work of financial foreign institutions, and most importantly, the Center has the necessary financial infrastructure. On the instructions of Elbasy, it was decided to establish a Foreign Direct Investment Fund with an initial capital of $1 billion. Such a Fund was created on the AIFC platform, where the exchange started operating,” said Kelimbetov.

The financial center manager stressed that last week the listing of the first foreign issuer, the Russian company Polymetal, was recorded. The company has been working in Kazakhstan for more than 10 years in Kostanay and East Kazakhstan regions, has created more than 2 thousand jobs.

“This company has placed its shares, this is the first swallow, and we expect that for many investors this will be a signal of confidence in the investment potential and jurisdiction of the international financial center,” said Kelimbetov.