On Saturday, May 27, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov held a meeting of the Investment Headquarters, which considered the rate of capital investments (CII) and foreign direct investments (FDI).

Minister of National Economy Alibek Kuantyrov informed that the total volume of FDI amounted to 3.8 trillion tenge in January-April of the current year, which is 18% more than during the same period of 2022. Among the industries, mining and manufacturing industry, real estate operations, transport and warehousing, and agriculture are leading by this indicator.

The nationwide target indicator for January-April was achieved. Regionally, out of 20 regions, 12 have fulfilled and exceeded their plans. Among them are Turkestan (148%), Kyzylorda (137%), Karaganda (122%), Mangystau (122%) and Akmola (116%) regions. Among central government agencies the plans were overfulfilled by the Ministries of Healthcare (167%), Education (153%), Science and Higher Education (152%), Trade and Integration (143%), Agriculture (116%), Environment and Natural Resources (108%).

Prime Minister stressed that following the results of 4 months most regions and central government agencies met the indicators of IEC, but 8 regions did not reach the targets. The outsiders are the regions of Ulytau (52%), Abay (64%) and Zhambyl region (65%).

"Ulytau and Zhambyl failed to meet the annual FDI plan last year as well. At the previous meeting of the Investstab, the akims of these regions promised that they would correct the situation this year. But, as we see, your regions are in last place among all regions," Alikhan Smailov said.

Nurlan Urankhaev, akim of Abay region, Beibit Isabaev of Zhetisu region, Nurzhan Nurzhigitov of Zhambyl region, Ermaganbet Bulekbaev of Karaganda region, and Ulantay Usenov, deputy akim of Ulytau region, made reports on measures taken.

Having heard the speakers, the head of the government has underlined that following the results of the first half-year corresponding measures will be accepted concerning the officials supervising questions of investments.

Alikhan Smailov also noted the weak work in terms of IEC by the Ministries of Culture (62%) and digitalization (61%), indicating the need to increase the number of projects in the IT-sector, as well as to strengthen work on attracting investment in the tourism industry.

The Minister of Culture and Sports Askhat Oralov and Vice-Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Askar Zhambakin made comments on these issues.

Prime Minister stressed that the government has the task to bring the level of CII this year to 18.5 trillion tenge. In this connection regions and departments have to organize proactive work on attraction of investments into fixed capital considering the backlog.

At the session we also considered the results of work on attraction of direct foreign investments for last year.

As Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Almas Aidarov reported, their inflow amounted to $28 billion, which became a record figure for the last 10 years. 199 investment projects in key sectors of the economy worth 2.3 trillion tenge were commissioned. In 2023, it is planned to launch another 281 projects worth 1.9 trillion tenge.

The Top 10 countries-investors based on last year's results include the Netherlands, the USA, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, South Korea, China, France, the UK and Germany.

Alikhan Smailov noted that the Head of the State set a task for the government to attract $150 bn of FDI till 2029.

"This year we must attract at least $24 billion of foreign capital into the national economy. The ministers and the akims should take necessary measures to implement new and high-quality investment projects with foreign capital in priority sectors of the economy," Prime Minister said.

In addition, the participants of the meeting considered the problematic issues in the implementation of major projects with the participation of foreign investors. Following the discussion, Alikhan Smailov instructed the responsible government agencies and organizations to take comprehensive measures to address them.

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