The 30th Plenary Session of the Foreign Investors’ Council chaired by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev was held today in Astana. More than 300 participants from the Kazakh and foreign sides, including 30 members of the Council from the foreign side and 2 observers (Heads of international financial organizations and transnational companies), as well as Heads of state bodies, national companies and organizations took part in the Plenary Session.

This year the main topic of the Plenary Session was “New Energy”, on which the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Sir Suma Chakrabarti, Minister for Investment and Development of the RoK, Zhenis Kassymbek, Minister of Energy of the RoK, Kanat Bozumbayev, Governing Board Chairman of Kazakhstan Foreign Investors’ Council Association, Ulf Wokurka, President of GE Oil & Gas, Lorenzo Simonelli, Chief Executive Officer of ENI S.p.A. Claudio Descalzi, Vice President for Private Sector and Cofinancing of the Asian Development Bank, Diwakar Gupta, Chairman of the Board of Managers of ERG S.a.r.l., Alexander Machkevitch, and others made a speech. 

Thanks to the work done to improve the investment climate, Kazakhstan is ranked 35th in the World Bank’s “Ease of doing business” rating. Over the past 12 years, Kazakhstan has attracted USD 243 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI). In 2016 USD 20.6 billion was attracted which is 40% more than in 2015.  

A significant growth of FDI’s volume is observed in the following industries: information technology – 9,7 times more, electricity – 5,9 times, mining - 2 times, construction – 84,5%, trade - 51%, industry – by 48,3%. At the same time, FDI increased in a number of manufacturing industries: in pharmaceutical products – in 8 times, in the metallurgical industry – by 85,8%, manufacturing of wood and paper products - by 74%.

The largest amount of foreign investments is in the Netherlands ($7.7 billion), USA ($3.4 billion), Switzerland ($2.6 billion), France ($ 1.1 billion), China ($960.9 million), Russia ($867.4 million), Belgium ($710.6 million), Great Britain ($684.8 million).

The Foreign Investors’ Council (FIC) was established in 1998 to provide a direct dialogue between the Government of the RoK and foreign investors for an effective solution of problematic issues related to their investment activities in the country and improvement of the investment climate in the RoK. The FIC includes the Heads of 35 large multinational foreign companies and international organizations.

Since the FIC establishment, 29 Plenary Sessions have been held under the chairmanship of the Head of State, at which a wide range of issues was discussed, including improvement of the legal regime for foreign investments in the country; improvement of the judicial system of Kazakhstan; optimization of the taxation system and attraction of foreign labor; improvement of the investment image of the RoK etc.