On December 25, during the press briefing in Astana, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Aibek Smadiyarov provided a year-end recap on economic diplomacy achievements and attracted foreign investments, QazMonitor reports citing the Ministry’s press service.
Smadiyarov said that Kazakhstan’s embassies and their governing bodies actively promote domestic products in foreign markets, establishing reliable business contacts with new partners, fostering a mutually beneficial export-import process, and attracting foreign direct investments (FDI) to the country.
As of the first half of 2023, the gross inflow of FDI in Kazakhstan reached $13.3 billion. The leading contributors in terms of FDI during this period were the Netherlands with $3 billion, followed by the United States ($1.9 billion), Switzerland ($1.7 billion), Russia ($1.1 billion), China ($748.3 million), South Korea ($717 million), Belgium ($585.3 million), France ($458.4 million), the UAE ($408.7 million), and Luxembourg ($238.5 million).
Sectorwise, largest FDIs were attracted in mining ($5.6 billion), manufacturing ($2.9 billion), wholesale and retail trade ($2.5 billion), financial and insurance activities ($488.2 million), transportation and warehousing ($577.8 million), construction ($189.8 million), professional, scientific and technical activities ($159.6 million), real estate transactions ($234.3 million), and other sectors of the national economy.
Overall, at the end of the first half of 2023, the net FDI inflow amounted to $4.1 billion, indicating an 86.6% increase compared to the same period last year ($2.2 billion).
Within the framework of the three-tier system of investment attraction, embassies conducted over 3,000 meetings with foreign companies abroad as of December, facilitating more than 1,400 visits to Kazakhstan.
As of December 14, 2023, sixty-seven investment contracts were concluded totaling ₸696 billion, and over 450 applications for investment preferences were processed. Additionally, six agreements on investment commitments were reached with the multinational natural resource producer ERG.
The authorities have compiled a list of the 422 largest companies from 38 countries. Germany leads the list with 70 major companies operating in Kazakhstan, followed by the US (64 business entities), Switzerland (37 business entities), and Japan (26 business entities). Currently, the government is actively engaging with 78 of these companies.
Furthermore, during the Kazakhstan Global Investment Roundtable 2023 held in Astana on November 17, twenty-eight documents were signed totaling nearly $1.8 billion. This year, Kazakh Invest national company has organized 23 major investment events with foreign partners.