The Akim (Governor) of Kostanay Oblast (region), Nuraly Saduakasov discussed the region’s investment potential at a Central Communications Service media briefing on Dec. 19. “This year, over 177 billion tenge (US$1.5 billion) was invested in the region’s economy. About 70 percent of these investments are private. It is worth noting that the official statistics do not count investments made by non-residents of Kazakhstan. If their investments are included, the total volume of foreign investments would exceed 10 billion tenge (US$65 million),” the head of the region said. In discussing how to attract investments, the governor said that the Tobol Social Entrepreneurship Corporation has been helping to increase the flow of investments. “The corporation is currently implementing 47 investment projects worth 4.5 billion tenge (US$29 million),” he noted.
In total, 69 facilities worth 101.2 billion tenge (US$658.5 million) were put into service as part of the Industrialization Map programme in the Kostanay region. “Over 4.3 thousand new jobs were created; labour productivity in the processing sector of the region increased 1.3 times. The region holds 2nd place in the country in terms of the number of opened facilities and investment projects currently underway. Plants producing polyethylene pipes, prefabricated reinforced concrete, cardboard and oil are among the newly launched factories,” he said. According to Saduakasov, out of 58 enterprises launched this year, 38 enterprises reached their intended capacity. The production volume of these enterprises exceeded 42 billion tenge (US$273 million) this year, or 20 percent of the total volume of the processing industry. “The key goal of the Industrialisation Map is the realisation of investment projects, the introduction of modern equipment and the launch of production of new types of products,” the regional leader said.
The multifaceted economy of the Kostanay region attracted 8 percent more investments this year compared to last year. The total amount of investments attracted totalled 177 billion tenge (US$1.12 billion), deputy head of the regional department of economy and budget planning, Yerlan Ospanov said in an interview with ortcom.kz on Dec. 20. “Both agriculture and industry are well developed in our region. The share of these two sectors in our gross regional product (GRP) is about 20-25 percent. It is also worth noting that the processing industry was given an impetus for development by the dynamically developing engineering sector,” the representative of the region said. He also informed that investments in stock capital equalled 177 billion tenge (US$1.12 billion), which is 8 percent more than the previous year. Foreign trade turnover reached US$1.8 billion. Exports were US$1.7 billion of this figure and the imports – US$1.1 billion. “Most of the foreign trade turnover is with the Customs Union member states – Russia and Belarus. China is also one of our main partners. These countries account for about 22 percent of our total trade. We closely cooperate with Switzerland, Ukraine, Germany and Japan,” he said.
Another aluminum smelter will be built in Kazakhstan soon. “Our industrialisation should revolve around processing our nation’s raw materials. “You are the pioneers of such processing. You must work on the construction of a second plant for an additional 250,000 tons of aluminum jointly with the government. I hope, we will be discussing the successful openings of such establishments in future meetings,” said Nursultan Nazarbayev during his teleconference with Pavlodar region officials on Dec. 20. Earlier in the teleconference, president of the “Kazakhstan Electrolysis Plant,” Almas Ibragimov said that an aluminum smelter with a capacity of 250,000 tons per year will soon be built, as requested by the head of state.
