“Work on establishing high technology productions for export in Special Economic Zone Seaport Aktau continues,” said Akim (governor) of the Mangystau region Alik Aidarbayev at a Nov. 14 Central Communications Service (CCS) briefing. “Currently, five companies are operating in the territory of the special economic zone and 29 billion tenge [US$160.25 million] has been attracted. Products worth 223 billion tenge [US$1.23 billion] have been manufactured. Taxes amounting to 9.5 billion tenge [US$52.5 million] were paid to the budget. More than 1,000 jobs were created,” he said. In 2014, it is planned to launch five projects totalling 5 billion tenge [US$27.62 million]. They will also create 365 jobs. In 2015-2017, it is planned to launch another 14 projects with a total cost of about 375 billion tenge [US$2.07 billion], creating more than 7,000 jobs. Presently, infrastructure is being built in the special economic zone.
“The latest address of the President is the main stimulator of the growth of our economy,” said Akim (Mayor) of Astana Adilbek Dzhaksybekov at a Nov. 13 meeting dedicated to discussing the state-of-the-nation address. “Expanding the horizons of the Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy, we have reached a new phase of a breakthrough of the economic policy of Kazakhstan: ‘Bright Road.’ It is a crossing point of two vectors: one of them is a way of Kazakhstan’s development and the second one is the achievement of essential success. I think it is one of the most important events of this year, which is definitely going to go down in the history of our country,” the akim said.
Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov attended the sixth Expert-200-Kazakhstan forum, held on Nov. 14. Massimov noted the importance of implementing tasks from the President’s address to the people, “Nurly Zhol.” “The head of state adopted the decision to allocate money to stimulate Kazakhstan’s economy and its financial stability. We are making reforms together with world financial institutes the World Bank, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Asian Bank of Development (ADB), the Islamic Bank of Development (IBD), [and] in cooperation with the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). I think that will allow Kazakhstan to avoid average earnings and attract private investment,” Massimov said.
Kazakhstan’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Mainura Murzamadiyeva, and Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands Henk Kamp met in The Hague on Nov. 6 to discuss important issues of bilateral trade and economic cooperation and intensifying business relations, particularly in the framework of the forthcoming visit of Kamp to Astana to participate in the 25th session of the Energy Charter Conference at the end of November. Murzamadiyeva briefed Kamp on existing opportunities for developing cooperation between Kazakhstan and the Netherlands, including in the framework of implementing the State Programme of Accelerated Industrial and Innovative Development (SPAIID) and international exhibition EXPO 2017. She underlined the Kazakh government’s initiatives to establish a new stimuli package for foreign investors. Kamp stressed the growing interest of the Netherlands in enhancing multitier cooperation. He also commended the social and economic transformations of Kazakhstan and the political stability and increasing attractiveness of the state and the region. At the end of the meeting, the parties reached agreed to intensify economic dialogue and start joint preparations for the visit of the Dutch delegation to Kazakhstan.
