NUR-SULTAN – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) invested $630 million in 18 projects in Kazakhstan in 2021, reported the bank’s press service.
The EBRD announced plans to support the major road project in central Kazakhstan in September 2021. The bank invested in the reconstruction of a road section between the Kyzylorda and Zhezkazgan cities and the construction of a bypass road around Kyzylorda.
Forty percent of projects are aimed at promoting the green economy. The EBRD will also support Kazakhstan in implementing its long-term cooperation strategy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
Overall, the bank has invested more than $10.3 billion in the country’s economy through 295 projects.
The list of the major projects includes the infrastructure upgrades at the Almaty International Airport and investments in the Mangistau Regional Distribution Company (MREK) power utility in the West Kazakhstan region.
It is reported that the EBRD focuses on strengthening the banking sector and supporting local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Last year, the EBRD also supported the SMEs through 234 advisory projects with local and international experts.
In November, the EBRD issued the first ever local-currency bond linked to the new tenge overnight index average rate, or TONIA. Some 12,500 million tenge of the three-year bonds were auctioned at full issue price on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).
According to the bank, “TONIA is a robust benchmark, anchored in the liquid overnight tenge repurchase agreement (repo) market. In line with market practices for indexing transactions to similar overnight risk-free-rates in other currencies, TONIA will be compounded daily and the compounded rate then calculated at the end of each interest period. Using the TCI simplifies calculations and reduces the risk of operational error.”
