ASTANA — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has released a five-year country partnership strategy (CPS) for Kazakhstan aimed at addressing climate change and decarbonization, promoting inclusive economic growth, and strengthening governance, reported the bank’s press service on May 17.
Photo credit: ADB.
Energy, finance, public sector management, transport, and urban development are indicated as priority sectors by the ADB. The new CPS is aligned with Kazakhstan’s Strategy 2050 and medium-term economic policy.
“Our new partnership strategy responds to Kazakhstan’s needs as an upper middle-income country and will help the government address key challenges as it continues to develop a more inclusive and sustainable modern economy,” said ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov.
In April, ADB began exploring opportunities to accelerate the country’s retirement of coal and other fossil fuel plants and replace them with clean energy under the bank’s Energy Transition Mechanism program.
“Our new CPS focuses on enhancing the country’s economic resilience, addressing climate change, improving governance, boosting human development, and reducing inequalities,” said ADB Country Director for Kazakhstan Nariman Mannapbekov. He underlined the high relevance of these areas in the current global and regional context.
In addressing climate change issues, ADB will focus on supporting the government’s strategy of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 while ensuring its development and energy needs are met. ADB will support reforming the country’s energy sector in electricity and heating through knowledge, advisory and investments.
According to the CPS, ADB aims to reduce socioeconomic and regional disparities by improving access to and quality of financial, education, and health services for disadvantaged segments of society and lagging regions and improving transport connectivity in the country.
The ABD intends to systematically strengthen governance via policy dialogue with the government, supported by policy-based lending.
According to the ADB, Kazakhstan was the first Central Asian country to join ADB, becoming a member in 1994. Since then, the bank has approved more than $6 billion in government and private sector loans and grants to finance technical assistance.
ADB also accomplishes its operations in Kazakhstan via the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) program.
