ASTANA — President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev noted the critical role of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) in attracting green funding for the region and developing the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) during a May 2 meeting with AIFC Governor Renat Bekturov, reported the Akorda press service.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev meeting with AIFC Governor Renat Bekturov. Photo credit: Akorda
Tokayev said that more than 60% of green bonds and loans in the country were granted with the support of the AIFC Green Finance Center.
During the meeting, Bekturov discussed the results of the work done in 2023 and the January-March period, as well as AIFC development plans.
According to Bekturov, since its launch, the financial center has brought in investments worth more than $11 billion (including $3.5 billion in 2023 and January-March of this year), exceeding the initial target set by 2025.
He noted that the AIFC registered a record number of new participants in 2023 – more than 670 companies (overall, more than 2,600 companies from 78 countries). In 2023 and the first three months of this year, the center’s participants paid 48.7 billion tenge (US$109.7 million) in taxes to the country’s budget. The AIFC Court and the International Arbitration Center, which in 2023 reviewed 767 commercial cases, are effectively operating dispute resolution organizations.
Tokayev outlined several urgent tasks for developing the financial center, stressing the necessity for government organizations and supervising financial institutions to combine their efforts to attract investment into Kazakhstan’s economy by using the AIFC infrastructure to complete transactions.
