ASTANA – Over ten months of this year, Astana has attracted nearly 1.3 trillion tenge ($2.5 billion) in investments, while industrial production volumes increased approximately 7% compared to 2023, Deputy Mayor Yevgeniy Glotov reported to Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, who toured the city’s enterprises on Nov. 29.
Olzhas Bektenov tours plants in Astana. Photo credit: primeminister.kz
According to the Prime Minister’s press service, the volume of Astana’s gross regional product (GRP) reached 5.5 trillion tenge (US$10.7 billion) in the first half of 2024, marking a 7% increase compared to the same period in 2023. Small and medium-sized businesses accounted for 72% of the GRP.
Bektenov visited the Digital System Service plant, which covers 7,500 square meters and produces telecommunications equipment, including modems, switches, routers, telephones and stations for home, office, and industrial use. Recent modernization boosted the plant’s capacity to 720,000 units annually with the possibility of scaling up to 805,000. Established in 2005, the plant has received nearly $4.5 million in investments and plans to expand into Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Russia, and Arab countries.
In railway engineering, the Prime Minister reviewed operations at the Lokomotiv Kurastyru Zauyty plant, which assembles up to 120 mainline diesel locomotives per year. Since its launch, the plant has produced 611 locomotives, achieving a 75% localization level. The project has attracted 30 billion tenge ($58.6 million) in investments.
Bektenov got acquainted with the development of the light industry during a visit to the Ashina KZ sewing factory, which annually produces 24,000 items of clothing or textile goods. The project is valued at 1.4 billion tenge ($2.7 million).
The Prime Minister also toured the Tau-Ken Altyn refinery, which purifies gold and precious metals from impurities using advanced technologies that have no analogues in the CIS. Since its inception, the facility has refined 336.7 tons of gold and 64.2 tons of silver, with an annual capacity of 25 tons of gold and 50 tons of silver.
