Over 1,000 joint ventures and foreign companies have already been established and are operating in the region.

Measures to improve the quality of the investment climate in a particular region of the RoK are one of the main factors ensuring the growth of its financial and fiscal sustainability. Therefore, the government authorities should make every effort to ensure the arrival of new investors, both domestic and foreign, and establish convenient and mutually beneficial forms of cooperation with them. Yerzhan Abylkhanov, Deputy Akim of the region, told about how this work is carried out in Atyrau region in a conversation with the journalist of zakon.kz

• What is the region’s management doing to attract investment to the region?
• In Atyrau region the work on improvement of investment climate and attraction of investments into the regional economy is carried out on a systematic basis.

Being one of the most dynamically developing regions of Kazakhstan, the region successfully cooperates with more than 50 countries. Over 1,000 joint ventures and foreign companies have been established and are operating here.

• How many investors have visited the Atyrau region in recent years and how ready are they to invest their money?

The region, which has a huge investment potential, is annually visited by delegations from far and near abroad, which allows establishing bilateral international relations. In general, more than 20 foreign delegations headed by Ambassadors, trade representatives and heads of companies interested in cooperation and investment visited the region in 2019.

The annual exhibitions Atyrau Oil&Gas and Atyrau Build, in which more than 150 companies from different countries participate, give an impetus to the formation of the business image of the region.

A “Regional Council for Attracting Investments and Improving the Investment Climate” was established to improve approaches to attracting investors and to promptly address issues related to the region’s investment activities.

In addition, a regional front-office for attraction of investments and support of investors on the principle of “one window” on the basis of SEC Atyrau has been formed, the regional representative office of JSC NC Kazakh Invest and Atyrau Innovations LLP, which provides support to investors on PPP projects, also operates.

• What investment projects are only planned, and for which there are already concrete results?
• Implementation of the State Program of Industrial and Innovative Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2015-2019, approved by Presidential Decree, contributed to the creation and promotion of new sectors of the economy, such as petrochemicals, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries, fertilizers (biohumus) and large-size mechanical engineering.

A total of 28 projects worth approximately 569.1 billion tenge were put into operation and 1,822 jobs created.

Production of such products as fiber-optic cables, drilling rigs, drill bits, metal-plastic pipes, large- and extra-heavy equipment, bolted connections was launched.

Implementation of the project “Reconstruction and modernization of the Atyrau Refinery (deep oil processing complex)” according to the Industrialization Map allowed creating 450 jobs.

Despite the current situation in the oil sector and a number of restrictive sanitary-epidemiological measures, Tengizchevroil LLP continues to implement the “Future Expansion Project”. This project is an absolute leader on the regional and national scale in terms of capital investments.

• How many investment projects are planned to be implemented this year and in what areas?
• In 2020 it is planned to attract more than 100 billion tenge for the implementation of the planned projects and to commission 3 new projects within the framework of the entrepreneurship support card.

On the territory of the Special Economic Zone National Industrial Petrochemical Technopark created for the development of chemical industry there are 9 registered participants. The project on polymer production of Polymer Production LLP was put into operation. The project on production of polypropylene, Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries Inc. LLP is being implemented. The project is expected to be put into operation in the middle of the next year.

Karabatan Utility Solutions LLP is engaged in construction of SEZ infrastructure facilities. At the design stage the production of polyethylene with capacity of 1 250 thousand tons per year by KLPE LLP and caustic soda by Global Chemical LLP, construction of gas fractionation plant for production of propane, butane and synthetic natural gas by Karabatan Chemical Corporation LLP.

At the same time, the project of the French company Air Liquide on technical gases production on the basis of AORP LLP is expected to be put into operation this year. This year, the company plans to start construction and installation works on the project for production of compressed air and nitrogen for the needs of Kazakhstan Petrochemical Industries Inc. LLP.

For the purpose of detailed study of the region’s potential and sales markets, marketing analysis and research of the region’s economic growth opportunities were conducted. As a result, four sectors of the economy have been identified. These are infrastructure development, including social facilities. Development of the agro-industrial complex, which includes special loans, subsidies, establishment of a center for training of special specialists, survey of fertile land plots and provision of farms. Import substitution, including loans for projects to replace imported goods in the framework of the economy of simple things. Human resources development – introduction of necessary specialties and training courses of branch direction into secondary and higher educational institutions.

Of course, active work on attracting investments will continue. And first of all, it will be implemented on the basis of certain main advantages and opportunities of our region.

Source: https://www.zakon.kz/