Kazakhstan attracts over 2,000 new foreign companies in 2020

25 large investment projects worth over US$1 billion were launched in Kazakhstan last year, including companies for manufacturing cars, technical gas and compound feed. In total, the number of companies with foreign investments in the country has grown by 11 percent over the last year alone. To date, their number exceeded 22,000. Kazakhstan continues to be an indisputable leader in terms of the foreign direct investments inflow in the region. In the last five years alone, the country managed to attract more than US$21 billion to the economy, and nearly US$350 billion over the years of independence. According to experts, Kazakhstan achieved such results thanks to anti-crisis measures taken by the government and a favorable climate for foreign investments.

“The first advantage of Kazakhstan is that it has a certain political stability. Secondly, we have long-term programs for attracting investments. There are preferences for corporate income tax, for real estate tax, which may have a fixed period. Companies that invest may not pay these taxes. Another good point is the Astana International Financial Centre, which has more loyal, softer conditions for attracting foreign investment,” said an economist Arman Baiganov.

Despite the pandemic and tough quarantine restrictions in 2020, the AIFC managed to attract a significant number of companies to the country. There were nearly 420 organizations operating in the Centre before the pandemic. Now their number reached 659. Moreover, the AIFC participants in total replenished the state budget by almost six billion tenge (over US$14.2 million).