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Kazakhstan needs to reconsider principles of management of country's reserves of foreign exchange and gold

Business Materials 10 September 2011 15:42 (UTC +04:00)

Kazakhstan, Astana, Sept. 10 /Trend, A.Maratov/
Kazakhstan needs to reconsider the principles of management of the country's reserves of foreign exchange and gold, the President of Aspandau Scientific-Educational Foundation Kanat Nurov believes.
"Gross international reserves and assets of the National Fund as of mid-2011 have already exceeded the equivalent of $75 billion, and increased by more than 25 times over the past ten years," said Nurov.
He said thanks to the Fund, Kazakhstan has taken anti-crisis measures and progressively returned to state ownership the important assets that the Republic sold in 1990s.
"This is - Ekibastuz GRES-1 power station, Bogatir coal plant, participation share in Kashagan, Mangistaumunaigaz and Kazakh oil refinery," said Nurov.
By 2020, the National Fund assets, without international reserves, will amount to at least 30 percent of GDP or $90 billion. For comparison, Russia's international reserves amount to about $540 billion, increasing by 15 times over the decade.
"However, the ambiguity of the external, third-party management of the National Fund on the backdrop of falls in income, tightening restrictive measures in activities of public funds - Sovereign Wealth Funds and political risk of freezing funds, require more caution and responsibility for the safety of Kazakhstan's savings," the expert believes.
He said an appropriate reassessment of the external asset management should be conducted in the next decade, which will lead to partial transfer of funds to the internal management, until the full physical internal control of reserves of precious metals.
"Popularity will be gained by the simple, open mechanisms for internal use of the National Fund: reinvestment in the domestic securities, repayment of expensive external public debts, financing of cash handling stamped coins of precious metal; transfer of accounts, e-savings to physical gold, silver, platinum, palladium of Kazakh production stored in Kazakhstan; maternity capital for newborns; retirement savings in the form of land plots, estates or grain receipts, etc.," Nurov said.
He said there will appear a tendency to transfer forms of national wealth from outside, virtual, electronic to domestic, tangible and open for use.

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