Kazakhstan, Astana, May 24 / Trend D.Mukhtarov /
Astana is interested in foreign investment, akim (head of administration) of the Kazakh capital Imangali Tasmagambetov said at the IV International Investment Forum "AstanaInvest 2013".
According to Tasmaganbetov, over the past three years, the share of private investment in urban projects has increased four-fold.
"Over the past 15 years, the city's population has grown two and a half times, the gross regional product has increased more than 90-fold, while investments - by 30 times. I believe it is a good sign for the investors. In addition, Astana is one of the few cities, which has created the most attractive opportunities," Tasmaganbetov said.
He added that "it is about a whole complex of protective measures and incentives, defining clear rules of the game in a special economic zone 'Astana - new city', the main link of which is the industrial park with an area of 600 hectares". Some 46 projects with the volume of investments of up to $1.2 billion have already been implemented and announced for implementation in the SEZ 'Astana-new city'.
"Given the experience of functioning of this institutional structure, we have started the establishment of the second industrial park in the area of 450 acres, where most favorable preferences are awaiting our business partners: land, registration time for which is decreased by half, subsidies for loan rate of banks and partial guarantees to banks of up to 50 percent of the collateral," Tasmaganbetov said.
In addition, investors are promised a simplified procedure for attraction of foreign labor and a two-fold reduction in administrative procedures. Following the commissioning, the taxes on on land and property as well as corporate income tax will be abolished.
"The sum of the value added tax will be returned, which reduces the expenditures of investors up to 12 percent. This is the base, within which many investors have felt the real economic impact. Among them are General Electric, Eurocopter helicopters, Alstom electric locomotives, the total output of which only last year totaled $500 million," Tasmaganbetov said.
He added that the adoption of a new law on the forms of public-private partnerships will provide the investors with more opportunities and guarantees. He also said hosting EXPO-2017 will give a new impetus to the economic development of cities. "We are pursuing a specific goal of creating fundamentally new city with clean environment and high standards of quality of life," Tasmaganbetov said.
To do this, he said, a number of projects has already been developed, providing for a reasonably profitable investment platform. Among them are the "Astana Green City" project, which suggests solutions in terms of energy efficiency and renewable energy, the "Astana Mobility" project, aimed at updating and improving the quality of transport infrastructure and the logistics of the city within EXPO-2017, the "Welcome to Astana" project, focused on the unification of infrastructure of the hotel business and service sectors of the city in accordance with international standards.