Baku, Azerbaijan, October 10
By Nargiz Sadikhova – Trend:
European Union (EU) is the first investor in Kazakhstan, with stock and annual flow of foreign direct investments from the EU representing around 50 percent of the total, an EU official told Trend.
According to the official, Investments are increasingly seen as an important tool in the EU’s development cooperation with Kazakhstan to support the country’s sustainable economic growth.
In this regard, The Investment Facility for Central Asia (IFCA), created in 2010 is especially important.
“IFCA uses EU funds to leverage and attract additional financial resources for investment projects that promote inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development. This is done for example by attracting additional investments from other public and private partners, by providing technical assistance, interest subsidies or risk capital operations,” a EU source said.
The official explained that the investment facility encourages beneficiaries to make development-relevant investments which would otherwise be financially or technically difficult, or where the regular market fails to offer sufficient or affordable financing.
Areas for cooperation include: financing and development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), energy, climate change, environment and natural resources management, including water management, disaster preparedness and risk reduction.
“Kazakhstan currently benefits from three investment projects under IFCA. These focus on supporting SMEs, and green SMEs and improving energy efficiency. Priority areas for future projects include municipal solid waste management, renewable energy, and green micro-finance,” EU source concluded.
Furthermore, according to the Investment Facilities Asia and Pacific - 2017-2018 Operational Report, as of 2018 EU supported three projects in Kazakhstan within the framework of IFCA. These are: ‘Kazakhstan Sustainable Energy Financing Facility’ (2010, project cost was €30.2 million), ‘Kazagro Climate Loan for SMEs, Midcaps and MSMEs’ (2013, project cost was €152.1 million), ‘Framework for Technical Assistance in Kazakhstan’ (2013, project cost was €3.2 million) projects.
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