BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Over 50 investment projects opening almost 5,000 jobs were implemented in Kazakhstan in 2021, Zhandos Temirgali, deputy board chairman of the Kazakh Invest NC JSC, told Trend.
According to Temirgali, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign investors are still showing great interest in the country as the largest economy in Central Asia.
"In 2021, a good upward tendency in foreign direct investments [in Kazakhstan] was recorded. We coped to stop the negative trend of 2020 and increase the volume of investments," he said.
The company’s representative also noted that in the first nine months of 2021, foreign direct investments in Kazakhstan amounted to nearly $18.7 billion, which is 50 percent more than in the same period of 2020.
"In general, there are plans in 2022-2023 to overcome the negative trend of the pandemic and reach good indicators in 2017, 2018 and 2019, when the volume of foreign direct investment amounted to about $24 billion annually," Temirgali noted.
He also noted that last year, with the support of Kazakh Invest JSC, a company that is a national operator for supporting investment activities, 57 projects were implemented in Kazakhstan.
"These are projects that have already been commissioned, and the amount of investment in them was nearly $3.8 billion, which is 2.4 times higher than in 2020. Besides, the opening of about 5,000 jobs is also an important indicator for us," the deputy board chairman emphasized.
According to him, the main investors in the economy of Kazakhstan are still the US, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
He added that in 2020, in Kazakhstan, just like in Azerbaijan, the GDP decline wasn't as dramatic as in other countries of the world.
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