UAE to invest $6 billion in Kazakhstan

The UAE will invest more than US$6 billion in to Kazakhstan economy in the coming years, Askar Mamin, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, said at a Kazakhstan Trade and Investment Forum held at the Expo 2020.

Two sovereign wealth funds – UAE’s ADQ and Kazakhstan’s Samruk-Kazyna signed an agreement to develop a joint holding company on the sidelines of the day-long Kazakhstan Trade and Investment Forum, that will build upon a recent joint declaration by the two countries made in October this year – that stipulates that the UAE will invest more than US$6 billion into the energy and infrastructure sector of Kazakhstan. The UAE investment will be channeled through the new energy holding company.

“The UAE has long become our number one economic partner in the region, having invested more than $4 billion in the Kazakhstani economy since 1991. More than 250 companies with UAE participation successfully operate in our economy today, contributing to our ever-expanding ties with your nation,” he said.

“This October, we have signed the historical Joint Declaration on Establishment of a Long-term Strategic Partnership to Develop Projects in Priority Industries, that will drive more than $6 billion UAE investment in the priority sectors of the Kazakhstani economy.

“These are the sectors that we view as the drivers of the long-term expansion and diversification of our production. The document has, without exaggeration, been a landmark event in Kazakhstan-UAE bilateral relations.”

Referring to the agreement signed at Dubai Expo, Prime Minister Askar Mamin said, “The resulting agreements that we are signing today, namely the Strategic Agreement between Samruk Kazyna and ADQ on the Establishment of the Energy Holding and the Term Sheets on the projects in the renewable energy, will undoubtedly mark the turning point for the field and generate great value for both the Kazakhstani and the UAE economies.”

In his speech, Suhail M. Al Mazrouei, UAE Minister for Energy and Infrastructure, said, “The US$6 billion investment is a start, which will be followed by even a higher investment that will be made by the private sector. In future, the investment will be driven by the private sector.”

He urged the UAE companies to take advantage of the opportunities in Kazakhstan economy – which is growing year on year.

Kazakhstan economy jumped 17 times in the last 30 years since gaining Independence in 1991, turning it into the wealthiest country in the Central Asia. It has attracted more than $400 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), that led major upgrades in its productive capacity.

The country’s trade turnover expanded from $1.5 billion to $100 billion as our nation integrated ever so deeply in the global supply and production chains.

Prime Minister Askar Mamin said, in the first 6 months of 2021 the FDI increased more than 30 percent, as the global markets increasingly see it as a reliable and stable destination for capital. Investment in fixed capital in the non-mining sectors has expanded more than 14 percent as the domestic investors join the trend.

“As our trade partners turn to growth, we have been seeing major recovery in the foreign trade as well – the turnover expanded 12.7 percent to $72.8 billion. We expect it to exceed the $100 billion mark by the end of the year,” he said.