Prime Minister of Kazakhstan held a meeting with EU ambassadors
According to primeminister.kz, the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Askar Mamin held the 6th meeting of the Dialogue on Investment Cooperation between Kazakhstan and the European Union.
Head of the Government spoke about the measures taken to develop the economy of Kazakhstan, improve the business climate, adopt new approaches to attract investment and stabilize the sanitary and epidemiological situation.
Prime Minister stressed that as a result of anti-crisis measures taken by the Government since the beginning of this year, the leading rating agencies Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poor's confirmed the pre-crisis ratings and gave positive outlooks for the development of Kazakhstan's economy in the range of 3.2-3.8%.
The Head of the Government also pointed out that Kazakhstan was ranked 34th out of 178 countries according to Index of Economic Freedom 2021 updated by American Research Center Heritage Foundation in March (in 2019 - 59th position, in 2020 - 39th position).
Positive dynamics was noted in such indicators as fiscal sustainability, efficiency of public expenditures, judicial system. Freedom of investment, labor relations, and the financial sector were also cited as factors for improving the quality of the institutional environment.
"We intend to build on this momentum to further enhance Kazakhstan's status as one of the countries with the most favorable investment climate," said A. Mamin.
The Prime Minister urged the European Union ambassadors to continue an open and active dialogue on the promotion of trade, economic and investment cooperation between Kazakhstan and the EU.
In turn, speaking at the meeting, ambassadors Sven-Olov Karlsson of the EU, Pascal D'Avino of Italy, Willy Kempel of Austria and Adelino Vieira da Cunha da Silva of Portugal noted significant progress in improving the investment climate in Kazakhstan, creating favorable conditions for business, as well as the EU interest in further increasing economic cooperation with Kazakhstan.
The parties discussed the prospects of overcoming the pandemic and the cooperation of Kazakhstan with the European Union on economic recovery.
They also discussed the issues of further improvement of business climate both at national and international levels, expansion of cooperation in the field of medicine, improvement of tax administration with regard to foreign legal entities, settlement of disputes involving foreign companies through judicial and non-judicial mechanisms (arbitration).
Special attention was paid to enhancing the potential of AIFC to develop cooperation with EU financial institutions and attract investments of European companies.
The meeting was attended by members of the Government of Kazakhstan, the management of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms, the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition, JSC NC Kazakh Invest, representatives of the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan, ambassadors of the European Union, Germany, Romania, Poland, Belgium, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Lithuania, Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, France, Austria, Latvia, Czech Republic, representatives of Portugal, the Netherlands, Finland, Estonia and others.
The EU is one of the key investors and the largest trade partner of Kazakhstan. In 2020, trade turnover amounted to $23.6 billion.