Dmitry Pankin: Creating a Special Financial Zone in Kazakhstan to Stimulate Additional Investment Flows to the Country
30 May 2016
Astana, 30 May 2016. The Astana International Financial Centre, when established, will stimulate an inflow of regional investments and, as a result, help to improve investment climate in Kazakhstan. Dmitry Pankin, Chairman of the Management Board at Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), said this at the 29th session of the Foreign Investors Council (FIC) chaired by the President of Kazakhstan, which took place on 27 May 2016 in Astana.
Dmitry Pankin stated, in particular, that, to attract foreign investors more effectively, the factors of special importance are ensuring investors' access to tenge liquidity instruments and improving corporate governance. "Continuous improvements in corporate governance are a natural reaction in leading countries to the changing and increasingly difficult conditions of global and economic development," he said. Dmitry Pankin also proposed that Kazakhstan's Code of Corporate Governance should be adapted to the current economic situation. He believes that a new version of the document should be prepared, which will extend to both issuers registered at the Astana International Financial Centre and all major joint-stock companies of Kazakhstan.
"The new version should incorporate the revised G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance of 2015 and the Code should be expanded significantly with provisions on remunerations and risk management," the head of EDB noted. "Preserving the achievements of the first version of the Principles of Corporate Governance developed in Kazakhstan is of equal importance," he added.
Improvements to the Code of Corporate Governance of the Republic of Kazakhstan will help to raise companies' market value and the efficiency of privatisation and will ensure investors' participation in it.
The Foreign Investors Council is an advisory body chaired by the President of Kazakhstan. It was established in 1998 to ensure direct dialogue between the Government of Kazakhstan and foreign investors operating in Kazakhstan to address issues relating to their investment activities and to improve investment climate in the country. The main objective of the FIC is to draft recommendations and proposals for the President and the Government of Kazakhstan on key aspects of the investment policy and economic development.
Additional Information:
Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) is an international financial institution founded by Russia and Kazakhstan in January 2006 with the mission to facilitate the development of market economies, sustainable economic growth, and the expansion of mutual trade and other economic ties in its member states. EDB’s charter capital totals US $7 billion. The member states of the Bank are the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, and the Republic of Tajikistan.
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