Astana International Finance Centre will help attract the major business and finance players into the Kazakh capital, allowing the center to become the venue for large-scale transactions. Management of the Astana financial center has signed an agreement with the business community of Abu Dhabi. Recently, the Astana International Finance Centre head Kairat Kelimbetov presented Kazakhstan’s opportunities in the so-called Asian Davos. The establishment of the new economic hub in Central Asia is stirring great interest among investors.

KAIRAT KELIMBETOV, HEAD OF ASTANA INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CENTER:

The main investors in Kazakhstan’s economy, first of all, are our neighbors - the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, and the countries representing the Asian markets, including Chinese investments, the investments from Hong Kong, Singapore, also Islamic countries such as Gulf countries, the UAE, Saudi Arabia. We believe that we create a good investment climate, and there are opportunities to attract investments through a very reliable investment platform, which AIFC will become.

These countries will become Kazakhstan’s priority partners in the coming decade. But according to Kelimbetov, Kazakhstan can have intense interest from global players in the near future.

KAIRAT KELIMBETOV, HEAD OF ASTANA INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CENTER:

Presently, plans are being discussed, forecasts for 2017 are being made, and the work that has been done in the last 2-3 years indicates that Kazakhstan is very well prepared and has built a system to respond to global shocks. For us, these shocks include prices on oil, the basic goods of the mining industry, Russia and China’s opportunities for economic growth. But today, building a system, when we switched to free floating exchange rate, to inflation targeting, on the other hand, the three-year budget includes low oil prices at around $40. Structural reforms in Kazakhstan will allow us to prepare well for any future shocks and to focus on development issues.

Kazakhstan’s development within the Eurasian Economic Union is also forecasted. Russian experts say about the rise of economic integration across the EAEU. According to the Center for Integration Studies of the Eurasian Development Bank, low inflation rate and reduction in the level of dollarization in the EAEU member states should provide additional incentives.

EVGENY VINOKUROV, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INTEGRATION STUDIES, EDB:

Transition to “floating” and targets on inflation with time, not fast, has an impact. And now this process has been launched in Kazakhstan and in Russia, we always compare them between with each other. Now we see that since May of last year tenge, in general, has stabilized against the dollar and the euro. And inflation has gone down, reaching 8.5% in 2016. Our macro-analysts forecast 7% inflation in 2017. I would not rule out favorable outcomes of inflation turning out to be lower.