Nur-Sultan – FDI inflows into the Kazakh economy recovered to pre-pandemic levels of $23.7 billion and grew 37.7 percent compared to 2020. In 2020, FDI reached $17.2 billion.
The largest foreign investors are the Netherlands, the United States, Switzerland, Russia and China. Together, they make up 68.3 percent of the total investment volume.
Belgium replaced the United Kingdom from sixth place, with a significant growth of 35.1 percent, while South Korea moved from ninth to eighth place, with an increase of 73.2 percent, ahead of French investors, who closed the list of the top 10 investors.
Turkish investors also showed a significant increase of 87 percent, ranking them as the ninth largest investor after France and Cyprus.
In terms of industries, mining leads in terms of attracting investment of $9.7 billion in 2021. In 2020, the figure was $8.2 billion.
Last year, investment in manufacturing, the second largest sector in terms of foreign direct investment, rose by a record 65.4 percent to $5.2 billion.
The annual influx of foreign direct investment has exceeded the forecast of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan for 2021. The ministry, which oversees the attraction of foreign direct investment into the country, plans to attract about $19 billion.
Attracting foreign investment has been a priority for the Kazakhstan government, which has a three-tiered system for this. The country is now developing a new investment policy until 2025, which will also include ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) standards.
