FOCUS-Kazakh head pledges better investor climate
10:42 a.m. Sep 25, 1998 Eastern
By Dmitry Solovyov
ALMATY, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev,
whose country badly needs massive direct investment to turn its huge
natural resources into public wealth, pledged on Friday to make life
easier for foreign investors.
''I highly appreciate your participation in Kazakhstan's largest
projects and will do everything for the success of your business here,''
Nazarbayev told the first meeting of the recently-formed Foreign
Investors' Council.
The council, headed by Nazarbayev, unites senior officials from 10
foreign companies working in the ex-Soviet state's oil and gas, metals,
banking, energy and legal sectors.
Nazarbayev said the meeting had a symbolic meaning amid the
international financial crisis.
''The very fact of our meeting held amid events in Southeast Asia and
Russia shows a high level of confidence in our country,'' he said.
According to official data, direct foreign investment in Kazakhstan, a
resource-rich Central Asian nation of 16 million people, exceeded $7
billion in 1993-1997. This year foreigners are expected to invest $1.3
billion.
Most of the foreign investment has gone to Kazakhstan's lucrative oil
and gas and metals sectors.
Nazarbayev called for more diverse investment. ''Given your support, we
would like not only to extract and ship to world markets our oil, gas
and metals, but also to produce manufactured goods,'' he said.
''We need money to make our huge natural resources serve the people,''
he told a news conference later.
The president pledged to create more favourable conditions for foreign
inevestors in his country, many of whom complain of widespread
corruption and constantly changing laws.
Nazarbayev said he would personally cut red tape hindering investment in
some regions of the country.
''I think this bureaucratic resistance will become weaker every year,''
he said.
Nazarbayev said that laws, including those on taxation, would not be
changed as frequently as in the recent past.
Finally, he promised to take drastic measures against the country's
deep-rooted corruption.
''A law on fighting corruption has been adopted, which means the
government has undertaken an obligation to eradicate it,'' he said,
referring to the all-out anti-corruption warfare announced in July this
year.
Over 300 officials, including police officers and judges have been
sentenced to various terms in prison or are being tried for corruption,
he said.
Charles Frank, first vice president of the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development, said that a stronger legal base would
mean a stronger investor interest in Kazakhstan, even given the
international crisis.
''I believe that foreign direct investment is not going to be negatively
affected,'' he said.
Addressing the investors, he explained why Kazakhstan was unlikely to
suffer from the crisis to the same extent as Russia and other volatile
emerging markets, where investors were mostly interested in buying
government debt or stocks.
''Investments you have here are looking for profits over a longer period
of time,'' he said.
((Almaty Newsroom, +7 3272 509410 moscow.newsroom+reuters.com)) |
