The Times of Central Asia (21 May 2019)

On May 21 at the meeting of the Government chaired by the Prime Minister Askar Mamin, the development of special economic zones and industrial zones was reviewed, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development, today, 12 free economic and 23 industrial zones work in the country.

Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Roman Sklyar said that the budget expenditures for the construction of infrastructure of all economic zones amounted to 314.3 billion tenge, while the volume of attracted investments amounted to about 910 billion tenge.

“In total, 183 projects have been launched in the territories of the zones, of which 46 are with foreign participation. Over 15 thousand jobs were created. About 150 billion tenge was returned to the budget in the form of taxes,” Sklyar said.

According to Sklyar, by 2021, 147 projects worth over 2 trillion tenge will be implemented in the territories of the special economic zones. In 2019, 36 projects will be launched totaling more than 160 billion tenge, with the creation of about 1,200 new jobs.

On the territory of the industrial zones, 173 projects worth about 520 billion tenge will be introduced by 2021. Of these, 40 projects worth about 163 billion tenge will be implemented in 2019.

Vice Minister of Energy Asset Magauov reported on the development of the special economic zone "National Industrial Petrochemical Technopark". As of May 1, 2019, since the start of the implementation, the production amounted to 10.1 billion tenge, 2,600 jobs have been created.

The main projects of the zone are the production of polypropylene and polyethylene with a total value of $9 billion. Contribution to GDP of only two of these projects will be 1.5%. In addition, private investors are expected to implement projects for the production of polyethylene terephthalate, methanol and cyclohexane, which are at different stages of development, by private investors.

These projects will attract about $2.5 billion in investment and create up to 10,000 jobs during the construction phase and 1,500 during the operation phase.

https://www.timesca.com/index.php/news/21191-kazakhstan-developing-special-economic-and-industrial-zones