ASTANA, Kazakhstan, February 10. Special
economic zones (SEZs) must become fully-fledged platforms for
attracting investments, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said at a
Government meeting, Trend reports via the presidential press service.
“In China and Vietnam, such zones act as drivers of economic
development. However, in Kazakhstan, the effectiveness of SEZs
remains extremely low and does not align with the goals of the
country’s structural transformation. Over nearly 25 years, their
contribution to GDP has been just over 1%, to exports 0.3%, and to
attracting foreign investments 0.9%. The current SEZ model has
exhausted itself,” Tokayev stated.
He emphasized that SEZs should become platforms for attracting
investments, where new norms, tools, and service solutions are
applied with subsequent scaling.
The president noted that approximately one trillion tenge (about
$2 billion) in borrowed funds is proposed for infrastructure
development within SEZs over the next three years.
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