Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 20
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
Kazakhstan's national welfare fund, Samruk-Kazyna, concluded 2014 well, thanks to the preventive measures taken against potential risks, the chairman of the fund's board, Umirzak Shukeyev, said Feb. 20.
He made the remarks at a press conference at Kazakhstan's Central Communications Office.
"The net income of the [Samruk-Kazyna] group of companies is estimated at 458 billion tenges (185.05 tenge = $1) according to preliminary data," Shukeyev said.
He added that the operating profitability, which is a key efficiency indicator, stood at 19.52 percent.
Shukeyev also said that in 2014, the companies owned by Samruk-Kazyna commissioned 13 projects worth a total of $2.9 billion, created over 5,600 temporary and more than 1,200 permanent jobs.
He said, aside from that, at an instruction of the head of state, the fund drafted measures to reduce costs on pre-crisis plans by 337 billion tenges, or seven percent.
Shukeyev also said the fund developed measures to support Kazakhstan's national currency, the tenge.
As of March 1, 2014, the contributions of the fund's group of companies in the banks were 2.361 trillion tenges, including deposits in foreign currency - 1.52 trillion tenges, or 44.6 percent.
"On Dec. 1, 2014, the volume of the group's deposits amounted to 1.985 trillion tenges, including in foreign currency - 823 billion tenges, or 41.5 percent. The work to reduce the currency deposits of Samruk-Kazyna's group will continue," said Shukeyev.
He said Samruk-Kazyna will also cut investment costs on strategic projects under the State Program for Accelerated Industrial and Innovative Development (SPAIID) by 18 percent, but the optimization will not affect the large-scale projects SPAIID-2, the Nurly Zhol program, and the facilities of EXPO-2017 exhibition.
Aside from that, measures will be strengthened to support business, he said.
The realization of 13 projects worth a total of 20.756 billion tenges was approved in 2014, under the program for promoting the modernization of existing industries and creation of new ones in Kazakhstan.
Edited by SI
