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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