Astana, Kazakhstan, December 18, 2017
—A new World Bank Group study on Kazakhstan says the country’s wheat, livestock, and transport sectors are among those with the strongest potential for private investment. Those investments could help create new markets and boost job creation, the study found.
The Country Private Sector Diagnostic for Kazakhstan, jointly produced by IFC and the World Bank, says the country needs to diversify its economy, gradually reduce the state’s presence in the economy, and further develop the private sector. Kazakhstan’s strategic position between Asia and Europe, complemented by targeted reforms to encourage investment and increase competitiveness of its key non-oil sectors, can help the country transform itself into a high-income country and pursue its development ambitions.
“Private sector diagnostics are designed to help our member countries achieve their development goals through increased private sector participation in the economy,” said Lilia Burunciuc, World Bank Regional Director for Central Asia. “The Kazakhstan’s Private Sector Diagnostic provides a road map to support the government in undertaking reforms that will help increase private sector investment and help diversify the economy away from oil, gas, and mining.”
The study identified several barriers that need to be addressed to increase private investment. They include a challenging business climate, constraints in access to finance, poor logistics, quality standards that are not aligned with potential export markets, especially in agribusiness, and the dominance of state-owned enterprises, which stifle the private sector.
“
By fostering the development of agribusiness, transport, and logistics,
Kazakhstan can
speed up the diversification of its economy,” said Tomasz Telma, IFC Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia. “An infusion of private investment in these industries will help create a more dynamic, export-oriented, and productive private sector, creating new markets and driving economic development in the country.”
For more information, download the diagnostic
here
.
About Country Private Sector Diagnostics:
The World Bank Group’s Country Private Sector Diagnostics (CPSD) aim to identify sectors where the private sector solutions can create or expand markets and make substantial contributions to development impact. Piloted in Kazakhstan and Ghana, the diagnostics use a structured approach to analyze key sectors with unrealized private sector potential in each country, select several for deeper analysis, and make recommendations for action. The sector analyses, conducted with significant input from teams across the World Bank Group and from external partners, provide valuable information on the challenges and opportunities to better leverage the private sector to achieve developmental objectives. The CPSD aligns with the World Bank Group’s Maximizing Finance for Development (MFD) approach, which looks to private sector solutions to reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
About the World Bank Group
The World Bank Group plays a key role in the global effort to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. It consists of five institutions: the World Bank, including the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA); the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Working together in more than 100 countries, these institutions provide financing, advice, and other solutions that enable countries to address the most urgent challenges of development. For more information, please visit
www.worldbank.org
,
www.miga.org
, and ifc.org.