The current situation is such that the markets are experiencing a shake-up, the economies of different countries of the world against the background of the coronavirus pandemic and price wars in the oil market are being tested for strength, various departments predict a drop in the economy from 1 to 4%.
Changes in the GRP of the city of Nur-Sultan and the country's GDP growth also correlate with dynamic oil prices, which suggests that similar changes can be expected.
In this article, we want to consider the investment attractiveness of the capital in the current reality and partly discuss promising niches for investment.
We suggest focusing on the following areas.
Social housing sector
A survey conducted as part of the development of the strategy 2050 of the city of Nur-Sultan showed the problem of housing affordability as the main and most serious among others. In the queue for social housing in the capital are 46.8 thousand citizens.
Based on these statistics, the relevance of investing in the implementation of social housing remains.
To stimulate the flow of investment in this sector, in order to implement projects involving the construction of housing under the state program of housing and communal development "Nurly Zher" for 2020-2025, amendments to the legislation on PPP came into force in March this year.
The changes make it possible to implement a housing project much faster, provided that investors have property or long-term lease of objects or land plots. Project planning periods using the PPP mechanism can be reduced from 6.5 months to 1.5 months. In addition, the legislation may provide for reimbursement of certain expenses of the investor.
Light and food industry
Due to recent events, the niche of importing products is dying, and prices for local products are increasing. The question arises about the urgent need to increase the volume of production of domestic producers. In short, the spheres need investment more than ever.
According to the kapital news portal.kz foreign investors in Kazakhstan highlight a problem that is uncomfortable for the project launch – the presentation of preferences with the condition that the total investment amount for projects should be 12 million euros (2 million euros). MCI) and higher.
In order to improve conditions for investors, in February of this year, the government developed new changes to the Tax code. The list of innovations suggests reducing the investment threshold for priority projects in the light and food industry by 2 times - from 2 million rubles. MCI (5.5 billion tenge) up to 1 million MCI (2.7 billion tenge).
In addition, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in his speech at the meeting of the State Commission on the state of emergency, instructed to increase funding for the "Economy of simple things" program to 1 trillion tenge, which is provided at an affordable rate of 6% for projects aimed at stimulating the manufacturing industry, production and processing in the agro-industrial complex.
In addition, it should be recalled that there are 2 special economic zones "Astana-new city" and "Astana - Technopolis"in Nur-Sultan. And food production is one of the main activities in the FEZ "Astana – Technopolis". Exemption from CPN, land tax, property tax, and value - added tax are not the only advantages of FEZs. So, in the FEZ there is an opportunity to open an enterprise, build a factory, a factory and implement other investment projects with the receipt of a free land plot, where there is already an engineering infrastructure.
The field of leisure and recreation
The situation with tourism, whether outbound or inbound, has been stopped. There is an opportunity to develop local tourism, create places of recreation and leisure.
In addition, based on the analysis carried out within the framework of the strategy 2050 of Nur-Sultan, the quality of the urban environment and infrastructure for leisure and recreation in the Central districts and on the outskirts of the city varies significantly. The imbalance in the quality of the urban environment between different areas of the city has a negative impact on the quality of life of people living on the outskirts and other areas far from developed city centers.
In this regard, according to the analysis, the city has a need to implement projects for the creation/reconstruction of leisure and recreation facilities, places of mass bathing in the outskirts of the city.
Despite some negative dynamics of the global and local economy, being the capital of Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan is of strategic importance for the state. The capital receives a significant amount of budget funding and pays great attention to its appearance. This fact is a competitive advantage relative to other regions of the country, also in terms of investment.
The Astana Invest city investment development center, which attracts investments to Nur-Sultan, invites potential investors to participate in investment projects not only in these areas, but also in other priority areas of the economy, such as education, healthcare, housing and utilities, transport, etc.
