AIFC: 100 brokerage companies to become partners of Center

3 July, 2018 15:50

Many cities strive to create an International financial center, especially in the post-Soviet space, but in order to do this, it’s necessary to overcome a barrier. Few countries achieve this. The National Plan "100 concrete steps" played a great role in the opening of such a center in Astana that allowed Kazakhstan to have two respective jurisdictions. Kairat Kelimbetov, the Manager of the "Astana" International Financial Center, told how the presentation of the AIFC will take place.

There are many development plans in order to further develop the city. One of such plans is the creation of an international financial center on the territory of Astana, whose task is to attract investments to the capital and to the country as a whole.

During a press conference in the Government of Kazakhstan Kairat Kelimbetov said that financial institutions and financial companies from all over the world showed great interest in the work of the AIFC.

"To date, 55 companies have already been registered. Up to the end of this year it is planned to increase this figure to 100. These are brokerage companies both from Kazakhstan and from China and companies based in London, in addition, companies from Russia, Thailand, Nigeria, Switzerland. The first three companies in the near future will be able to participate in the bidding", K. Kelimbetov announced at the press conference.

According to Kairat Kelimbetov, the second major direction of the center is privatization.

"The Head of State instructed the Government and "Samruk-Kazyna" Fund to ensure the initial placement of five national companies, including "Air Astana", "Kazakhtelecom" and "Kazatomprom", on the platform of the AIFC. We plan that these companies will enter the IPO and accordingly a platform for the placement of shares of these companies has already been created. The AIFC Stock Exchange has been already registered and is ready to operate. September-October is the time when the first of the companies will be placed on the exchange", he said.

The directions that the center intends to develop:

development of the capital market through privatization and the restart of the stock market,

development of asset management and welfare management of individuals,

development of Islamic finance,

new financial technologies,

sphere of green finance.

These directions will allow to restart the stock market of the country.

It should be noted that in the short period from the initiative to the moment of implementation, amendments were made to the Constitution, a constitutional law on the AIFC was developed, 47 internal acts were prepared. Since January, such sectors as the financial regulator, the court of the AIFC, the arbitration center, the stock exchange have already earned money, in the autumn the Government will consider the program of debt instruments.

Kairat Kelimbetov dwelled more on the presentation of the International Financial Center. So, on July 5, the official launch of the work or the international presentation of the financial center is planned, in which the Head of State and high-ranking guests will take part.

Astana hosts the week of Astana Finance Days forums, within the framework of which the prospects of the development of the financial sector for the next 5-10 years with participation of the largest international financial institutions and investment banks will be considered. Also there will be a forum of green economy, on development of sphere of green finance, there a forum of Islamic economy will pass. By the way, for a week of the forums more than 2 thousand participants have registered.

"We see that there is great interest. The presentation says that we would like to draw attention not only to the Kazakh public, but also to the attention of the world community. Especially the nearest neighbors. Kazakhstan worries not only about the development of its own economy, but also wants the whole region of Central Asia to be connected with the whole world and actively would develop", K. Kelimbetov stressed.

We remind that the idea of creating the International Financial Center was first announced in 2015. In 2017, an agency was created inside the AIFC, which is called the Financial Services Regulatory Committee, which regulates and registers all financial centers.

Saltanat Suraganova

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