Great Britain begins investing more in Kazakhstan

Great Britain is one of the main strategic partners of Kazakhstan. According to the results of the H1, the gross inflow of direct investment from the UK to Kazakhstan has increased by 17.2% and amounted to 336.5 million US dollars (a year earlier - 287 million US dollars).

In general, in 2018 the gross inflow of direct investment reached 593.1 million US dollars, an increase of 11.1% compared to 2017 (533.8 million US dollars).

For 12 months of 2018, trade turnover between Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom amounted to 1.3 billion US dollars, a slight decrease of 1.9% per year. The main share in the turnover is the export of Kazakhstan’s goods and services - 63%, or 793.9 million US dollars, while import from the UK reached 466.8 million US dollars, or 37%.

At the same time, in January-August this year, trade turnover between the countries has decreased by 18% compared to the same period last year and amounted to 678.4 million US dollars. The reason for the decline was a decrease in export from Kazakhstan to the UK by 30.2%.

As of the end of September this year, 644 legal entities, branches and representative offices with British participation have been registered in Kazakhstan, of which 395 are active. There are 345 small, 20 medium-sized and 30 large companies with British capital in Kazakhstan.

According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, 1.4 thousand labor migrants from the UK work in Kazakhstan.

The most attractive industries in Kazakhstan for UK investors are professional, scientific and technical activities: 7.8 billion US dollars, or 34.3% of the total. Meanwhile, 5.3 billion US dollars has been invested in public administration and defence, as well as compulsory social security. Closing the top three industries with the largest amount of British investment are transportation, accommodation and food: 2.6 billion US dollars.

Investors from the United Kingdom also significantly financed financial and insurance activities (2.4 billion US dollars) and mining and quarrying (1.8 billion US dollars).