Industry news

Issues of support for new projects in the field of renewable energy were discussed at the meeting of the Council on the transition to a green economy under the chairmanship of Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov, the official website of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan reports.

As noted by the Chairman of the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Regulation and Development of the Financial Market Madina Abylkassymova, to date in the country has created the necessary legislative and regulatory framework for the development of green financing. A new Environmental Code has been adopted, amendments have been made for the issue and circulation of green bonds and ESG-bonds. The stock exchanges of the Astana International Financial Center and KASE adopted rules of ESG-information disclosure. A number of other measures have been implemented.

Thanks to the work carried out in Kazakhstan there is a positive dynamics of volumes of sustainable financing. As of November 1 of this year, the volume of corporate borrowing on KASE amounted to about 208 billion tenge, having increased more than 4 times compared to 2021. The volumes of green lending in the banking sector amounted to 220 billion tenge, having increased more than 3.5 times.

As of December 1, the total amount of direct support for "green" projects from the Baiterek Holding amounted to 177.5 billion tenge. In particular, the Development Bank of Kazakhstan supported 7 major investment projects in the field of renewable energy for 118 billion tenge. Qazaqstan Investment Corporation JSC supported a number of projects for 11.1 billion tenge (construction of solar and hydroelectric power plants). Another subsidiary organization - Damu Fund - supported 91 green projects for 7.4 billion tenge.

In addition, since 2018, the Industry Development Fund JSC has been providing lease financing for the renewal of the bus fleet as part of support for domestic automakers. In particular, the purchase of 120 electric city buses in Astana and 10 buses in Pavlodar has already been financed. Replacement of worn-out cars by environmentally friendly means of transportation will be gradually continued.

Also, through Agrarian Credit Corporation JSC for the first half of the year supported 15 green projects for a total amount of funding of more than 2 billion tenge in such areas as the creation of irrigation systems and the creation of intensive orchards.

Prime Minister emphasized that the large-scale transformation of the economy requires, among other things, an increase in the volume of green investments.

"In order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 it is necessary to finance more than $600 billion. Therefore, it is necessary to intensify work on attracting investments in green technologies," Alikhan Smailov said.

In this regard, Prime Minister instructed to analyze the barriers in the implementation of green projects, to accelerate the introduction of requirements for mandatory disclosure of information on green finance, as well as to provide relevant indicators and measures in the action plan of the Concept for the transition to a green economy