Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan joined ADB in 1994. Since that time, the country received $527.97 million in total assistance. Kazakhstan is 14th largest shareholder in ADB among its regional members.

ADB's focal areas continue to be private sector development , environmentally sustainable development, and regional cooperation.

Private sector operations is the main vehicle for ADB current and future operations in the country. Private Sector Operations Agreement between the Republic of Kazakhstan and ADB was signed on 22 November 2004. It provided a basis for ADB's business opportunities in the private sector of Kazakhstan. In 2006, three private sector loans in the amount of $225 million were provided by ADB to Kazakhstan. These loans became ADB's first private sector financing without Government guarantee in the country.

ADB operations for the private sector focus primarily on two sectors: (i) finance and capital markets, and (ii) infrastructure. In the financial and capital markets sector, ADB assists private sector intermediaries in banking, leasing, venture capital financing, merchant banking, micro credit, small and medium enterprises (SME), housing finance, private equity funds, mutual funds, insurance, securitization, credit enhancement, and credit rating. In the infrastructure sector, ADB’s focus is on telecommunications, power and energy, water supply and sanitation, ports, airports, toll roads, and support subsovereign credit. Projects may involve various forms of risk-sharing and ownership arrangements including build-own-operate and build-operate-transfer (BOT) structures.

ADB's current public sector operations focus on rural development and improving water supplies, but may include other general infrastructure.

ADB's Strategic Focus in Kazakhstan

Private sector operations will expand and focus on urban and rural infrastructure as well as the financial sector development. ADB private sector operations in infrastructure focus on water, wastewater, roads, rail, and oil and gas operations. In the financial sector, the Bank’s operations focus on equity investments in local banks, credit enhancement for securitization, as well as loans or credit lines. ADB support will also be routed via country-focused and sub-regional public sector programs. The assistance will be through lending or non-lending products. The broad areas of support are:

• Private sector development, through investments in rural development, infrastructure, financial sector
• Human development, through investments in rural water supply
• Natural resource management, through investments for improved management of water resources and continuing advisory work in environment management
• Sub-regional economic linkages, through investments in trade enhancement measures, energy and transport sectors.