In addition to representatives of the Government and Spanish business, the meeting was also attended by Chairman of the Management Board of "Baiterek" NMH" JSC Aidar Arifkhanov, representatives of the Holding’s subsidiaries and Kazakhstani entrepreneurs.
Kazakhstan and Spain are long-term foreign trade and business partners who cooperate effectively in the international arena. Last year the trade turnover between the countries amounted to USD 1.4 bln. (exports – 1.21 bln., imports – 187.7 mln.). According to the official data, Kazakhstan’s main exports are oil and its derivatives, copper, lead, iron and steel products, and chemical products. While, Spain imports aircrafts, engineering and electrical equipment, textiles, shoes, chemical and pharmaceutical products to Kazakhstan.
The Development Bank of Kazakhstan as a specialized state development institution providing cheap and long-term financing for projects in industry and infrastructure, presented its 20 years of experience in implementing business investment initiatives at the VI meeting of the Business Council in Madrid. In particular, the Bank’s delegation took part in a panel session dedicated to official financial instruments and the prospects for economic cooperation between Spain and Kazakhstan. Among the speakers were also: Azamat Askaruly, General Director of QazTrade JSC and Bakhytzhan Makazhanov Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Damu Entrepreneurship Development Fund JSC.
“DBK’s mission is to promote sustainable development of the national economy by financing the non-resource sector of the country, such as metallurgy, transport and logistics, chemical and petrochemical industry, power generation and transmission, construction and other manufacturing industries,” said Duman Aubakirov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of DBK.
Today, he said, the Development Bank surely wins the confidence of foreign investors in terms of lending experience and reliability, since the Bank has had investment grade credit ratings since 2004 in accordance with a sovereign rating, continuous access to the local and international funding markets, as well as constant access to soft loans and direct financing from the state budget. Moreover, DBK has a special status and flexibility due to its support of several state programs in Kazakhstan. It also has built a solid experience in structuring loan transactions for creating new and modernizing various technology-intensive industries and infrastructure facilities.
These include the construction of brand-new poultry farm for broiler breeding with a capacity of 60 thous. tons, a complex for the railway wheels manufacture for 200 thous. units, a plant for the production of power transformers of 110 and 220 kV voltage class, the development of oil engineering with a capacity of 70 thousand tons, the construction of Kaskelen solar power plant with a capacity of 50 MW, as well as the launch of the Astana EXPO-2017 wind power plant with a capacity of 100 MW. Today, with the support of the Bank, design capacities for 6 renewable energy projects, 65 processing projects, 13 food production projects, as well as 41 infrastructure projects have been put into operation.
“We have created 125 production facilities worth USD 17.6 bln. and loan of USD 7.8 bln. At the same time, we always strive to get with the times, develop new financial and non-financial solutions and interesting proposals for the business community. So, today the Bank’s projects pipeline is USD 6 bln.,” said Duman Aubakirov.
Following the meeting, the head of DBK’s delegation, Duman Aubakirov, and the Chief Executive Officer of Export Credit Agency CESCE, Fernando Salazar Palma, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to encourage and facilitate transactions to the mutual benefit of DBK customers, as well as Spanish exporters, and to strengthen cooperation in export financing. Thus, the Parties intend to create a firm basis for a mutually beneficial partnership in the future.
“It is the intention of CESCE to support the financing of the export of Spanish goods and services to Kazakhstan in connection with loans extended by DBK. Proposed projects would be assessed by DBK and CESCE according to their regular criteria and regulations, and CESCE can grant cover for each individual loan in accordance with its rules and procedures, on a case-by-case basis”, said the representatives of CESCE.
During the meeting of the Business Council, Development Bank has also signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with COFIDES, a Spanish development finance company, which is an example of a public-private partnership as a joint-stock company, whose members are state institutions - the Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX), the Official Credit Institute (Instituto de Crédito Oficial, ICO), National Innovation Company (Empresa Nacional de Innovación, ENISA), and some large Spanish banks (Santander, BBVA, Sabadell and Popular).
“Today, the most promising sectors of interest for financing investment projects in Kazakhstan by COFIDES are pharmaceuticals and agro-industry. We have selected these areas given the post-pandemic period and the geostrategic position of Kazakhstan to create regional hubs,” said the representatives of COFIDES.
“I am pleased that this year we managed to agree on joint support of investment projects as well as export financing transactions within our operations for the benefit of both DBK customers and the Spanish export economy. We, as one of the guides in the development of business cooperation between the enterprises of Spain and Kazakhstan, are ready to take part in joint projects, to provide financial support for goods supply and the implementation of various technological solutions,” shared Duman Aubakirov.
He also emphasized that Spanish companies are able to share their experience with Kazakh colleagues within technical and marketing support for projects, as well as provide consulting services for the introduction of ESG standards at Kazakh enterprises.
