OREANDA-NEWS. December 02, 2008. EBRD President Thomas Mirow is beginning a trip to Kazakhstan, his first visit to the country since taking office in July, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

Mr Mirow will meet President Nursultan Nazarbaev and representatives of the Kazakh government and the business community in Astana and attend the bi-annual Foreign Investors Council meeting in Almaty.

Mr Mirow said: “This visit happens at a very important moment and will provide us with the opportunity to deepen the close and fruitful cooperation the EBRD has established with Kazakh businesses and authorities. I look forward to getting a first-hand account which will help us to take stock and to intensify our partnership in a focused and structured way.”

The council is a consultative and advisory body established in 1998 to enhance the investment climate and create a favourable framework for investments in Kazakhstan, and to promote the integration of Kazakhstan into the global economy. The EBRD has participated in the council’s meetings since its establishment.

Since the beginning of its operations in Kazakhstan in 1991, the EBRD and its partners have invested almost US 5 billion in more than 100 projects in the country and has become the largest single investor outside the oil and gas sector. The EBRD’s priorities are the financial sector, agribusiness, infrastructure and the domestic corporate sector. The Bank has traditionally supported foreign direct investment and mobilised significant investments of major international companies.

Kazakhstan has been seriously affected by the current global financial crisis because of its exposure to foreign financing and the rapidly falling oil price, the country’s main export commodity. In its latest growth forecast, published last week, the EBRD expects the Kazakh economy to grow 4.3 per cent in 2008 after growth of 8.9 per cent in 2007 and to grow 3 per cent in 2009.

Addressing one of the key issues for the sustainable development of Kazakhstan’s economy, the EBRD is attaching special importance to energy security and efficiency in the country. With investments in power plant rehabilitation and grid modernisation the Bank is contributing to higher efficiency which significantly increases Kazakhstan’s energy security.