Strengthening political and commercial ties between Kazakhstan and China are finally materialising in the form of growing Chinese foreign direct investment, after Beijing-backed investors replaced traditional Russian and western partners as the central Asian country’s top source of FDI in 2015.
Chinese companies announced 12 greenfield investment projects into Kazakhstan in 2015, for total capital investment of an estimated $1.2bn — more than the commitments by investors in any other country, according to figures from fDi Markets, an FT data service. Germany and the US came next with five announced projects each.
The Chinese investments follow a long string of commercial agreements signed at the government level within the framework of China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, which makes Kazakhstan a key transit corridor for Chinese goods en route to Europe and the Middle East.