Kazakhstan has sent relocation proposals to 362 foreign companies that have left the Russian market, Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Almas Aidarov said in Astana to media. 62 companies agreed to the proposal, and 21 have already moved to Kazakhstan, the portal Vlast.kz reports.
“Since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine and since the beginning of the announcement of official sanctions against the Russian economy, we have identified 362 companies that, in open sources, announced their withdrawal or reduction of their activities in the Russian market. 362 companies are foreign companies that have been operating in Russia and are of interest to us,” Aidarov said.
Kazakhstan has been negotiating with this number of companies since the beginning of March. According to him, this list is constantly being updated, as some of them immediately refused, some replied that they would follow the developments, and 62 companies gave a positive answer about their readiness to consider Kazakhstan as an alternative platform.
“What does this say? If earlier companies that want to be present on the Eurasian market, trade, work, sell their goods here, chose Moscow, St. Petersburg as their head offices due to the fact that the Russian economy is 10 times larger than ours, now, due to sanctions, they you have to choose other cities, and we offer alternatives - Astana and Almaty. To date, 62 companies have responded, 21 projects have already been relocated,” said the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan.
Among the companies that have moved to Kazakhstan are such firms as Honeywell International, an American corporation producing electronic control and automation systems, TikTok, which opened a regional office, Indriver, the Australian company Fortescue Metals Group, which “completely curtailed its projects in the Russian Federation and now the main focus on the production of green energy, green hydrogen is also made in Kazakhstan. The French company Alstom also transfers its service centers from Russia to Kazakhstan, Aidarov explained.
Kazakhstan does not provide any special conditions for relocated companies, and they will work in a common legal field, Aidarov added.
On December 12, Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov reported that 19 foreign companies had been relocated to Kazakhstan, work in this direction continues. Earlier, the Prime Minister announced the intention of 56 international companies to relocate their business from Russia to Kazakhstan. He said that a full agreement on this had been reached with Honeywell, InDriver, Fortescue, Marubeni and a number of others.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
December 22, 2022