The Alatau City Investment Roundtable in London saw nine agreements worth a total of $1.3 billion reached with British companies. The event was part of a roadshow to attract investment in the development of Kazakhstan’s new city of Alatau. Investors expressed particular interest in education and healthcare projects, Kazakhstan’s government press service said.
The roundtable brought together representatives of 70 companies, investment funds, banks and expert organizations, including JPMorgan Chase, AstraZeneca, BP and Brookfield Asset Management.
Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev presented Alatau City’s development concept and investment potential. During an expert session featuring international law firms Norton Rose Fulbright, Reed Smith and Boies Schiller Flexner, participants discussed legal mechanisms governing the city’s special legal regime, as well as plans to establish an Alatau City investment court based on English law principles.
Executives from the London Stock Exchange, Brookfield Asset Management, Société Générale, J.P. Morgan and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development explored opportunities to attract institutional capital, use project financing instruments and involve international financial institutions in developing the city’s energy, transport and engineering infrastructure.
Following the event, nine agreements with international companies were signed, worth a total of $1.3 billion. British investors expressed interest in developing educational and healthcare infrastructure in Alatau.
The possibility of opening educational institutions in cooperation with the University of Exeter, Brighton College and Repton Group is currently being considered.
Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and medical tourism company Crescent Meditours are working on initiatives to develop healthcare infrastructure, attract investment and promote scientific exchange.
Alatau’s investment portfolio includes 67 projects worth a total of $6.9 billion, which are expected to create around 55,000 jobs. Meanwhile, 28 transport and engineering infrastructure projects worth 35.3 billion tenge (approximately $78.1 million) are underway in the city.
Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said earlier that a special judicial system would be established in Alatau. A dedicated investment court will hear commercial cases under English common law principles.
On Oct. 26, Alatau hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for Iconic Complex, a multipurpose development that will become the city’s first skyscraper. Deputy Prime Minister Bozumbayev attended the event.
