Kazakhstan

Why trade or invest in Kazakhstan?

The Republic of Kazakhstan is located in the middle of Central Asia with a population about 15 million people composed of Kazakhs, Russians and others. The territory covers 2717,000 square km. From 1997 Astana is the new (after Almaty) capital city.

The state language is Kazakh. In state institutions and local self-administrative bodies the Russian language shall be officially used on equal grounds along with the Kazakh language. The predominant religion is Islam, with Sunnites in the majority.

The economy of Kazakhstan is the largest economy in Central Asia. It possesses enormous oil reserves as well as minerals and metals. It also has considerable agricultural potential with its vast steppe lands accommodating both livestock and grain production, as well as developed space infrastructure, which took over all launches to the International Space Station from the Space Shuttle. The mountains in the south are important for apples and walnuts; both species grow wild there. Kazakhstan's industrial sector rests on the extraction and processing of these natural resources and also on a relatively large machine building sector specializing in construction equipment, tractors, agricultural machinery, and some military items.

In 2015, the World Economic Forum compiled its Global Competitiveness Ranking ranking Kazakhstan 50th out of 144 countries. The ranking considers multiple macroeconomic and financial factors, such as market size, GDP, tax rates, infrastructure development, etc.

Kazakhstan secured 2nd position in the Central and South Asia regional ranking of the 2015 Global Innovation Index (GII) released by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) together with Cornell University and INSEAD France.

In the 2014 Economic Freedom Index published by the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, Kazakhstan has gained 22 points over the past 17 years, which is noted by the authors as among the 20 best improvements recorded by any country. Kazakhstan ranks 11th out of 42 countries in the Asia–Pacific region, and its overall score is above the world and regional averages.

Kazakhstan has the potential to be a world-class oil exporter in the medium term. The landmark foreign investment in Kazakhstan is the TengizChevroil joint venture, owned 50% by ChevronTexaco, 25% by ExxonMobil, 20% by KazMunaiGas of Kazakhstan, and 5% by LukArco of Russia. The Karachaganak natural gas and gas condensate field is being developed by BG, Agip, ChevronTexaco, and Lukoil. The Agip-led Offshore Kazakhstan Consortium has discovered potentially huge Kashagan oil field in the northern Caspian. Kazakhstan's economic future is linked to oil and gas development. GDP growth will depend on the price of oil, as well as the ability to develop new deposits.

During the press conference on July 20, 2015 Minister of Investment and Development of Kazakhstan said: "As of today, we export about 850 types of goods. Kazakhstan is among the top-50 best exporting countries globally and takes the 49th place."

Some particularities of the Kazakh legal system you should know

The legal system Kazakhstan is influenced by the traditions of:

• Islamic law (which functioned until the beginning of 1920 and incorporated many norms of Adat, local customary law with traditional prescriptions of the peoples of this region)
• Roman law (particularly by the theory and practice of the Soviet law and socialist principles).  Kazakh legislation is being codified: legislative and other normative legal acts can be divided according to the constitutional, administrative, civil, criminal, labor and other material or procedural laws. A strict hierarchy of the sources of law includes the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the top, constitutional norms and laws, codes and ordinary laws and other state obligations, normative decrees and so on.

16 December 1991 became a turning point in Kazakhstan’s development when the Constitutional Law “On State Independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan” was adopted.

In June 2014 Kazakhstan's President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, signed into law tax concessions to promote foreign investment, including a 10-year exemption from corporation tax, an 8-year exemption from property tax, and a 10-year freeze on most other taxes. Other measures include a refund on capital investments of up to 30 percent once a production facility is in operation.

Whom we work for

A-Law Kazakhstan desk has been providing legal support to clients in different areas, such as real estate issues, corporate and civil (family) law, traffic law, migration law, liability law and debts recovery (bankruptcy, administrative fines).

An in-depth approach of the different legal aspects of cross border cooperation and trade, commercial agency, distribution and franchising of a wide variety of products exported from or imported into Kazakhstan have been assessed through A-Law dedicated team.