Local companies to get access to foreign investors through Kazakh platform

Azerbaijani companies will get access to foreign investors at the site of the new international financial center Astana, managing director of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) administration, Aidar Kazybayev, told Trend.

In the course of the “Astana International Financial Center conference in Baku: new opportunities for financing and business growth”, with the support of the National Confederation of Entrepreneurs (Employers) of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani entrepreneurs were presented with new opportunities to access international investors and attract financing from them at the site of the recently opened AIFC in Kazakhstan.

Managing Director of the Astana International Financial Center Administration (AIFC), Aydar Kazybayev recalled that the AIFC international presentation was held in July this year.

Currently 100 companies are registered with the AIFC, among which there are such large ones as the China Development Bank, the Silk Road Foundation and LUKOIL.

On November 16, at a meeting with Chinese business at the Shanghai Stock Exchange (it is a shareholder of the AIFC). Chinese companies expressed great interest in investing in businesses of companies from the Eurasian region, including Azerbaijani companies.

For Azerbaijani companies, the AIFC is a new platform for meeting with international investors and attracting external financing, in particular at the AIX exchange.

"AIFC participants are large companies that have the opportunity to invest in various projects through our platform. Azerbaijani companies and banks, becoming residents of AIFC, can get access not only to capital, but also to opportunity to cooperate with participants registered here. Their business contracts will not be taxed and will be protected by the arbitration center of the court of the AIFC," said Kazybayev.

Naturally, he continued, the AIFC is a young organization that is now gaining momentum.

The interests of investors in the AIFC are protected by English law and an independent court and arbitration center, where British judges with extensive experience in other international financial centers work (Hong Kong, Dubai, London).

In order to ensure favorable conditions for foreign employees under the jurisdiction of the AIFC, the Expat Center of the AIFC provides assistance in obtaining a wide range of state and other services on the principle of "one window".

Residents of AIFC can also take advantage of a zero tax rate on corporate and individual income, as well as on profits from the sale of securities, dividends and interests on listed securities for 50 years (until the end of 2065).