Embassy of Kazakhstan

"The law has now been adopted but it won’t result in the deterioration of Kazakhstan’s investment climate," Akchulakov said at a press conference in Astana after the meeting of “Kazakhstan – European Union” sub-committee on trade, investment, energy and transport.

European Commission’s representative in Kazakhstan, Mr. Adrian Van Der Meer, voiced the EU’s concerns about the amendments.

"We understand that every country wants to defend its own national interests, this is a normal practice in the foreign relations. However, we have doubts about those initiatives: schedules set for the operators and also a specter of possibilities that the existing contracts in this sector might be revised,” he said.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Ms. Zhanar Aitzhanova, warned that certain emotions are always the case both on the part of foreign companies and the government, if the changes to contracts or legislation occur. However, Kazakhstan’s economy is moving forward and these amendments only suggest that there is a real threat to the security of the national economy and certain ways of understanding compliance with contract terms may pose such a threat, she said at the press-conference.

"Kazakhstan’s investment climate remains one of the most favorable in the CIS,” she stressed.