EUROBAK Committees 2017-2018 | Page 20

PCA Committee Report Margulan Ospanov, PCA Committee Chairperson I am pleased to welcome our readers on behalf of the Corporate Policy Committee Executive Team. The year was one filled with various events for EUROBAK member companies, affecting their activities, both locally and globally. However, despite serious changes in economy and global politics, Kazakhstan’s leadership continues to take intensive steps to further improve the investment climate and create favorable conditions for attracting investors. The investors’ opinion is central, and the focus is not only on attracting new long-term investments, but also on creating favorable conditions for reinvesting capitals of investors already present in the country. It is not a secret that the EU is Kazakhstan’s main trade and investment partner, and EUROBAK, established upon the initiative of the EU Delegation in Kazakhstan, is a unique platform both for promoting the interests of its members and for comprehensive work on attracting foreign investment and improving the investment climate. It is important to note two directions in these initiatives, which are of great interest for companies within the association. The first concerns changes in the shaping the investment policy and the second applies to the implementation of the adopted strategy and government initiatives, bringing the dialogue with investors to a fundamentally new level. The shaping of the investment policy is a multilevel process that requires efforts from a large number of specialists representing various sectors and spheres of activity. EUROBAK’s member companies’ opinion is of great importance, taking into account the wealth of practical experience in implementing the investment projects, both in Kazakhstan and abroad. Such experience is especially useful for developing draft laws and various kinds of initiatives that can affect the investors’ activities in our country. The companies – members of EUROBAK, with the assistance of the Corporate Policy Committee, have made a serious contribution to the discussion of number of draft laws over the past year, among which it is worth noting the currency regulation, parallel import regulation within the EAEU, the issues of attracting foreign labor, rules for issuing visas for foreign citizens, decriminalization of the tax code, etc. Implementing the strategy to bring the dialogue with investors to a new level includes several aspects, among which the most important is the building of a feedback system, so to speak, the creation of an ‘open constructive dialogue platform’ between investors and the hosting country. It is important to note here that regular meetings of EUROBAK’s Board of Directors with the Cabinet of Ministers chaired by Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister confirm the importance of this direction of our work. In the upcoming future, EUROBAK’s Corporate Policy Committee will pay special attention to developing relationships with the newly established National Company KAZAKH INVEST and further expanding dialogue platforms in order to discuss a set of measures aimed at attracting investments and improving Kazakhstan’s investment climate.