Crossroads Asia | Economy | Central Asia

Tokayev Proposes Dipping Into National Fund to Turn Kazakhstan into a ‘Big Construction Site’

In his annual state of the nation address, Tokayev laid out an ambitious spending spree focused on infrastructure and investment. 

“Kazakhstan must turn into one big construction site,” President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev proclaimed in his October 28 national address, proposing that the government dip into the National Fund, to the tune of 6.5 trillion tenge (approximately $14.4 billion at the current exchange rate) to fund projects through 2029. 

That represents more than 21 percent of the National Fund, a sovereign wealth fund created in 2000 and supplied by tax revenues from oil and gas companies. RFE/RL reported that the fund currently holds around $66.7 billion. Tokayev’s new ambition scraps a previous goal, stated in 2022 in the wake of the Qandy Qantar events as part of his “Fair Kazakhstan” pitch, to increase the National Fund’s assets to $100 billion by 2030.

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