Kazakhstan Development Bank (KDB) is set to launch a programme to finance engineering and communication infrastructure projects for the housing and communal services sector for 2024-2029.
According to the KDB press service, the aim is to modernise housing and communal services and utility infrastructure, and to renew the country's housing stock.
It has become known that the total amount of financing at the initial stage will be 300 billion tenge, with the source being budgetary funds and market funding.
"The operator of the preferential financing programme will be the KDB. It is planned that local executive bodies will use the bond borrowing instrument to subsequently finance natural monopoly entities on preferential terms. Thus, natural monopoly entities will be able to implement investment projects for the construction and modernisation of electricity and heat supply networks", the statement reads.
At the same time, the KDB plans to directly provide long-term preferential financing to natural monopoly entities if the projects meet its requirements. The term of each loan will be up to 14 years.
Recall that last year Alibek Kuantyrov, then Minister of National Economy, noted the need to update the housing and communal services infrastructure across the country. It was reported that this was to be facilitated by the "Tariff in Exchange for Investment" programme, which envisaged attracting around 3 trillion tenge of investment for the modernisation of 62,000 km of utility networks for 2023-2029.
Earlier we wrote about how the actions of JSC "Investment Fund of Kazakhstan" (IFK) and JSC "Kazakhstan Development Bank" (KDB), LLP "ROP Operator" and a number of state bodies led to the bankruptcy of the unique tyre recycling and processing plant LLP "Kazakhstan Rubber Recycling". Later, the founder of the FBRK, Kirill Pavlov, visited the plant, or rather what remained of it.
We also wrote that the former owners of ruined enterprises controlled by the IFK sent a letter to the President asking for help to recover the investment assets.
At the same time, we learned that IFK and KDB left no chance for the survival of the "Semipalatinsk Fur and Leather Factory" (SFLF). The enterprise, recognised as the largest in Central Asia and unique in Kazakhstan, went bankrupt due to the conditions created by the subsidiary organisations of NMH "Baiterek".