Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The European Union (EU) has allocated €6.3 million for the development of Kazakhstan's regions.

It was announced by head of the EU "Regional Development of Kazakhstan" project Olga Broderick at a conference titled "Opportunities, conditions and recommendations for development of regions in Kazakhstan" in Astana on May 15, Trend Agency reported.

"In 2011, the Kazakh government and EU signed a financial agreement. EU allocated funds to support regional development of the country. Kazakh government also identified those areas in which it wishes to receive the assistance. The project is fully funded by the EU," she said.

The EU specialists and experts proposed mechanisms for the implementation of the various methods of regional development.

Broderick also noted the EU project covers different areas including business development, employment, as well as bilateral ties.

"We try to resolve the issues of business development to improve the procedure for obtaining loans and training of beginner entrepreneurs. The work started just recently, so it is early to speak about the results," she said.

Another issue is that currently, the Kazakh regions are competing for attracting foreign investors.

"We want to cooperate more closely. One of the ways, for example, is the creation of some cross-border clusters. Furthermore, there are projects for the development of border infrastructure," the EU project head said.

Europe has become the top investor in Kazakhstan, accounting for about half of the total foreign direct investments in the country. The Kazakhstan-EU trade amounted to €31 billion in 2012.

In 2012, the EU import from Kazakhstan amounted to about €24.4 billion while the export from the EU made up €6.9 billion.

EU ranked third among the top investors in Kazakhstan's oil and gas sector in 2013 after the US and China.