Kazakhstan to open branches of 3 foreign banks to boost competition

ASTANA. KAZINFORM Kazakhstan needs to open branches of three new foreign banks. This is what President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said presenting his State-of-the-Nation Address at the joint session of the Parliament chambers, Kazinform reports.

According to him, this step is required to boost competition.

«21 banks are operating in the country today. And several banks only are involved in corporate lending activity, i.e. financing economic projects. In order to raise competition in this sector, we need to attract three reliable foreign banks to the country,» he noted.

At the same, the President notes that industrial companies and entrepreneurs should offer quality projects which will help ensure real diversification of economy. «To raise commercial banks’ interest, we should consider an opportunity of providing them guarantees from development institutions in financing priority projects,» said the President.