– Investors need not only favourable economic conditions, but also confidence that their rights will be effectively protected. What objectives does Kazakhstan’s investor protection system address today, and how does it help businesses in practice?
– Every investor needs to know that their investments are protected by law and that any issues arising will be resolved fairly and predictably. Kazakhstan has established a comprehensive system for protecting the rights and legitimate interests of investors. At the initiative of the Head of State, the functions of the Investment Ombudsman have been assigned to the Prosecutor General, and the Committee for Investor Rights Protection has been established within the Prosecutor General’s Office. The Committee protects the rights and legitimate interests of investors, considers their appeals, facilitates the removal of administrative barriers and coordinates the work of government agencies in supporting investment projects. The principal objective of this system is to provide investors with clear and effective protection mechanisms at every stage of project implementation.
In practice, investors more often encounter administrative barriers rather than deliberate violations: delays in considering issues, conflicting requirements imposed by different agencies, refusals to approve documents or other bureaucratic obstacles. Our task is not to wait until such a situation leads to a project being halted or to a court dispute, but to intervene early to prevent a problem from arising or help remove obstacles that have already emerged.
– In many countries, investor protection falls within the remit of specialised government agencies. Why has this function been assigned specifically to the prosecution authorities in Kazakhstan?
– The distinctive feature of Kazakhstan’s model is that the prosecution authorities are not limited to an advisory role. We have supervisory powers that enable us to verify the lawfulness of government agencies’ actions, secure the rectification of violations, the reversal of unlawful decisions and the restoration of investors’ rights. When an investor encounters an administrative barrier, it is important not only to identify the problem, but also to have effective mechanisms for resolving it promptly. Prosecutorial supervision provides precisely these capabilities. This does not mean that we are taking over the functions of government agencies. Our task is to ensure compliance with the law and prevent decisions that may unjustifiably impede the implementation of investment projects. At the same time, in practice, administrative barriers may be associated not only with the activities of government agencies, but also with connection to infrastructure, the provision of services by natural monopoly entities and other factors affecting project implementation.
Essentially, investors must be confident that if they operate in good faith and comply with the law, the state will not leave them to face emerging difficulties alone and will provide the necessary protection mechanisms. This is the approach that underpins Kazakhstan’s state policy on investment protection today.
– What specific investor protection mechanisms are currently operating in Kazakhstan?
– In recent years, we have changed our approach to business protection. Whereas the emphasis was previously on responding to violations, today we seek to tackle problems early and prevent them.
The Committee for Investor Rights Protection was established by Decree of the Head of State on 17 December 2025 and began operating in January 2026. One of the key instruments is support for investment projects. Each project is assigned an investment prosecutor who remains in constant contact with the investor and helps promptly remove any administrative barriers that arise. The entire support system has also been digitalised.
On the National Digital Investment Platform, prosecutors monitor project implementation in real time, identify risks and respond promptly to emerging problems.
The prosecution authorities are already supporting around 3,400 investment projects with a total value exceeding 110 trillion tenge. With the assistance of the Committee and the prosecution authorities, more than 500 issues affecting investment projects were resolved over the first seven months of the current year. I will cite just a few examples.
MQ EMIRATES GROUP Ltd., which is implementing subsoil-use projects in Kazakhstan, appealed to the Committee. The company won an auction for subsoil-use rights to four solid mineral deposits, paying more than 900 million tenge into the budget in signature bonuses. Total investment in the projects will exceed $40 million. However, the authorised government agency refused to extend the deadlines for submitting the required documentation, which had been missed for objective reasons. Following the supervisory authority’s intervention, those deadlines were extended by one year, enabling the projects to continue.
Another example concerns the protection of the rights of Carlsberg Central Asia, which is implementing a project in Mangystau Region to build a plant producing non-alcoholic beverages with an investment of 177 billion tenge. During project implementation, difficulties arose with the customs clearance of process equipment required to launch the future production complex. The situation could have led to a significant extension of the project implementation timeline and created additional risks for the investor. Following the prosecutor’s office’s intervention, it was established that there were no grounds for holding the company accountable. As a result of the measures taken, the equipment was released and sent to the production site. This ensured the project’s continued implementation and created the conditions for the timely commissioning of the new production facility.
Another important mechanism is the prosecutorial filter. If a government agency plans to adopt a sensitive decision concerning an investor—to conduct an inspection, hold the investor accountable, suspend operations or refuse to issue a permit—that decision must undergo prosecutorial approval. We consider not only formal compliance with procedure, but also whether the decision is genuinely justified and does not create unwarranted obstacles for the investor. In the current year, prosecutors reviewed 6,300 decisions by government agencies. Almost every ninth decision was not approved.
The effectiveness of this mechanism has been demonstrated in practice. This is precisely why the latest legislative changes provide for a further expansion of its scope. Mandatory prosecutorial approval is now required not only for certain decisions by government agencies, but also for a number of decisions by entities in the quasi-governmental sector that affect the rights and legitimate interests of investors. This demonstrates that the system operates not only as a mechanism for responding to violations, but also as a tool for preventing them. For businesses, this means one simple thing: the state does not wait until a problem reaches court or causes a project to be halted. We seek to prevent such situations in advance.
– If an investor encounters obstacles during project implementation, how quickly can they expect support from the state?
– An investor will not be left to face a problem alone. They can contact the regional prosecutor’s office where the project is being implemented or the Committee for Investor Rights Protection. A dedicated helpline also operates through the Prosecutor General’s Office 115 call centre.
In addition, a dedicated service for investors has been introduced in the Mobile Prosecutor application. It enables investors to contact their designated prosecutor, submit an appeal, make an audio or video call and promptly receive assistance. The sooner we identify a risk to an investor, the sooner we can help eliminate it.
– How are disputes resolved between an investor and a government agency when the parties’ positions differ?
– We are developing a pre-trial settlement mechanism. To this end, a special commission has been established, with the Committee providing an independent forum for the investor and the government agency. This makes it possible to consider contentious issues before they are brought before a court and to find solutions as quickly as possible. Our task is to help the parties find a solution before the dispute moves into the judicial arena. In many cases, the problem arises from differing interpretations of legal provisions, a lack of coordination between government agencies, or complex procedures. It is therefore important to bring the parties together, examine their legal positions, and find a solution that will allow the project to move forward.
Particular attention is paid to eliminating the causes that lead to such disputes and barriers. To this end, an Expert Council comprising members of Parliament and business representatives has been established under the Committee to work with the relevant government agencies and experts to identify and eliminate systemic problems in legislation and law-enforcement practice.
– What would you most like investors to know about Kazakhstan when deciding whether to implement their project in our country?
– Kazakhstan is open to investment and is committed not only to attracting investment, but also to protecting it effectively. Our main principle is simple: a bona fide investor operating within the law must feel protected. We are building a system in which an investor can receive support, prompt feedback, pre-trial settlement of disputes, and protection against unjustified administrative decisions. Kazakhstan is consistently strengthening the rule of law, because this is the foundation of business confidence. It is important for us not only to attract investment, but also to live up to investors’ trust. Business protection is therefore regarded not as a one-off support measure, but as an ongoing state policy.
The law signed by the Head of State in June of the current year is particularly significant, as it is aimed at strengthening the protection of investors’ rights and mechanisms for supporting investment projects. The adopted amendments established a new institutional model under which the functions of the Investment Ombudsman were transferred to the Prosecutor General. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Head of State for the trust placed in us. For us, this is not only a major responsibility, but also an additional incentive to continue improving our work on investor protection.
It is also important that the adopted legislative changes significantly expand the practical tools available for investor protection. The institution of investment prosecutors supporting projects at the regional level has been introduced. The powers of the prosecution authorities to protect investors’ rights have been strengthened, and the prosecutorial filter mechanism, which has proven effective in preventing unjustified decisions, has also been expanded.
I am confident that the new legislative mechanisms will make it possible to protect investors’ rights even more effectively, promptly remove emerging barriers, and strengthen business confidence in government institutions. When investors are confident that their rights are protected, they are prepared to invest, expand production, and create new jobs.
Investment flows where the law works. And Kazakhstan is consistently developing precisely this kind of jurisdiction—clear, predictable, and open to bona fide businesses.
