Kazakhstan Government Amends Rules for Investment Project Qualification for Granting Rights to Land Plots from the State

The Kazakhstan government recently amended the list of requirements that must be met by investors when applying for local authorities’ consent to allocate land plots for investment project implementation.

On 2 December 2024, the acting minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan issued Order No. 11-1-4/664 (the Order) on amendments to the rules for a project to qualify as an investment project for the purposes of granting rights to land plots from the state approved by order of the minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 11-1-4/590 27 December 2021 (Rules). The Order became effective on 16 December 2024.

Under the Rules, an investor must confirm its financial capability (creditworthiness) to implement an investment project by submitting certain documents to the local state authorities in order to obtain their consent for land allocation. According to the Order, the documents that may serve as evidence of the financial capability (creditworthiness) of the investor is supplemented with the following:

• Financial statements (excerpt therefrom) prepared in accordance with international standards and confirming investor’s annual turnovers (revenue) for the last three years preceding the date of application
• Documents confirming the availability of a credit line or borrowed funds; this suggests that the investors can borrow funds for the investment project from sources other than banks—for example, under an intra-group loan or non-banking loans
• Security for proper fulfillment of investment obligations by the investor (for example, bank guarantee, surety, and/or other documents in accordance with Kazakhstan civil law)

Additionally, the Order sets out the following requirements for confirmation of the investor’s financial capability (creditworthiness) depending on the amount of investments into investment project:

• For investments from 150,000 to 1,000,000 monthly calculation indices (MCI) established as of 1 January of the relevant year (approximately $7.5 million) – confirmation of the investor’s financial capability (creditworthiness) in the amount of no less than 50% of the investment project’s costs
• For investments from 1,000,000 to 7,500,000 MCI (approximately $56 million) – confirmation of the investor’s financial capability (creditworthiness) in the amount of no less than 15% of the investment project’s costs
• For investments equal to and above 7,500,000 MCI – confirmation of the investor’s financial capability (creditworthiness) in the amount of no less than 5% of the investment project’s costs