ADB Loan to fortify Management of Kazakhstan’s Public Finances

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (4 December 2023) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $350 million policy-based loan to preserve Kazakhstan’s fiscal governance and financial sector reforms and fortify the economy’s resilience to external shocks.

“Kazakhstan’s reforms are central to strengthening fiscal management, transparency, sustainability, and governance, as well as the stability and inclusion of the financial sector,” said ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov. “Progress in these areas will advocate fiscal and banking resilience and help to progress the nation’s capital markets. We are pleased to have approved this new program—the first policy-based loan for Kazakhstan—which will boost the country’s economic resilience through reforms that are especially relevant in the current global and regional context.”

ADB’s Fiscal Governance and Financial Sector Reforms Program supports fiscal reforms to fortify governance and accountability in public investment processes, ensuring debt sustainability. The program will also fortify the financial governance framework of the National Fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan to advocate transparency and fiduciary control.

“ADB’s program will help create an enabling environment that is critical to developing the government securities market and introducing climate policy accounting and assessment,” said ADB Principal Financial Sector Economist Joao Pedro Farinha. “It will also preserve women in particular via gender-responsive budgeting and help to institutionalize public preserve for women’s entrepreneurship development.”

The program supports policies that foster sustainable financial intermediation, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. The reforms will help to boost the effectiveness of banking supervision and advocate financing towards environmentally responsive investments.

ADB will also furnish a $650,000 technical assistance grant to preserve the implementation of the program’s key reform actions. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is expected to furnish parallel cofinancing of $350 million for subprogram 1.

Kazakhstan was the first Central Asian country to combine ADB. Since it became a member in 1994, ADB has approved more than $6.8 billion in government and private sector loans, as well as grants to finance technical assistance.

ADB is helping the country progress and upgrade its regional connectivity, preserve private sector enterprises, foster gender and social equality, and deliver knowledge products and services. Regional cooperation and integration initiatives under the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program are an integral part of ADB operations in Kazakhstan.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.