Russia's Vice PM envies Kazakhstan

Vice Prime-Minister of Russia Igor Shuvalov envies Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reported from St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. “People are able to do their job in Kazakhstan and I am saying this sincerely. Professionally I envy Kazakhstan a little. Because all the decisions that have been discussed in Russia for quite a long time, have already been brought to life in Kazakhstan at the legislative level and implemented much faster,” Shuvalov said during discussion of agreements under the CES (Common Economic Space) and EurAsEC in St. Petersburg. The subject of the discussion was the possibility of creation of an international financial center in Moscow and the experience of creation of a similar institution in Almaty. Speaking about Kazakhstan's achievements in this area deputy chairman of Kazakhstan National Bank Daniyar Akishev said: “We have gained good experience in terms of understanding of how it should be done. We have worked out a regulatory system and, perhaps, only this gives us some competitive advantages.” Asked about competitive advantages of Almaty, first deputy of Russian PM Igor Shuvalov noted that Kazakhstan has significantly moved forward in terms of modernization of tax legislation, red tape reduction and countering administrative barriers. Russian Vice-PM said that the competition factor will enhance every day and this is very good, as it will relate to business development opportunities. As the rules for opening businesses and business activities are different in the three countries, they need to see “where it is more comfortable to perate and, for sure, investors will not listen to their governments much, because they will be more concerned about being able to work in more comfortabe conditions and gaining more profits.” Shuvalov said that he will be happy for Kazakhstan if the financial center is located there. “If international financial center is located in Almaty, we will be glad. If this work is more successful we will consider the experience of our Kazakhstan peers. We do not understate our ambitions though.” He drew a historical parallel of Moscow during revolution, in the Soviet time and nowadays having more powerful financial opportunities and larger financial flows. “None of the capitals of former Soviet countries can compare to Moscow. Potentially capacity of Moscow as a capital market is completely different,” Igor Shuvalov said. By Maksim Popov