Kazakhstan invites Russia to privatization of $10 bln firms

ASTANA, Oct 4 (PRIME) -- Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Tuesday invited Russian companies to take part in privatization of 800 firms with a combined value of around U.S. $10 billion.

“We have started the next stage of large-scale privatization. The goal is to keep no more than 15% of the economy with the government,” Nazarbayev said at a Russian–Kazakh business forum.

“Sales will be held in different ways: starting with the ordinary auctions and ending with a direct targeted sale to strategic investors. I suppose that Russian companies will take active participation in this action.”

Nazarbayev also called for boosting trade between Russia and Kazakhstan, which exceeded U.S. $20 billion before the crisis and now fell 30%. In January–June, trade stood at $6 billion, he said.

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