How effective is Institute of investment ombudsman?

In the Message to the People of Kazakhstan President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev noted: "It is important to attract private investments with emphasis on multinational corporations. We must create favorable environment in order to attract investments. We must have best technical personnel, world-class infrastructure, public order and personal security. The Head of state also emphasized that further execution of the reforms directed to enhancement of the investment climate should be carried out together with the OECD and other international financial institutions.

To fulfill the planned purposes the institute of the investment ombudsman was created in Kazakhstan. For the first time the principle of the investment ombudsman in the RoK was provided in 2014 by the RoK Investments Law. At that time the regulations on its activities were developed. In February, 2015 to the post of investment ombudsman Asset Issekeshev was appointed, who also headed the working group for consideration and solution of the problematic issues of investors.

The investment ombudsman also creates a dialogue platform for investors to voice their proposals on improvement of the conditions for investment activity. The aim of the institute of the investment ombudsman is to promote protection of the rights and legitimate interests of the investors performing activities in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Creation of institute of the Investment ombudsman for consideration of problematic issues of investing activities of foreign investors became a positive rule in many countries. In South Korea the Ombudsman for foreign investors has existed since 1999. In the USA the functions of the ombudsman for investors are performed by SelectUSA organization which treats the US Department of Commerce and is a working body of the Federal interdepartmental working group on investments. Also analogs of the investment ombudsman are available in Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Japan and many other developed and developing countries. The investment ombudsman studies the claims of investors and provides solutions to administrative issues, or recommendations on improvement of the legislation.

According to the Investments Committee of the RoK Ministry of Investments and Development, during January - November, 2016 the Investment ombudsman had received 45 new applications of foreign and domestic investors, 40% of which had positive results, 30% were withdrawn from consideration due to legal proceeding, the rest are being processed. The most frequent problems investors face is the issues associated with tax, customs and labor legislation. Also there are difficulties in the sphere of licensing and land relations. Having considered investors' applications it was decided to make amendments and additions to the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The institute of the ombudsman and the Government carry out work on improvement of business of climate, and the figures sounded in the meeting of the Government on December 20 serve as the evidence of its productivity.

According to the Ministry of National Economy, the volume of investment into the fixed capital has increased by 4,7% and equaled KZT 6 trillion. Net inflow of direct foreign investments in January-September 2016 equaled USD 12,1 billion which is higher than the level of 2015 by 4,4 times.