Paving with Euros: Who’s Building Kazakhstan’s Roads for EBRD Millions

The EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) recently provided Kazakhstan with a loan of almost 450 million euros for the 234 km of the Aqtobe-Ulgaysin road. And this is not the first investment, thanks to which the regional asphalt is paved with euros. 

Orda.kz has looked into the matter.

Fresh Asphalt

On June 23, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov met with EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso to discuss funding for Kazakhstan’s infrastructure. One deal is already sealed: €449 million (₸232.6 billion) to reconstruct the Aqtobe–Ulgaysyn road — just under ₸1 billion per kilometer.

According to the Ministry of Transport, building one kilometer of road usually costs between ₸1–2 billion. It may seem that the Aqtobe–Ulgaysyn route will use some cost-saving innovations.

The EBRD loan isn't the sole source of funding. The full project cost is €1,019,100,000 — or ₸617.6 billion. The loan is being issued in Japanese yen.

More than half of the total will be covered by the state.

Since the EBRD is backing it, its values must align with European ones. This road isn’t just a transportation upgrade — it’s a cultural and social milestone. It’s expected to aid environmental sustainability, promote electric vehicle use, and encourage women to join the workforce.

More importantly, the route is part of the M32 international highway, European route E38, the Western Europe–Western China corridor, and the CAREC-1 (Europe–East Asia) corridor.

The Aqtobe–Ulgaysyn road is not being built from scratch — it’s a reconstruction project, expanding the existing two lanes into four. The aim is to reduce heavy traffic between Aqtobe, Khromtau, Qarabutaq, and Ulgaysyn.

“The design and construction stages will be financed by the EBRD and AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank), while maintenance will be funded by the Republic of Kazakhstan.”

The project is divided into four segments:

• 763–791 km: Aqtobe to Aqjar (28 km)
  
• 791–819 km: Aqjar to Khromtau (28 km), currently under construction
  
• 819–927 km: Khromtau to Belkopa (108 km)
  
• 927–1025 km: Belkopa to Ulgaysyn (98 km)

Once the agreement is signed, several enhancements will follow: tolling systems, rest zones, pilot EV charging stations, green tariffs, and more.

A request for comment from KazAvtoJol revealed that construction will be turnkey. Design and estimate planning starts next year, and completion is projected for 2029. The loan has an 18-year term.

As of now, there’s no finalized design or chosen contractor.

A Long Road

Kazakhstan has already used European loans to build roads — including the Qapshagay–Qurty section.

According to the project documents, this construction is fully EBRD-financed. The contractor: AtyrauInzhStroy-AIS LLP, a company based in Atyrau.

In December 2019, the EBRD gave KazAvtoJol a $90 million guaranteed loan (₸47.4 billion) to reconstruct a 67 km stretch between Kurty and Kapshagay — part of the Almaty–Astana highway and the Center–South corridor.

It’s the third loan for this road. In 2016, Kazakhstan received $103 million for modernizing 81 km between Qurty and Buribaytal, and later $86 million for a 62 km neighboring section.

• First stage: 62 km (contractor unknown)
  
• Second stage: 81 km (contractor unknown)
  
• Third stage: 67 km — built by AtyrauInzhStroy-AIS

54 billion 281 million tenge and 45 billion 322 million tenge in 2016 and another 47 billion 430 million tenge - a total of 147 billion 033 million tenge. The length of the road is at most 210 km.  

Once more, KazAvtoJol was the recipient.

In December 2019, Kazakhstanskaya Pravda wrote that Xinjiang Construction would act as the contractor. And already in 2020, KazAvtoJol announced a competition for the construction of this section, which was won by Atyrauinzhstroy-AIS LLP.

In 2022, we reported that the now-abolished anti-corruption agency had monitored the project. AtyrauInzhStroy-AIS had only completed 22%, having spent ₸6.8 billion. This drew the attention of the Almaty Region’s anticorruption bureau.

The causes: rising costs and amended contracts.

In 2018, Europe-China.kz claimed stage two would take three years:

The work has been started by the contractor Akkord (Azerbaijan), supervision is being carried out by the Italian company IRD Engineering Srl together with the Kazakh Zhol Zhoba and Avtoban. In July of this year, a consultant was appointed - the consortium KazdorNII in association with Sapa SZ and KHA. 

The now-defunct Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development listed even more developers. One — KazGerStroy — was flagged as a dishonest bidder.

Work on the 2152–2214 km Qurty–Buribaytal section is being handled by JV Todini&SMS, with 241 workers and 138 machines.

We found the full project plan, and the number of contractors involved remains puzzling.

AtyrauInzhStroy-AIS: Big and Friendly

At first glance, AtyrauInzhStroy-AIS seems highly productive. In 2020, the firm signed 63 contracts worth trillions of tenge.

But only 12 were fulfilled. Most were changed or unfinished.

KazAvtoJol was listed as the customer, yet no 2020 contract with AtyrauInzhStroy-AIS appears on the public procurement portal. Contracts began in 2023. Only two are active — neither tied to this project.

Atyrau’s branch? Also no record.

Founded in 2001, AtyrauInzhStroy-AIS paid ₸4.038 billion in taxes in 2023 — a record. In 2024, that dropped to ₸1.9 billion.

The company holds 386 licenses and nearly 200 public contracts. Its former founder: Serik Orazbayev.

Big oil money came to a sleepy provincial town with streets soggy from eternal mud, and the city began to build roads. More precisely, "Atyrauinzhstroy" began to build roads for the city, and then for the entire Atyrau region. Several years later, at one of the major meetings, the head of the local administration admitted: the company 'Atyrauinzhstroy' dispelled the myth that it is impossible to build quality roads in Atyrau! Orazbaev quoted on the company's website.

The director — Anatoliy Bykov — has led the firm for years. In 2019, AlmatyInzhStroy JSC became a founder. In 2022, Orazbayev left, and Vladimir Pak joined.

In 2023, regional outlet Aq-Jayiq looked into the company’s connections. Pak, formerly Vadim Pak, is a former regional deputy, former chair of the Atyrau Atameken chamber, and former head of the local Korean cultural center.

Many in the company’s leadership have held prominent public roles.

In 2012, Prosecutor General Askhat Daulbayev accused the company of monopolizing contracts:

It was also established that the design and estimate documentation for the majority (80%) of the competition participants was developed by LLP Atyraustroyproekt, the founder of which is Vladimir Pak's wife. It turns out that they prepared the design and estimate documentation for themselves, drew fabulous sums for themselves and won the competitions themselves, the Prosecutor General said then. 

In 2021, Bykov said AtyrauInzhStroy-AIS handled 80% of Atyrau’s road work. 

AtyrauInzhStroy-AIS also founded AlmatyDorStroy, now building BRT in Almaty. AtyrauInzhStroy is a subsidiary of AlmatyInzhStroy, chaired by Bronislav Shin.

AlmatyDorStroy is managed by Yuriy Cha. They’re building Almaty’s costly “ground metro.” Their reach spans from Atyrau to Almaty.

Founders include Svetlana and Bronislav Shin and AlmatyInzhStroy JSC. The group is deeply involved in state contracts.

This isn’t AtyrauInzhStroy’s first EU-funded job. In 2020, the EBRD issued another loan for the Atyrau–Astrakhan highway — $260 million requested, less granted.

Four contractors were listed:

Italian Todini, Turkish Ant Insaat and Sine Midas Stroy (Turkey), and AtyrauInzhStroy (AtyrauInzhStroy) have already begun construction of 60 kilometers of this road,  the AlmatyInzhStroy website reported in 2020.

Todini is a Rome-based global builder. In 2013, it was absorbed into Salini Impregilo (now Webuild). Its Kazakh branch — Todini Central Asia — was created to bid on local tenders.

Todini Central Asia founded… the Association of Road Builders of Kazakhstan.

Todini is tied not just to AtyrauInzhStroy, but also to KazGerStroy — now deep in debt, with failed infrastructure obligations.

The same circle includes KazakhdorStroy — fined for collusion with ABK-Avtodor NS LLP. In 2021, both firms were caught manipulating road tenders worth ₸14.7 billion.

In March 2021, the Nur-Sultan Antimonopoly Department completed an investigation into a cartel agreement between ABK-Avtodor NS LLP and Kazakhdorstroy LLP in terms of maintaining prices in tenders for the purchase of road construction and repair services. The total amount of tenders was 14.7 billion tenge. It was then established that ABK-Avtodor NS LLP and Kazakhdorstroy LLP took part in public procurement, one of which created ficticious competition for the other in order to recognize the purchases as having taken place at the highest possible price. 

The companies were then fined 539 million tenge.

The founders of ABK-Avtodor NS today include a BI Group company. All these roads lead to the same network — united by the Road Builders Association of Kazakhstan. 

This association created the Kazakhstan Road Research Institute, which in turn founded the state Road Committee under the Ministry of Transport.

AtyrauInzhStroy and AtyrauInzhStroy-AIS are the same outfit, just rebranded.

Sine Midas Stroy may be Turkish — but its Kazakh branch is directly tied to AtyrauInzhStroy.

We couldn’t find much about Ant Insaat. But clearly, it’s the same few players competing for the same European cash.

KazakhdorStroy

One of its past heads: Yerik Sultanov.

After running KazakhdorStroy LLP, he became Deputy Akim of Astana, and later, Akim of the North Kazakhstan region.

Its founders include Lev Kim and the Jana-Qurylys Trade Center. Four months post-founding in 2005, Talgat Akhmetov — son of ex-PM Daniyal Akhmetov — became co-owner.

Also on the founder list: Nurzhan Nurlanov, son of former Majilis Speaker Nurlan Nigmatulin, recently in the sights of the Interior Ministry.

In 2008, Nigmatulin exited. Then entered: Aidyn Rakhimbayev — BI Group chair, and YPO Kazakhstan President. Today, only BI Group subsidiaries remain listed.

An Attempted Conclusion

We couldn’t locate the EBRD billions on the public procurement portal. But the tender was indeed posted — and won — by companies with clear, interlocking ties.

Maybe building roads in Kazakhstan really is impossible without ties to the Road Builders Association. But from where we’re standing, it looks like a perfect loop — no clear start, middle, or end — just a signature in a circle.

We’ve sent a request to KazAvtoJol for more structured information on the Qapshagay–Qurty project.

Original Author: Alexandra Mokhireva