Prosecutor General Berik Asylov Outlines Shift From Asset Recovery to Investor Protection Committee

Kazakhstan’s agency for the recovery of illegal assets is being transformed into the Committee for the Protection of Investor Rights, shifting to the opposite role of safeguarding business interests, Orda.kz reports.

Prosecutor General Berik Asylov spoke about the impact of both old and new policies on working with business owners.

In a post on social media, Asylov highlighted the unprecedented scale of the recovery campaign.

Major market players who illegally withdrew assets were fined 1.3 trillion tenge, of which 850 billion tenge has already been transferred to the state.

The funds were not only returned but also directed toward social projects: 

He added that additional facilities are underway:

In addition, 16 schools and kindergartens, eight medical clinics and hospitals, 13 sports complexes, and 16 cultural and leisure facilities will be built, at a total cost of 122 billion tenge.

Agreements were signed with oligopolies committing 5.2 trillion tenge in investments.

Asylov specified the areas of investment: 

The construction of a new tourist complex in Almaty, transport and logistics centers, and factories in other regions is planned. For example, a mining and processing plant will be built, which will create over three thousand jobs, increase resource extraction and processing, strengthen the country’s export potential, and increase tax revenue.

In early September, the president decided to fundamentally change his approach to investors, converting the asset recovery body into a committee protecting investors’ rights.

Asylov explained: 

He added that work in this direction is systematic, pointing to a recent legal agreement signed with Singapore and upcoming projects with major global financial centers.

Asylov stressed that protecting investors has always been a priority:

Today, prosecutors are overseeing over 1,500 investment projects worth 87 trillion tenge. Since 2023, they have resolved 937 problematic cases, providing assistance to 1,732 investors (including foreign ones); they have implemented a ‘prosecutor’s filter,’ which precludes inspections and sanctions without the prosecutor’s approval; they have prevented 370 illegal inspections, 438 administrative proceedings, and 200 restrictive measures; they have not approved over a thousand decisions that infringe on business; and they have punished 307 officials.

The results, he said, are clear: government claims against investors have fallen by 60%, administrative cases by 12%, and criminal cases against businesses dropped tenfold, from 1,553 to 154.

As an example, Asylov cited the project for a multi-brand plant in Almaty:

Since 2022, the Akimat has refused to connect the investor to the gas grid, and in 2023, it failed to issue architectural and planning specifications for the construction of the facility. In 2024, the investor was not provided with technical specifications for connecting to the power grid. There were also issues with the commissioning certificate. 

The Prosecutor’s Office intervened in the case, siding with the investor, and also appealed to the Supreme Court against a state agency’s demand for the return of 1.7 billion tenge in subsidies for a railway modernization project.

Asylov concluded:

The committee’s actions must be predictable and understandable for every investor, and perhaps it is the new investor relations policy that will fill the economy with real money.

Original Author: Alexandra Mokhireva