Daniyar Nurbayev from the Researchers of the Eurasian Research Institute gave a seminar titled “Kazakhstan National Fund: Problems and Prospects”.

In his seminar titled “Kazakhstan National Fund: Problems and Prospects”, Daniyar Nurbayev outlined the historical development, purpose, functions and mission of the National Fund of Kazakhstan. Nurbayev also analyzed the impact of the Fund’s current situation and current external macroeconomic volatility. Nurbayev informed that the National Fund was established by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2000 and was Owned by the Ministry of Finance. He said that the Fund was overseen by a Management Council and was managed by the National Bank of Kazakhstan. He also gave a detailed information about the Commission for Control over Expenditure of Resources Allocated from the National Fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In the course of his presentation, Nurbayev added that the National Fund of Kazakhstan was based on the Norwegian model (SWF).

Nurbayev said that the main functions of the National Fund were 1) to provide economic stability 2) to accumulate savings for future generations and 3) to prevent the Dutch disease. He also shared detailed information about the Fund’s function of preventing Dutch disease. He stated that the Fund’s savings accumulation function provided financial and other asset accumulation, while the stabilization function maintained the liquidity of the fund’s assets to a sufficient level. Assuming that the share of the fund’s stabilization portfolio is 28% and the share of the savings portfolio is 72%, the main purpose of the fund is to accumulate savings for future generations. Looking at the distribution of the savings portfolio, he mentioned that investments were mostly invested in treasury bills of the US, EU, UK, Japan and Canada.

In addition, Nurbayev noted that the amount deposited in the National Fund in 2001-2016 increased between 2001-2008, and after decline due to the global economic crisis in 2009, could reach the level of 2008 only in 2010. He added that this increase continued between 2010 and 2014, reaching $76 billion at the end of 2014 compared to $29 billion in 2010, then dropped to $61 billion by the end of 2016. He also reported that the use of funds was continuously increasing between 2007 and 2016. At the end of the seminar he concluded that the future of the fund depended on oil prices.

At the end of the seminar the participants exchanged ideas on the issues and prospects of the National Fund of Kazakhstan.