The president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, ordered the country's government on Friday to launch initial public offerings (IPO) of state-owned companies this year.
Last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Kazakhstan officially announced that it had plans to launch a massive privatization program, called the "People's IPO," in order to attract more foreign investments and diversify the country's economy.
"Samruk-Energy, KEGOK, Kazpochta must put their shares up for an IPO by the end of the year. National companies KazMunaiGas, Kazakhstantemirzholy railways and Kazavtoprom should launch IPOs in 2012-2013," Nazarbayev told a session of the country's ruling Nur Otan party.
"The People's IPO program will provide hundreds of thousand Kazakh citizens with an opportunity to own shares of major enterprises as well as an instrument to invest and to multiply their savings and wealth," he added.
Kazakh Finance Minister Bolat Zhamishev said in early February that the country's national companies would start entering the stock markets of Kazakhstan in March of this year.
ASTANA, February 11 (RIA Novosti)
