BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 7. The visit of
European Investment Bank (EIB) Vice President Marek Mora to
Kazakhstan on October 7-8, 2026, marks a new stage in deepening
cooperation on key infrastructure and green projects. Against this
backdrop, it is worth looking at how Kazakhstan’s cooperation with
the EIB has developed and how President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has
consistently advanced this agenda in talks with European
partners.
EIB presence in Kazakhstan – history and
scale
The EIB has been operating in Central Asia since 2009. According
to the bank, the volume of signed agreements and operations in the
region amounts to around 750 million euros, while the overall
project portfolio has grown to nearly 3 billion euros. In June
2026, the EIB opened its regional office for Central Asia in
Tashkent, overseeing projects involving Kazakhstan among other
countries.
The growth of these figures reflects the gradual expansion of
the European financial institution’s presence in the region. For
Kazakhstan, this process is particularly important: the country
occupies a central position in the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor
while also prioritizing infrastructure development, renewable
energy and closer economic integration with European partners.
At the same time, the scale of cooperation with the EIB has
gradually changed. At the initial stage, the focus was primarily on
supporting small and medium-sized businesses and green projects
through financial intermediaries. Since 2024-2025, the focus has
shifted noticeably toward large-scale infrastructure, transport and
renewable energy.
The first major step in this direction was a 200 million euro
framework loan provided by the EIB to the Development Bank of
Kazakhstan in December 2024 and formally finalized in March 2025.
The funds are intended for sustainable transport, including
elements of the Trans-Caspian Corridor, as well as renewable energy
projects. According to the bank, the transport component is
expected to contribute to the rehabilitation of up to 5,000
kilometers of national and regional roads.
This project was one of the first practical outcomes of the
memoranda signed in January 2024 at the EU-Central Asia Investment
Forum. Thus, political agreements gradually began to translate into
concrete financial instruments.
The next stage was directly linked to President of Kazakhstan
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s visit to Brussels in June 2026. During the
visit, the EIB signed a 150 million euro framework loan directly
with Kazakhstan. The project is being implemented by national road
operator QazAvtoZhol.
The funds are earmarked for the rehabilitation of approximately
1,370 km of strategic roads in central and southern Kazakhstan.
These include sections of the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor
linking the country with neighboring Central Asian states.
The financing is supported by the European Union under Global
Europe (NDICI) and the Global Gateway strategy. The project is
expected to create employment equivalent to around 5,900
person-years, improve road safety and climate resilience, and
reduce travel times.
EIB Vice President Marek Mora, who is responsible for the bank’s
operations in Central Asia, commented on the decision as follows:
“Good roads do more than connect places on a map. They connect
people, they let businesses reach new markets, make travel safer
and faster, and create opportunities for communities. By investing
in key transport links across Kazakhstan, we are supporting a
corridor that is becoming increasingly important for trade between
Europe and Central Asia while delivering tangible benefits locally.
Hard infrastructure is the backbone for trades. This is what
sustainable connectivity is about: creating practical connections
that support growth, resilience and cooperation.”
The transport sector is becoming one of the most concrete points
of convergence between Kazakhstan’s priorities and the European
Global Gateway strategy. For Astana, the development of the Middle
Corridor is not only a transport objective but also part of a
broader strategy to increase the country’s transit potential and
strengthen economic ties with external markets.
At the same time, the EIB is also involved in regional digital
connectivity initiatives. In December 2025, Marek Mora told
Trend in an interview
that transport and digital connectivity are central elements of the
EIB’s mandate in Central Asia and the EU’s Global Gateway strategy.
“The EIB supports the Team Europe Initiative on Digital
Connectivity through its 60 million euro financing for the SES
satellite broadband project, which covers rural areas of Tajikistan
as well as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan,” Mora added.
According to him, the bank’s strategy focuses on sustainable
cross-border connectivity that supports interoperability,
regulatory harmonization and low-carbon transport solutions. In
Mora’s assessment, these investments will provide high-speed access
to remote communities and expand opportunities in education,
healthcare and the economy.
How the EIB affects Kazakhstan’s economy
The direct impact of Kazakhstan’s cooperation with the EIB is
primarily reflected in infrastructure development, investment and
job creation. The rehabilitation of roads linked to the
Trans-Caspian Corridor should reduce logistics costs, accelerate
cargo flows and strengthen Kazakhstan’s position as a transit
hub.
In recent years, freight volumes along the Middle Corridor have
increased severalfold, while further infrastructure development is
one of the conditions for achieving the target of increasing
transportation volumes to 10 million tons. “The modernization of
transport infrastructure has already produced impressive results.
Over the past six years, freight volumes along this route have
increased fivefold, from 0.8 million to 4.1 million tons per year.
Our goal is to increase its capacity to 10 million tons,” President
of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said at the Kazakhstan-EU
roundtable in June this year.
However, the importance of EIB financing for Kazakhstan is not
limited to the amount of funds provided. The bank’s loans require
compliance with high environmental, social and procurement
standards. This raises requirements for project quality while also
creating additional requirements for the Kazakh side in terms of
documentation, procurement and management.
As a result, cooperation with the EIB provides Kazakhstan not
only with long-term and more favorable financing terms, but also
with an opportunity to apply European project preparation standards
when implementing major infrastructure projects.
The political framework for this cooperation has been
consistently shaped at the level of the head of state. At a meeting
with Maroš Šefčovič, Eduards Stiprais and Marek Mora in Brussels on
June 23, 2026, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev noted the productive nature of
Kazakhstan’s cooperation with the EIB and expressed confidence that
further interaction would contribute to the country’s sustainable
economic development and strengthen regional connectivity.
At the Kazakhstan-EU roundtable on the same day, Tokayev
separately highlighted the role of European financial institutions:
“We also welcome the enhanced role of European financial
institutions in supporting Kazakhstan’s sustainable economic
development and initiatives aimed at strengthening regional
connectivity. In this regard, I highly value the active
contribution of the European Investment Bank and am pleased that
Vice President Mora is here with us today.”
Thus, Tokayev’s contribution to advancing this agenda lies
primarily in shaping political priorities and promoting them in
negotiations with European partners. The Middle Corridor, the
energy transition and regional connectivity are viewed by Astana as
elements of a unified economic agenda, while the EIB is becoming
one of the instruments for its practical implementation.
This was also reflected in the joint statement issued following
the leaders’ meeting, which specifically noted support for opening
an EIB representative office in Astana – a step envisaged by the
2025 EU-Central Asia summit declaration.
What to expect next?
According to an official statement by the EU Delegation to
Kazakhstan, Marek Mora’s visit to Kazakhstan will focus on
strengthening cooperation, advancing key investment projects,
deepening interaction between Kazakhstan and the EU, and supporting
the further development of the Trans-Caspian Transport
Corridor.
One of the most likely topics for discussion will be the
implementation of the framework loans already signed – 200 million
euros for the Development Bank of Kazakhstan and 150 million euros
for QazAvtoZhol. At this stage, what matters for Kazakhstan is not
only securing financing but also the pace at which the funds are
put to practical use and agreements are translated into completed
projects.
Another area could be expanding the EIB’s portfolio in renewable
energy, digitalization and critical raw materials. At the same
time, Astana is interested in closer coordination with other
European financial institutions, including the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development and development institutions of
individual EU countries.
The possible opening of an EIB representative office in Astana
is also significant. Following the establishment of the regional
office in Tashkent, such a step could strengthen the bank’s
presence in Kazakhstan and facilitate the preparation of new
projects locally. For the Kazakh economy, this could mean faster
preparation of subsequent financing and projects, expanded
technical assistance and, over time, an additional inflow of
long-term capital into infrastructure and the green transition.
At the same time, the scale of EIB financing remains relatively
modest compared with Kazakhstan’s needs for modernizing its
transport network and energy sector. Therefore, the key factor will
be not only the volume of new agreements but also the ability of
the Kazakh side to rapidly prepare projects that meet the bank’s
requirements.
In September 2026, in Berlin, President Tokayev separately
highlighted the potential for cooperation between the EIB and the
Development Bank of Kazakhstan with the participation of German
capital in the modernization of the energy and industrial sectors,
including renewable energy sources and green hydrogen. This shows
that Astana views the EIB not as an isolated financial partner but
as part of a broader European financial architecture that
Kazakhstan seeks to leverage to implement its infrastructure and
energy priorities.
In this context, Marek Mora’s visit is a logical continuation of
the course that Kazakhstan has been consistently pursuing at the
level of the head of state: translating political agreements with
the EU into concrete investment instruments.
How quickly these instruments begin to produce measurable
results on the ground will depend primarily on the pace of
implementation of projects already approved and the preparation of
new ones. These indicators will make it possible in the coming
months to assess the extent to which the EIB’s expanding presence
in Kazakhstan is actually translating into a new stage of practical
economic cooperation.
