The official opening of the Astana international financial center (AIFC) will be held in July 2018. However, it will start working in January as per plan. Two pavilions at the Expo will be occupied by the financial center, as well as partners - the U.S. NASDAQ and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. This was reported by the AIFC governor Kairat Kelimbetov. He noted that the financial center will be ready for the first transactions by the next year. The head of the center believes that the public offering of shares of national companies will allow developing the local capital market. And this, in turn, will open up opportunities for promoting the Astana platforms in regional markets. It is planned to attract investments worth up to $40 billion in the next 10-15 years.

KAIRAT KELIMBETOV, GOVERNOR, ASTANA INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CENTRE:
- On the one hand, these are the countries of Central Asia, this is a large region with the population of 60 million people, and Kazakhstan plays a leading role here, Kazakhstan's GDP makes up 50% of the GDP of the entire region. This is the Eurasian Economic Union, we have almost 170 million people in the market. We have big expectations for the implementation of the "One Belt - One Road" initiative, which is linked to the economic belt of the Silk Road and the "Nurly Zhol" program.