Investment attractiveness of Central Asian countries: factors and evaluation criteria

Abstract

In the context of clear geopolitical trends, foreign investment play a significant role in the development of national economies. The work’s aim is analyzing the investment attractiveness’s level of the Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and conduct a study to increase their potential, give recommendations on the assessment methodology. The main foreign investors of them are EU countries, Turkey, China and Russia. These countries are strategic regions as continental highways of trade in the world and are main producers in Eurasia, while consuming the main raw materials of the region. When determining the investment attractiveness, the key factors were substantiated by the results of world studies and the leader among the states was identified on a factor-point scale. As part of the study, the correctness of the hypothesis about the operation of the P. Samuelson principle was tested: GDP growth can be ensured through the growth of foreign investment. The conducted correlation-regression analysis helps substantiating proposals concerning the state management of investments and shows the countries’s dependence on specific factors. The methodological justification includes identify dependencies between them, the review studies, which justify the ranking criteria. The grouping investments by segmenting domestic markets made it possible to determine directions for the development of economies, to clarify further investment research and approaches to expertise. The significance of the results of the study is determined by the possibility of further development of investment state concepts, the addition of mechanisms for increasing investment in the identified deficit areas.