East Kazakhstan Region plans two major projects with Chinese partners: a new automotive manufacturing complex and a waste processing plant.
The combined announced investment exceeds 145 billion tenge. The relevant memoranda were signed at the Kazakhstan–China Investment Forum.
A 110-billion-tenge automotive plant
The first project envisages a manufacturing complex producing passenger cars, specialized vehicles and modern engines.
It will be undertaken by the Kazakhstani–Chinese joint venture East Motors Corporation.
Announced investment is at least 110 billion tenge. At design capacity, the facility could produce up to 80,000 vehicles a year.
Production is intended to develop in stages, moving from large-component assembly toward deeper localization with its own welding and painting operations.
The planned localization rate is around 50%. Finished vehicles would serve the domestic market as well as the Eurasian Economic Union and Central Asia.
The project is expected to create around 150 jobs initially and up to 500 at full capacity.
A significant scale for Kazakhstan’s automotive industry
For comparison, the government expects Kazakhstan as a whole to produce around 190,000 cars and other vehicles in 2026.
If the new plant reaches the announced 80,000 vehicles a year, its design capacity would equal more than 40% of the industry’s current annual output. This comparison illustrates the project’s scale but does not mean the plant will immediately achieve that volume.
For now, this is a memorandum and planned investment. The published materials do not disclose construction or production launch dates.
The second project: processing up to 700 tonnes of waste a day
East Kazakhstan’s authorities signed a separate memorandum with China’s Beijing Tizhi Trading Co., Ltd.
The company is considering a household waste and sludge processing complex costing around 35.8 billion tenge.
The announced processing capacity is 500–700 tonnes of waste a day.
As well as reducing landfill disposal, the facility is expected to generate at least 59 million kWh of electricity annually and produce organic fertilizers.
That equates to approximately 160,000 kWh of electricity per day, averaged over a year.
Two projects addressing different needs
The automotive plant is intended to strengthen the region’s industrial base and increase local production of automotive components.
The waste processing complex addresses another problem by turning some waste from a disposal cost into feedstock for electricity and fertilizer production.
Both projects, however, remain at the memorandum stage.
The accurate description is therefore “East Kazakhstan plans to implement two major projects,” rather than “two factories will be built.” Final specifications, launch dates and actual investment amounts may still change.
