The Eurasian Council on Foreign Affairs reports Suma Chakrabarti, president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), concluded a tour of Central Asia last week which included visits to Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

The EBRD has several offices throughout Central Asia, and to date has invested over €6 billion in Kazakhstan alone. During his visit to Astana, Chakrabarti met with Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev to discuss EBRD-Kazakh cooperation in sectors such as infrastructure and transport, as well as with Prime Minister Karim Massimov and other key ministers.

The EBRD president praised Kazakhstan’s political development and multi-party system, and stated that, having invested more than €1.2 billion in 2015–a record for the Central Asian region–the bank plans to maintain its ambitious operational targets, and invest over €700 million in Kazakhstan during 2016. He participated in the 9th edition of the Astana Economic Forum on May 26th, and co-chaired the Foreign Investors Council devoted to the Astana International Financial Centre on May 27th, alongside president Nazarbayev.

Previously Chakrabarti met with Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on May 23rd, receiving an invitation to participate in a UN conference on transport and transit corridors taking place in the country in November; and with Azeri president Ilham Aliyev during a visit to Azerbaijan on May 24-25th.