London, June 7 (RFE/RL) - A big new Western investment in Kazakhstan has been announced in London. Trans-World Group, an industrial development organization, says it will support building a new 750-million dollar aluminum smelter with a capacity of 250,000 tons per year.
The Group also plans to double aluminum production capacity at an existing plant at Pavlodar in order to support the new smelter. The total cost of the two projects is about 1,500-million dollars.
Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin yesterday said he will sign the investment deal before he departs London. Kazhegeldin has been attending a London conference on investment opportunities in Kazakhstan. The conference, which concludes today , is attended by hundreds of Western business leaders, financial experts and bankers.