In December 2015, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan signed the Constitutional Law on the establishment of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) and, in his managerial style, set an ambitious task: the center should become the main financial hub and become one of the leading financial centers in Asia as soon as possible.

A number of international experts predicted the opening and launch of the first auction would not happen earlier than in 5-6 years, best case scenario. However, the government of Kazakhstan promised to realize the idea earlier, so the start was given.

The first company whose securities were put up for auction was Kazakhstan heavyweight Kazatomprom JSC – going right in with the trump cards, as they say. This is not surprising. The company is considered the world's largest producer of natural uranium (it accounts for about 20 percent of the world ore mining market) and market players are very interested in it.

In addition to Kazatomprom, 49 foreign and 16 Kazakhstani companies, as well as 2,700 Kazakhstani citizens, presented their shares on the stock exchange in Astana that day.

In the near future, shares of Kazakhtelecom, Air Astana, KazMunaiGaz and other national companies of Kazakhstan will also be placed on the AIFC stock exchange. And this forms a special moment of trust for foreign investors. That is, the national companies of Kazakhstan, which are going to have an initial public offering, will be traded on the AIFC platform within the framework of European rules. Foreign business, thus, will get clear and transparent conditions for investing in the economy of Kazakhstan.

The guarantee of the reliability of these investments will be not only the perfect reputation of Kazakhstan and its first place in the global Ease of Doing Business rankings for the protection of minority investors. It will also be backed by the fact that the AIFC's shareholders include the authorities of the global financial system: Goldman Sachs, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Silk Road Fund and the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, which specializes in trading shares of high-tech companies.

The main advantage of the AIFC and all its participants, in whatever status they come to this site, is the independence of the court from the existing judicial and political system. The International Arbitration Center at the AIFC operates under the rules of British law. The AIFC court is able to deal with very difficult categories of cases, and the party filing a lawsuit has as many as three years to do so. Without going into details of court procedures on the site, in general terms we can say that the AIFC is ready to provide a legal atmosphere that meets the highest international requirements and this, of course, attracts market players.

In general, all the conditions have been created, the start has been given, and, further, the AIFC should become a launching pad for participants in the financial market. Some 88 companies have already registered in the jurisdiction of the center. By the end of 2020, according to the plans, this figure will be increased to 500. By this time, the AIFC itself should enter the ranks of the top 50 international financial centers in the world.

It is clear that such deadlines and plans can cause a lot of skepticism. But Kazakhstan, as is known, has its own time scale. Rebuilding a new ultramodern capital in the steppes with futuristic landscapes and advanced technologies for 20 years, and leading the country to the top 50 developed countries and the top 30 in Ease of Doing Business rankings -- for Kazakhstan, these tasks turned out to be easily accomplished.

The author is an observer on Eurasian economies based in Beijing.