ASTANA (Bloomberg) – Kazakhstan’s government expects assets held by its sovereign wealth fund to more than double to $100 billion by 2015, Economic Development and Trade Ministry – Bakhytzhan Sagintayev – said in a statement distributed today in the capital, Astana.

Kazakhstan created sovereign funds in 2000 to guard against declines in the price of crude. In 2008, the two funds, “Samruk” and “Kazyna”, were merged into the Joint Stock Company Sovereign Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna. The fund holds 80% of its assets in bonds and 20% in stocks, the central bank said in November 2010. It owns, either in whole or in part, many important companies in the country, including the national rail and postal service, the state oil and gas company KazMunayGas, the state uranium company Kazatomprom, Air Astana, and numerous financial groups. The state is the sole shareholder of the fund. The value of assets held by the National Oil Fund reached $53.3 billion in July, the Central bank said Aug 6.

Kazakhstan holds about 3% of the world’s oil reserves according to BP Plc. According to Bakytzhan Sagintayev, the country expects 6% economic growth 6% for 2013. The pace of expansion may accelerate to 6.1% in 2014 and to 7.6% in 2015. Kazakhstan’s GDP increased 5.6% in the first half of the year from the same period last year.