FOREWORD
Bakytzhan Sagintayev PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN
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wenty-five years after gaining its independence, Kazakhstan stands strong and proud at the economic centre of Eurasia, committed to economic development driven by President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Strategy 2050, designed to take the country into the top 30 most developed countries in the world by 2050. In its short lifetime, Kazakhstan has weathered a number of economic storms, but has proven both resilient in adversity and relentless in its economic and social ambitions. President Nazarbayev’s response to the fall in oil prices in recent years was to launch in 2014 the Nurly Zhol – Path to the Future economic stimulus policy for 2015-20. This involves releasing approximately $9.5 billion from the National Investment Fund, saved up during the years of high commodity prices, to drive investment in the country’s road and rail infrastructure, logistics, IT, agribusiness and manufacturing, as well as to provide major financial support for education, research and SMEs to boost production and create thousands of new jobs. The foundation of the country’s economic wealth over the past 25 years has been Kazakhstan’s impressive reserves of natural resources, including hydrocarbons and uranium. Kazakhstan has worked closely with western oil companies to create some of the world’s largest oil fields, including Karachaganak, Tengiz and Kashagan, while simultaneously becoming the world’s largest exporter of uranium. However, Kazakhstan soon became committed to a policy of industrial diversification designed to maximise added value from its raw material base – minerals and agricultural products – through the development of processing and manufacturing operations and the promotion of new industrial sectors, in particular IT, high-tech manufacturing and green renewable energy focusing on wind and solar farms. The diversification of Kazakhstan’s industrial base is reflected in the steadily increasing range and number of both exporters and exports. The country now exports 970 types of goods to 118 different countries. The value of finished or non-basic resource exports has now risen to 30% of overall exports, compared with 24% five years ago. Kazakhstan, which last year became a member of the World Trade Organization, is now in the top 50 exporting countries, with approximately 1,800 exporters, underpinning its integration into the global economic community. Moreover, the country will soon witness further diversification into financial services when the site of Astana’s EXPO 2017: Future Energy will be transformed into the Astana
Kazakhstan stands strong and proud at the economic centre of Eurasia
13 KAZAKHSTAN AT 25 – GLOBAL PARTNER