Over the last
ten years Kazakhstan has made a significant
steps forward in its development. People have
started to talk about Kazakhstan as about
the Central Asian tigers.
Actually, we are compared more often with
a snow leopard, which is less aggressive
than the tiger or the ordinary leopard.
Snow leopards, when nobody disturbs them,
are very calm and peaceful. However, in
case that the snow leopard is hurt by someone,
it becomes like furious cat or furious woman,
who is fighting for her home and is even
ready to give her life for her family's
well-being.
With the previous information about
the development of Kazakhstan in mind, could
you give our readers your assessment of
the local investments climate?
First of all there is a very favourable
economic situation in Kazakhstan for the
last two years. I believe that this is one
of those countries, which has overcome the
crisis of 1997-1998 very successfully. At
the same time it has not only restored but
also increased the speed of industrial production
and of growth of GDP. The average annual
speed of growth for that period was more
than 13%. In particular, for the last year
it was 13,4%. Apart from that, solutions
have found for many problems, which have
appeared during the crisis. Particularly,
we have paid all our debts to the social
sector on salaries, which has helped us
to introduce the internal political stability
in the country. Besides, at the external
market we managed to achieve a considerable
success during the above period, which has
been reflected at the ratings assigned to
Kazakhstan by such a leading investment
agencies as Moody's, Fitch, Standard &
Poor. The investments rating of Kazakhstan
has been raised. Kazakhstan used to be and
is currently considered as a very reliable
partner at the external market. It always
fulfils its responsibilities on former obligations
and leaves no doubts on fulfilling the current
or perspective obligations in the frameworks
of partnerships. This situation has been
created due to systematic and consistent
work in the course of reforms that have
been conducted first of all in the field
of finance and crediting, also in the field
of tax budget, in the course of conducting
the pension reform, also in the field of
reforms at the regional level, in particular,
in reforming the energy sector and residential
and utility sectors.
Oil and gas sectors are very important
for the Kazakh economy as well the sector
of mining and minerals. Could you indicate
the importance of these sectors also in
terms of trade? And also how diversified
is the trade in Kazakhstan in terms of revenues
and how are those revenues distributed among
the other sectors of economy for their development?
I think that first of all it is necessary
to define the foundation of the state budget.
You are right, up to 30% of the revenues
of the budget are compiled by the revenues
from the oil and gas sectors. About 10%
of revenues are coming from the export of
ferrous and non-ferrous metals. That means
that in the current budget about 40% of
revenues are the so called traditional for
Kazakhstani economy types of commodities.
This is oil and gas, ferrous and non-ferrous
metals and grain. As of today if we speak
about the export of Kazakhstani commodities,
almost 80% of this export is oriented at
the above-mentioned types of commodities.
And only 20% of export commodities are represented
by machinery manufactures, metal processing
productions, light and food industry and
other productions that are not traditional
for Kazakhstan. The main goal, which is
faced by our government at the moment, is
to change the current structure of our export
and to increase the share of export oriented
productions of non-traditional sector. On
one side we are afraid of the so-called
'Dutch disease', which characterises the
economies of countries, oriented at only
one type of activity. Those countries do
not conduct the deep diversification of
their economies.
In fact there is a serious danger for those
countries, which orient their economy at
the oil and gas sector. I have to say that
in this respect during the last two years
we have taken a few measure aimed at the
prevention of the repetitive case of the
'Dutch disease'. In particular we have established
a National Oil fund, where the additional
revenues from the oil and gas sector are
coming in. As of today this fund has accumulated
more than $1,6bn. We have created a Bank
of Development with the Chartered capital
of $200mln. The main task of this bank is
to give a better supply to the creation
of the diversified productions, oriented
at the export, competitive and able to change
significantly the situation which currently
at the structure of industrial production.
When one looks at Kazakhstan, it is
quite obvious that there is a very significant
development going on. Which are the economic
projects that you would like to highlight
to our readers and what option you can see
for foreign direct investments?
First of all, of course, in the oil and gas
sector. There are the developments at the
Caspian shelf, extraction and processing of
oil and gas as well as its transportation.
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And since you
have just mentioned the process of diversification,
are there also projects and opportunities
for investors in other sectors?
Yes, while speaking about the diversification
I mean that we have to utilise things that
we have been given by the nature, have to
apply knowledge, experience and skills,
obtained by the humankind for years, in
order to, firstly, utilise those resources
more efficiently and based on that, secondly,
to develop a diversified production. Particularly,
for today the project on the construction
of the pipes' production facility is crucial.
We produce ourselves more than five million
tons of steel at Karaganda metallurgical
plant. This plant is called ISPAT Karmet
and is managed by an Indian - British company.
Together with oil enterprises we are ready
to establish a joint stock company for pipes
production for oil and gas sector. This
comes first. The second is machinery manufactures,
which are specialised in extraction and
transporting oil. We do not need to manufacture
automobiles. America, Japan and other countries
do produce many of them. We have to create
production facilities that we need ourselves
and in which we could become competitive
at the world market. The Kazakhstani market
is not that loose. We have the population
of only about fourteen and a half million
people. That is why while creating the production
facility we have to think about where to
supply its output. Speaking particularly
about the oil and gas machinery manufactures
one can assume that consumers will be first
of all such countries as Iran, Pakistan,
Central Asian countries. Besides, if situation
in Afghanistan will come to its normal condition,
then this country will also be considered
as a consumer. China and North of Russia
should also be taken into consideration.
So in this particular direction we have
to create an export oriented production
considering not only our market but also
markets of our neighbouring countries.
The Asian business community is quite
important for Kazakhstan. And also with
this in mind could you indicate to our readers
the progress of Kazakhstan becoming a member
of WTO?
Certainly, Kazakhstan is planning to become
a member of WTO. We are taking all the necessary
measures for the liberalization of our economy.
We are proud with the fact that we were
the first country among all the countries
of the former Soviet Union that has been
acknowledged by the European Union and US
as a country with the market economy. Naturally,
this is one of the factors that are helping
our efforts to become a member of the WTO.
We are conducting negotiations. Our main
negotiators are our neighbouring countries.
That is why I would say that those negotiations
are very tough in terms of promoting the
interests of Kazakhstan. We are also negotiating
with China, which is already a member of
WTO. We need them to support our Kazakhstan´s
initiatives. We are also negotiating with
different countries that are members of
various regional organizations, where Kazakhstan
is the member too. I mean countries like
Russia, Ukraine. We are trying to synchronize
with them our steps towards joining the
WTO. Naturally, during bilateral and multilateral
negotiations that we are conducting in Geneva,
we disclose the situation in the economy
of Kazakhstan. Having studied the existing
approaches to becoming a member of WTO,
we are using the fact that for economies
like Kazakhstan´s one a special transitional
period is foreseen. Particularly, in the
field of agriculture we are requesting the
10 years transitional period in order to
keep the existing duties/fees, in order
to protect the market of Kazakhstan, to
strengthen and to develop it further.
You are the Minister of Economy and
Trade. What is your vision of the economy
and trade in Kazakhstan and what would you
see as your major challenge?
I would wish to the people of Kazakhstan not
to have big stresses. We have got the long-term
perspective plans. In particular, we have
such a plan for the period up to the year
2030. There is also a plan for the period
up to the year 2010. There are also middle-term
three year plans, budget indicative plans,
based on which we are building our economy.
In case that in coming ten years we will be
moving, as we planned, with the speed of growth
not less than 7%, then for us it will be a
normal positive way of the development of
our economy. These are, to my mind, reasonably
feasible and also ambitious enough plans for
the development of our economy, which are
quite realizable as well. And we are very
happy with the fact that Kazakhstan is recognized
and well known in the world, especially in
terms of our country always being the initiator
of events, aimed at the development of regional
cooperation. Particularly, one may recall
the recent Summit on the measures of trust
and cooperation in Asia, where the issues
related to the prevention of the nuclear war
have been discussed. Kazakhstan is consistently
pursuing its policy in this respect, since
Kazakhstan was the first country that closed
its nuclear polygon 10 years ago and eliminated
the nuclear weapon. I wish we were number
one in sports also, in football for example.
Then we would feel absolutely satisfied. |
V.I.P. INTERVIEWS 
