LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Summer 2007

by Konstantin Zhigalov

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Sir,
Hedi Wegener’s article presented a very up-to-date picture of central Asia, but I’m afraid I cannot agree with some of its conclusions. Wegener says that promoting peace and stability in central Asia requires “working democracies, the rule of law and efforts to improve the economic well-being of the population” We in Kazakhstan would generally share this point of view, but in politics as well as in chess results do not depend so much on a set of moves as on their sequence. In the early 1990s, Kazakhstan had set a course for bold market reforms of the economy and the ongoing liberalisation of our society. We took the view that in a post-soviet country without strong democratic traditions, a stronger economy would lead to greater democracy. For us, the key factor in building true democracy is strengthening private property ownership and establishing a solid middle class.

To analyse the situation properly in our region one should keep in mind that the five central Asian states are very different, especially in terms of economic and political reform, education, the composition of their population and their trading priorities − Kazakhstan’s No.1 trading partner for the last three years, for instance, has been the EU. This is equally true, of course, of the EU-27 where member states’ per capita GDPs range from $58,000 right down to less than $5,000.

The Kazakhstan economy is today twice as large as the economies of all the other central Asian countries put together. Our per capita GDP is ten times higher than in any other central Asian country and corresponds with those of Bulgaria and Romania. The trade turnover of Kazakhstan and EU exceeds the aggregate figure of the four other central Asian states and the three Caucasus countries, and the World Bank now ranks Kazakhstan as a middle income country.

Kazakhstan’s foreign investments stand at almost $20bn, and we’re the No.1 investors in Kyrgyzstan and Georgia. During the ministerial meeting between the EU Troika and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana in March, the Kazakh government put forward a proposal to the European Union to invest jointly in regional projects.

I also have to take issue with Wegener’s assertion that “all five central Asian governments have been pursuing secular policies, at times rather aggressively because fears of loosing power have led officials to brand all religious and political activity as Islamist extremism”. It is not borne out by the facts, and I believe that in inter-ethnic and inter-religious matters the EU might learn from Kazakhstan, which is home to more than 100 ethnic groups and 46 religious confessions, all of which live together in peace.