Did you know that about 5% of the territory of Kazakhstan is in Europe? At a first glance 5% is not a very large amount, but when you give the actual size it looks much more impressive. It’s really in the region of 140,000 km2, which is larger in area than the individual territories of 18 out of the 27 European Union countries.
According to the Universalis encyclopaedia, continental Europe stretches from 11º West to 60º East, and from 71º North to 36º North. In its turn the Britannica moves Europe’s borders further to the East: the line runs along the Ural Mountains and the River Emba.
Hence the European part of the Eurasian continent contains, as a minimum, the larger parts of the WestKazakhstan and Atyrau provinces (Ural version), or the entire West Kazakhstan Province and a significant part of Kazakhstan’s Atyrau and Aktyubinsk provinces (Emba version).
It’s important to point out that the country’s main hydrocarbon riches are concentrated in the European part of Kazakhstan. The two largest oil deposits in the world discovered over the last 30 years (after the Prudhoe Bay deposit discovered in the 1960’s on the Alaska North Slope) are in this area: Karachaganak in the West Kazakhstan Province (reserves of 1.2bn tonnes of liquid hydrocarbons and more than 1,300bn cubic metres of gas) and Kashagan in the Atyrau Province (the area of the deposit is 75 km x 45 km, and its reserves are estimated at 13bn barrels of oil).
In addition to its energy resources, the European part of Kazakhstan possesses other mineral resources. The mining and processing sectors are viewed as the Aktyubinsk Province’s most important for industrial output. The chemical, oil and gas sectors are also well developed, but the province’s industrial flagship is the Donskoy Enrichment Plant, one of the world’s largest companies for enriching chrome ore; Kazakhstan is the second-largest producer of chrome in the world.
Kazakhstan’s ‘Big Three’:
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Interethnic
reconciliation
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Radical
economic
reforms
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Stability and
consistent
political
liberalisation
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Kazakhstan’s economy: facts and figures
About 85% of Kazakhstan’s industrial out-put is produced by the private sector, which employs more than 60% of the working popu-lation. Over the last seven years the average yearly growth rate of the economy has been 9-10%. By 2008 the per capita GDP will exceed $7000. According to the World Bank’s classification, Kazakhstan has joined the group of countries with above-average incomes. Average monthly earnings, pensions and stipends have almost tripled in size. Expenditure on healthcare has quadrupled, and tripled on science and education.
The economy has received more than $60bn of foreign investment. Their per capita level puts Kazakhstan ahead of all the CIS countries. But what is remarkable is that Kazakhstan businesses are moving actively into foreign markets, and have already invested about $20bn abroad. Today Kazakhstan is one of the main investors in Kyrgyzstan and Georgia.
Kazakhstan is trying to maintain high tempos of modernisation and economic growth. The country has set itself an ambi-tious target: to become one of the world’s 50 most competitive countries within the next ten years.
The Strategy for Kazakhstan to join the group of the world’s most competitive countries was unveiled in Brussels in December 2006
during an official reception in honour of the 15th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s independence, and attended by President Nazarbayev.
‘Independent Kazakhstan has always had a steady place in the world’s top ten countries for the level of literacy among the population. But over the last 15 years we have raised a generation of people with a new style of education and a new way of thinking. In this year alone, three thousand talented young people from Kazakhstan have received the “Bolashak” presidential grant to study in the world’s finest universities.’
At present more than 338 holders of Bolashak scholarships are studying at higher education institutes in 27 countries round the world: Australia, Austria, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea and the USA. And the list gets longer each year.
A new generation of business-minded people has grown up speaking foreign languages and with experience of working abroad. What’s more, two-thirds of Kazakhstan’s managers who were trained abroad over the last ten years received their training in the European Union, and this naturally helps bilateral contacts.
Interethnic reconciliation and inter-religious dialogue
The success of Kazakhstan’s reforms is to a significant extent the result of persistent and carefully targeted work by the authorities aimed at strengthening interethnic and spiritual harmony. More than one hundred ethnic groups, representing over forty religious confessions and denominations, live peacefully in Kazakhstan and enrich each other’s cultures. The country’s example of a peaceful society with its intercultural and inter-faith cooperation is very highly rated by the world community.
Kazakhstan is one of the few states in the post-Soviet area to have avoided the scenario of balkanisation and interethnic conflicts. This situation is in many ways linked to the activity of President Nursultan Nazarbayev; in 1992, at the first Forum of the Peoples of Kazakhstan, he put forward the idea of creating an
Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan, a new body for national politics that has taken over one of the central positions in the country’s public and political arena. The years since then have been marked by great achievements for the Assembly, and the most important of them are peace and the harmonious development of Kazakhstan society, based on the principles of tolerance and respect for one another.
The Assembly consists of 27 republican and regional national and cultural groupings, and more than 300 at provincial level. Three republican national and cultural centres have international status. The Assembly cooperates with 16 Small Assemblies of the Peoples of Kazakhstan that act as advisory bodies for the heads of regional administrations and are made up of representatives of national and cultural groupings as well as public bodies.
The Assembly is now fifteen years old, and world society is studying Kazakhstan’s experience with interest; it is rated very highly by international experts in Vienna, Locarno, St Petersburg, Tallinn, and other cities.
Representatives of Peoples from European Union countries living in Kazakhstan
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Austria
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56 |
Lithuania |
6295 |
| Bulgaria |
6296 |
Netherlands |
44 |
| Great Britain |
505 |
Poland |
40,995 |
| Hungary |
478 |
Romania |
591 |
| Germany |
222,296 |
Slovakia |
58 |
| Greece |
11385 |
Finland |
462 |
| Denmark |
1 |
France |
43 |
| Italy |
396 |
Czech Republic |
844 |
There has been a break-through in peoples’ awareness and in resurrecting the culture and traditions of the peoples living in Kazakhstan, and this is due to the creation of a legal and democratic basis in the field of interethnic relations and the implementation of the State Programme for the Development of Languages, as well as the Strategy for the develop-ment of the Assembly ratified by Presidential Decree in April 2002. Just in the sphere of national education alone, there are more than 100 ethnic schools and 170 Sunday language centres operating in Kazakhstan. The government allocates funds annually to support these Sunday schools, and help is also received from local budgets. This active process of resurrecting national cultures has led to the creation of more than 470 regional national cultural centres in the provinces. The state provides support for 19 republican and regional national newspapers and radio and television programmes, and for six national theatres.
However, the Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan is now facing a new test. Under amendments made to the Constitution in May 2007, the Assembly will have its own representative office inside Parliament, and from there it will be able to work towards a further strengthening of interethnic reconciliation in the country.
The Assembly has been given a new status and the organisation has nine deputies in the Majilis, the lower house of Parliament, and this is proof of the great trust that Kazakhstan’s society has in the Assembly. On the other hand, this lays great responsibility on the Assembly and each of its members. All legislative acts adopted by Parliament will from now on undergo additional scrutiny for their compliance with the criteria of interethnic reconciliation, tolerance and equality.
According to the results of the parliamentary elections that took place on August 18 this year, nine Deputies were elected to the Majilis from the Assembly, and they represented Uighur, Ukrainian, German, Russian, Byelorussian, Uzbek, Balkar and Korean ethnic groups.
Today there are 2993 religious groupings (representing more than 40 faiths) active in the country, and 2563 of them are legal entities and branches. Of the overall total of religious groupings, 1968 are Muslim, 237 are Orthodox Christian, 949 are Protestant, 73 are Catholic, 21 are Jewish and 75 are other forms, mainly non-traditional. There are 262 foreign missionaries working in the Republic and 2225 places of worship.
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| President Nazarbayev with participants in the second Congress of World and Traditional Religions (Astana, September 2006) |
In 2003 and 2006 Kazakhstan has held two
Congresses of the world’s religious leaders.
The second Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions took place in the new specially-built Palace of Peace and Reconciliation under the chairmanship of President Nazarbayev.
Twenty-five religious leaders took part in the Forum (seven were representatives of Islam, seven from Christianity, four from Buddhism, two from Judaism and one each from Shintoism, Taoism and Hinduism, with two representatives of international organisations) and 14 guests of honour, from 26 countries in Europe, America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. More than 160 people participated in all. Famous politicians and heads of state and of international organisations took part in the Forum as guests of honour.
The Congress took place under two aspects of the general title of ‘Religion, Society and International Security’: ‘Religious Freedom and Respect for Followers of Other Religions’ and ‘The Role of Religious Leaders in Strengthening International Security’. The participants in the Forum agreed unanimously to hold the third Congress of World and Traditional Religions again in Astana, in 2009.
The question of transforming the Congress of World and Traditional Religions into an institution and securing its legal status is at present being discussed, as this would allow it to function on a permanent basis. Kazakhstan believes that the participation of famous international organisations such as UNESCO, OSCE and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in the Forum’s work is very useful. There are proposals for the future to enlist the support of the UN.
Kazakhstan’s idea of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions chimes in with the Spanish-Turkish initiative to create an ‘
Alliance of Civilisations’. As is well known, its main purpose is to disseminate information about the risks inherent in the growing discord between the West and the Islamic world. As part of this initiative states would cooperate in developing effective measures that would be essential for preventing such a split. Kazakhstan welcomes undertakings like this and, as it has experience in solving issues of interethnic and inter-religious reconciliation, is ready for wide-ranging and effective cooperation in this field. Remembering that the Congress initiated by Kazakhstan proposes a dialogue between religions that do not have any borders, the proposal by the Spanish side could become a major support for the Kazakhstan forum.
Kazakhstan is also examining the idea of organising a
‘Muslim World and the West’ dialogue that would have several fundamental differences from the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. This initiative would entail a socio-political exchange of opinions among states and public figures, whereas the Congress would be religious.
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Kazakhstan’s initiative to hold the second Congress of Leaders of
World and Traditional Religions received wide support in Europe
and other countries around the world (Astana, Palace of Peace and
Reconciliation, September 2006) |
It is important that the Dialogue of Civilisations develops so that the voices of spiritual leaders addressing the Congress will also be heard by the leaders of countries. In this context the Initiative, which is based on the values of the Kazakhstan religious forum, will launch a socio-political dialogue with the participation of politicians and academics on a broad agenda of ‘Muslim Countries and the West’.
The leaders of such countries as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar and others have stated that Kazakhstan is more suitable than any other country for such a mission.
Unlike the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia and the Alliance of Civilisations, the ‘Muslim World and the West’ dialogue will not be an on-going process but a measure that, if it succeeds, could be continued at a higher level.
It is planned for the Forum to meet at Minister of Foreign Affairs level, with the adoption of a concluding document, in the second half of 2008.
Political modernisation in Kazakhstan
An important new step forward occurred this year in Kazkahstan’s political progress.
Major changes were made to the Constitution that allow us to talk about the birth of a qualitatively new political system in Kazakhstan. The authority of the legislative branch of power has been greatly strengthened. Essentially, Kazakhstan replaced its presidential form of government by a combined parliamentary and presidential system.
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| At the initiative of President Nazarbayev amendments were made to the constitution on 18 May 2007 that allow to talk about the birth of a completely new political system in the country. Kazakhstan replaced its presidential form of government by a combined presidential and parliamentary system |
Parliamentary elections took place in Kazakhstan on August 18 this year, and in them the Majilis (the lower house of Parliament) was formed totally through a proportional system for the first time. This considerably strengthened both the role of political parties in forming the legislative field and inter-party competition. Other new features were the introduction of regulations for appointing the Prime Minister through a Parliamentary majority and a procedure for the President of the Republic to have discussions with party groupings when appointing the head of the government.
Local government has also been considerably strengthened. From now on the akims, or governors, can only be appointed with the agreement of the maslikhats, or local representative bodies, who will now have the right to initiate the resignation of regional leaders by a simple majority vote. In addition, the death penalty has in point of fact been abolished in the country.
The recent elections were the final act of the constitutional reforms. In essence they cut two years off the process of bringing the new constitutional rules fully into operation. The elections consolidated the formation of a more balanced and democratic political system. The newly-elected Majilis now enjoys the full range of functions and powers provided by the updated Constitution.
A total of 1129 international observers followed the progress of the elections, including 460 from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, 448 from the CIS, 13 from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, 71 representatives of international organisations and 137 observers from other countries.
The OSCE press release on the results of the elections, Progress and Problems, noted progress in the pre-election and voting processes, but inadequacies in aspects of the new electoral laws and in counting votes.
It stressed that during the pre-election period candidates had increased opportunities to convey their message. There was inclusive registration of candidate lists. The Central Electoral Commission operated transparently and took many decisions regulating the electoral process, and conducted a campaign to educate the electorate. The observers enjoyed the necessary level of cooperation from the authorities.
Among the inadequacies mentioned were the high threshold for parties to enter Parliament, the rules under which political parties are elected, provisions under which the parties choose who will become members of parliament only after the elections and also unjustified restrictions on being elected to public office.
At the same time, the head of the delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), David Wilshire, said that building a democracy was a long and hard task and that there was still much to do. He also said: ‘No country in the world can conduct ideal elections, but each one of them must try to conduct them better than the last time, and Kazakhstan has done this.’
The Special Coordinator of the short-term observers and Head of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Delegation, Consiglio di Nino, a Senator from Italy, stressed in turn that: ‘We can say that the elections were very well organised. The majority of our conclusions are positive rather than negative. We must congratulate the government on this... Notwithstanding the concerns contained in the report, I believe that these elections continue to move Kazakhstan forward in its evolution towards a democratic country.’
The elections ended in an indisputable victory for the peoples’ democracy party Nut-Otan, which gained 88% of votes. Unfortunately the other parties could not surmount the seven per cent barrier.
One point to note is that while criticising the results of the recent elections, some prominent members of the opposition were also able to criticise themselves. For example, A.Kozhakhmetov (until recently the leader of the unregistered Alga party) mentioned in particular as a fact that: ‘These elections were more open and other parties, including opposition parties, had more chances to appear on television and in the papers... As for the opposition, in these elections it didn’t show any new ideas, new approaches, new strategies or new people. They rolled out the same old methods that don’t bring any benefit, and there was no inspiration, no creativity. ... The problem of the opposition’s disunity also played its part. I believe that Alga could have got 2.5%. And 4.5% (the percentage gained by the National Social-Democrat Party - ed.) plus 2.5% gives you the 7% needed to get into Parliament.’
As P.Svoik (parliamentary candidate from the radical opposition party NSDP) mentioned in particular in his analysis: ‘The NSDP (not deliberately, of course) didn’t aim at the main electoral targets but almost entirely at the outer rings. The “range” of our “leaders” was politically exceptionally diverse, but ethnically and from the point of view of gender they were so homogenous that the Russian-speaking electorate (and they make up the bulk of the urban and more “advanced” population) and women (also the stronger half in the electoral sense) were given a clear signal – we’re not your party. At the same time there was nothing in our programme designed specifically to appeal to the Kazakh electorate. And generally, building an electoral programme out of promises to lower the pensionable age and make mass social payments, when winning a majority in parliament obviously isn’t on the cards is a bit... childish, you’ll have to admit.’
S.Duvanov (radical opposition journalist) commented in his article: ‘You got the feeling that in these elections the opposition in Kazakhstan wasn’t playing the right game and was acting more than strangely. Firstly, even though they knew three months in advance that elections would definitely take place, they didn’t stir themselves until the start of the election campaign. Secondly, right before the elections they closed down the best-known and most impressive opposition party for some reason, and united under the banner of the NSDP that hardly anybody knew about. Thirdly, the opposition wasn’t able to consolidate and part of it (the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and Atameken) announced a boycott. Fourthly, the NSDP produced utterly third-rate adverts which (luckily for them) the TV channels refused to show. Fifthly, for some reason they kept on kicking the Ak Zhol party, making it seem that this party was their main opponent, and not Nur Otan. Sixthly, they didn’t offer the electorate anything new or creative or catching. The main thing memorable in their campaign was the blatantly populist proposal to share out the money from oil.’
At the same time, speaking at the 13th session of the Assembly of the Peoples of Kazakhstan two days after the elections President Nazarbayev emphasized in particular: ‘We will definitely take note of the constructive proposals that the opposition put forward during the electoral campaign. We will make sure that we cater for the interests of those of our citizens who voted for other parties. ‘We know that we are still facing many problems and that it will need the efforts of all political forces to overcome them. We call upon the other political parties to work together for the benefit of the country and its people.’
In Kazakhstan people hope that the constitutional reforms in the republic will be taken at face value by the European Union, especially in the light of the country’s application to chair the OSCE in 2009.
Kazakhstan – European Union
For many years now the European Union has been one of the leading investors in Kazakhstan, and for the last three years it has been the country’s main trading partner.
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| President N. Nazarbayev with the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, J.Solana, and Federal Chancellor of Germany, A.Merkel |
In return, Kazakhstan is an extremely important partner for the European Union in the Central Asian and Caspian regions. In 2006 the EU’s trade turnover with Kazakhstan was more than €20bn, and it exceeds the EU’s combined trade turnover with all the other Central Asian and Caucasian countries.
The EU Commissioner for External Relations and the EU Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner has stated: ‘Central Asia as a whole, and Kazakhstan in particular, are key factors for the EU in the matter of secure energy supplies.’
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At a session of the European Council held in Brussels under the German presidency on June 23, 2007, the first European Union Strategy on developing cooperation with Central Asia was adopted. The adoption of the Strategy is intended to strengthen cooperation regionally, and Kazakhstan is ready, jointly with the European Union, to invest in largescale projects in Central Asia that are of interest to the European partners.
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During her visit to Kazakhstan in October 2006, Benita Ferrero-Waldner gave this evaluation of EU–Kazakhstan bilateral relations: ‘Kazakhstan is a very valuable strategic partner for the EU. The economic indicators are impressive, and from the European Union’s point of view the investment climate in Kazakhstan is the best in all the countries in the region. It’s pleasing to see that our bilateral trade is increasing along with our mutual relationships.’
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| The Kazakhstan Minister of Foreign Affairs, M.Tazhin, with the FRG Foreign Minister, F.Steinmeier, (Astana, March 2007) |
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Marat Tazhin also expressed his pleasure at partnership that has been set up: ‘Kazakhstan and the European Union now think of each other as stable and predictable partners in political, economic and other spheres. We can see proof that the Kazakhstan–European partnership has arrived at a strategic level in the wide range and intensive nature of the links and the fact that this high level of contacts is continually active; in addition there is the forward-looking character of the agreements that we have already achieved.
‘This was corroborated by the visit of the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to Brussels on 3-6 December 2006, when Mr Nazarbayev stressed that he firmly intended to develop a strategic partnership dialogue with Europe.’
The joint statement made by President Nursultan Nazarbayev and President of the EU Commission, José-Manuel Barroso, following talks in Brussels in December 2006, emphasised the high quality and level of the dialogue between the EU and Kazakhstan, the real progress in developing a strong partnership based on common values, high dynamics of trade and economic cooperation, joint action in reply to today’s new global challenges – guaranteeing secure energy supplies and an effective dialogue of civilisations.
It is very important that energy dialogue the EU – Kazakhstan is now gaining strategic significance. President N.Nazarbayev and President of the EU Commission, José-Manuel Barroso emphasised this point in their joint statement. The EU and Kazakhstan have also achieved a high level of cooperation on regional development, guaranteeing international stability, the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and in the fight against international terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking. At the suggestion of the European side Kazakhstan is considering the question of joining Europe’s ‘Galileo’ satellite navigation system.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.government.kz