Name: Aigul Kosherbayeva, Director, Center of Regional and Sociological Research, Economic Research Institute, Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Title: The Silk Road Economic Belt: Opportunities and Prospect for Kazakhstan

Abstract:

China’s economy has a great impact on all the countries of Central Asia, including Kazakhstan. In the near future, this influence will only grow due to ongoing investment, trade, and infrastructure projects.

The volume of Kazakhstan’s export to China in 2015 amounted to $5.5 billion, down from 2014 by 56 percent.

China’s share in Kazakhstan’s export amounted to 12 percent in 2015.

In 2010-2013, the volume of Kazakhstan’s import from China had grown more than twice. However, in 2015 there was a decrease of 30.9 percent.

China’s share in Kazakhstan’s import amounted to 16.8 percent in 2015.

The advantage of the Silk Road Economic Belt: The potential volume of China’s trade with the countries along the new Silk Road could be up to 2.5 trillion Tenge; Around Kazakhstan transport and infrastructure projects can form a sufficiently large number of new businesses; If Kazakhstan will be a transport and logistics hub of the Central Asian region, it will open a market volume of about 55 million consumers for our potential partners—transnational corporations.

In order to develop Kazakhstan’s infrastructure, the “Nurly Zhol”, a state program, was launched in 2015. The program will inject $9 billion into Kazakhstan’s roads, railways, electricity, and other critical infrastructure projects. Aside from provision of infrastructure, the stimulus is creating jobs under the multiplier effect.

Infrastructure projects may and should become a driver of economic growth in the current situation of Kazakhstan. The most important area in which to invest is innovative technology, such as in the area of transport and road construction, housing, and communal services.

The main objective of the “new economic policy” is forming a single economic market by integrating macro-regions of the country via building an efficient infrastructure using the hub principle. It ensures long-term economic growth in Kazakhstan, as well as the implementation of anti-crisis measures supporting individual sectors of the economy, which are facing deteriorating foreign market conditions.

Infrastructure projects along the new Silk Road are gathering steam, bolstered by Kazakhstan’s “Nurly Zhol” economic policy and China’s One Belt and One Road Initiative.

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