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Asia and Oceania
Kazakhstan |
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Last reviewed: 27 June 2008 |
Country information
Area: 2,699,800km
Population: 15.2m
Capital City: Astana
People: 53.4% Kazakh, 30% Russian, 3.7% Ukrainian, 2.4% German, 2.5% Uzbek, 2.5% Tartar, 5.5% other
Languages: Kazakh and Russian
Religion(s): Muslim 57%, Russian Orthodox 31%, Protestant 2%, Other 7%
Currency: Kazakh Tenge
Major political parties: Nur OTAN ('Fatherland') Party, Social Democratic Party, Ak Zhol, , Azat
Government:
Head of State:Nursultan Nazarbayev
Prime Minister/Premier: Karim Masimov
Foreign Minister: Marat Tazhin
Membership of international groupings/organisations: UN, the IMF/World Bank, EBRD, OSCE, Commonwealth of Independent States, the Collective Security Treaty, the Eurasian Economic Community, Central Asian Co-operation Organisation, Shanghai Co-operation Organisation and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building.
HEALTH
Drugs
Kazakhstan is a significant transit route for Afghan grown and produced opium and heroin. Most of this northern flow is aimed at the growing domestic drugs market in Russia, but Central Asia is becoming a transit route for some Afghan heroin trafficked to Europe across the Caspian Sea and through the Caucasus. There is also increasing evidence of international crime gangs working in Kazakhstan, often with contacts in Germany and the Baltic States. The Central Asian Republics recognise the drugs threat but have only a limited capacity to tackle it. Drug seizures in Central Asia increased tenfold between 1995 and 1999 and almost tripled between 1999 and 2000. Porous borders and ineffective border management hinder the counter-narcotics effort, but the European Commission, OSCE, UN, IOM and US Government are implementing border projects.
There is small-scale cultivation of the opium poppy in southern Kazakhstan. Hemp grows wild in many parts of Southern Kazakhstan. Precursor chemicals (acetic anhydride) are produced of which the vast majority is for legitimate purposes, but some is diverted for heroin production. According to official statistics, there are 55,286 registered drug addicts in Kazakhstan in 2007, compared to 53,577 in 2006. UNODC estimate that there are actually between 165,000 and 186,000 drugs users in Kazakhstan and that 70% of these are injecting drug users. The increase in drug use is reflected in the increase in reported HIV cases – 9,378 cases in 2007 compared to 7,402 the previous year.
ECONOMY
Basic Economic Facts (for 2007)
GDP: US $102.5bn
GDP per head: US $10,400
Annual GDP Growth: 8.7%
Inflation: 10.8%
Major Industries: Ferrous metals. Oil. Gas. Agriculture
Major trading partners: European Union (34%), Russian Federation (21%), Switzerland (13%), China (8%), USA (4%)
Kazakhstan is rich in natural mineral resources. Oil reserves in the Kazakhstani sector of the Caspian Sea alone are estimated at 8 billion tons. In 2006 Kazakhstan produced 65 million tonnes of oil and gas condensate, and has set itself the target of 150 million tonnes by 2015, which would make it a top 10 global player. In developing its oil, Kazakhstan has focused on attracting foreign, including British, companies to develop and operate huge fields, principally Tengiz, Karachaganak and the offshore Kashagan field. Overall Kazakhstan has the potential to contribute 10% of global supply growth to 2030.
In addition to oil and gas reserves, one quarter of the world's uranium deposits are thought to be in Kazakhstan, as well as large reserves of gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper. And as the ninth largest country in the world Kazakhstan has vast areas of land, some of which is suitable for large scale arable farming. (It is a major producer of wheat).
Since 1999 strong oil and other raw material prices have helped to sustain a period of economic growth. Kazakhstan is now one of the fastest growing economies in the world. GDP Growth in 2006 was 10.6 % (approx. $5,100 per capita). Oil and gas accounts for around 30% of GDP. Inflation in 2006 was 8.6%.
UK Trade & Investment Country Profile: Kazakhstan
HISTORY
Recent History
The Kazakh Republic was formed as an autonomous Republic within the Russian Federation in August 1920 and became a Republic of the Soviet Union in December 1936. Kazakhstan declared its independence on 16 December 1991 - the last Soviet Republic to do so.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Kazakhstan's relations with the UK
We have a wide-ranging dialogue with Kazakhstan, which we regard as a strategic partner in the Central Asian region. This covers energy issues, democratisation and human rights, the investment climate, good governance, regional and international security and stability, and drugs trafficking and terrorism.
Since independence, we have provided substantial assistance – both bilaterally and multilaterally – to support economic and political reforms. In the last two years, the UK has committed around £2.3 million on democracy building, educational, energy and nuclear projects in Kazakhstan. These projects include helping Kazakhstan tackle the Soviet nuclear legacy by developing sustainable land-use projects for the Semipalatinsk region and de-commissioning of the Aktau nuclear reactor.
Kazakhstan offered the use of its airspace and bases for humanitarian aid supplies to Afghanistan. The UK has greatly welcomed the support of Kazakh troops in the reconstruction of Iraq. We are helping to train Kazakh peace-keeping forces (Kazbat) to enable them to take part in future peace-keeping operations.
The UK recognised Kazakhstan on 31 December 1991 immediately after the dissolution of the USSR. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on 19 January 1992 during the visit to Kazakhstan by Douglas Hurd, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at the time. The British Embassy was opened in Almaty in October 1992. The British Embassy has since further expanded its presence in Kazakhstan. In September 2003 HRH Duke of York opened a Trade and Investment office in Atyrau. In December 2006 the Embassy moved to Astana, though it retains a presence in Almaty; where there is a British Embassy Office and consular and visa work for Kazakhstan is centred there.
Kazakhstan opened an Embassy in London in February 1996.
Bilateral
A British – Kazakh All Party Parliamentary Group was established in October 2001. A Kazakh British Group was set up in parallel in Astana. Several visits to Kazakhstan have taken place in 2002, 2003 and November 2004. There have also been several Kazakh parliamentary visits to the UK.
Cultural Relations with the UK
The British Council in Kazakhstan runs programmes in the English language, the arts, education information and human rights, all aimed primarily at aspiring young people.
The British-Kazakh Society was established in 2003 under the patronage of HRH The Duke of York and President Nazarbayev. The Society aims to promote commercial, cultural and people-to-people links between the two countries.
The Kazakh-British Technical University was established in 2001 to help provide young Kazakhs with the skills they need to develop a modern economy. The British Prime Minister and President Nazarbayev are patrons of the university. Several British universities are involved in developing programmes, and Shell and British Gas have provided substantial funding for the post-graduate school.
Recent Visits
Inward
- Minister of Justice Zhumabekov visited UK in 2004
- Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Shkolnik visited UK in 2004.
- Deputy Prime Minister Mynbaev attended Kazakh-British Trade and Industry Council in London in May 2004.
- Kazakh Energy Minister Shkolnik and Economy Minister Kelimbetov visited the UK in 2005.
- In November 2006, President Nazarbayev visited the UK as a guest of the Government.
- Ministers of Foreign Affairs (Tokaev), Agriculture (Yesimov) and Energy (Izmukhambetov) also visited the UK in 2006.
- A delegation of Kazakhstani parliamentarians headed by the Majilis Speaker, Mukhamedzhanov, visited the UK in March 2007.
Outward
- Jack Straw visited Kazakhstan and opened the British Embassy Astana Office in February 2004.
- Prime Minister's Special Representative on Trade Opportunities Brian Wilson visited Almaty in October 2004.
- British parliamentary delegation visited Kazakhstan in November 2004.
- HRH The Duke of York, the UK's special Representative on Trade and Industry, visited Kazakhstan in July 2006.
- Geoff Hoon, the Minister for Europe, visited Kazakhstan in September 2006.
- The Lord Mayor led a City mission in March 2007.
- HRH The Duke of York, the UK’s special Representative on Trade and Industry, visited Kazakhstan in October 2007.
GEOGRAPHY
Kazakhstan is the second largest (after Russia) of the former Soviet Republics and the fourth most populous. It is geographically diverse, comprising extensive grassland, semi-desert and mountainous areas. It is bordered by Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and the Caspian Sea.
TRADE AND INVESTMENT
Trade and Investment with the UK
The UK is the third largest investor in Kazakhstan, representing 14% of total foreign direct investment in the country. Over 100 companies are either fully UK-owned or joint ventures with British connections. In addition, a large number of non-British companies run their Kazakhstan operations out of the UK.
UK exports to Kazakhstan in 2007 were US$594 million and imports from Kazakhstan totalled US$400 million. The largest sectors are oil and gas, mining, agriculture, power generation and manufacturing. BG, Shell and BP are all present in Kazakhstan, as are a large number of smaller oil-field service and supply companies.
There is also a substantial British presence in the financial services sector (e.g. consultancy, banking, legal); civil aviation, where British Aerospace (BAE Systems) set up and own 49% of Air Astana, the national carrier; precious metals, education and training and other sectors.
Development of the economic relationship is assisted through the Kazakh-British Trade and Industry Council (KBTIC), established in 1995. The KBTIC gives UK companies operating in Kazakhstan the opportunity to meet with Kazakh ministers and senior decision-makers to raise issues/problems. The last meeting was in London in November 2006. The next meeting will take place in London on 1 July 2008
UK Trade & Investment Country Profile: Kazakhstan
Foreign Policy
Kazakhstan enjoys a particularly close relationship with Russia. However, Kazakhstan tries to maintain a foreign policy balance. It claims to want a stronger relationship with the EU, its main trading partner, and with the US. The relationship with China is ambivalent, China is a key potential market for Kazakhstan hydrocarbons, but Kazakhstan fears being swamped by its populous eastern neighbour.
Kazakhstan has signed up to global and regional security structures. Kazakhstan joined the UN in March 1992 and renounced nuclear weapons in 1995. It is a member of a number of regional organisations including the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, the Conference for Security and Confidence-Building Measures, (a Kazakhstani initiative), the Collective Security Treaty Organisation and the Eurasian Economic Community. Since 2004 Kazakhstan has been contributing troops to the International Coalition against Terrorism work in Iraq. It is the only Central Asian country to have agreed an Individual Partnership Action Programme with NATO. It is an active participant in the US/Russian initiative on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
On 30 November 2007, the OSCE Ministerial Council in Madrid decided that Kazakhstan would chair the OSCE in 2010.
POLITICS
President
President Nazarbaev was elected with 98% of the vote on 1 December 1991. In 1995, a referendum approved the extension of his term of office until 2000. In autumn 1998 he called Presidential elections for January 1999, nearly two years early. Despite OSCE concerns about the fairness of elections held at such short notice, the elections went ahead. Nazarbayev won with an alleged 79% of the vote.
The most recent Presidential elections were held on 4 December 2005. Nazarbayev won a second term in office under the 1995 Constitution with 91.16% of the vote. Again the OSCE/ODIHR Observation Mission found that, despite some pre-election administrative improvements, many of the recommendations had not been implemented and the elections did not fully meet OSCE standards.
President Nazarbaev sees his greatest achievement as building an independent country without violence or a split along ethnic or religious lines. He has also overseen some of the most extensive financial and economic reforms in the former Soviet Union. Another of his achievements is that he got rid of nuclear weapons on Kazakh territory.
Parliament
The Parliament of Kazakhstan is bicameral and consists of the Lower House (Majilis) and the Upper House (Senate). On 16 May 2007, President Nazarbayev presented a set of constitutional amendments to a joint session of the Senate and Majilis. These amendments, based on recommendations drawn up by the State Commission of Democracy, were approved and included increasing the size of the Majilis to 107 and the number of Senators to 47.
The amendments changed the election system for the Majilis from a constituency basis to a proportional representation one. In the parliamentary elections on 18 August, 98 members of the Majilis were elected by this system; the remaining 9 represent the Assembly of Peoples to guarantee ethnic diversity among members of the Majilis. (The Assembly of Peoples was formed in 1995 and represent the various ethnic minority groups in Kazakhstan).
Fifteen Senators were appointed by the President. The additional Senators were chosen through consultation with the Assembly of Peoples, again to reflect the diverse mix of the country.
The amendments increased Parliament’s powers including approval of the prime minister and control over the work of government. Parliament’s role in the appointment of bodies such as the Central Election Commission also increased.
Following the constitutional reforms, Nazarbayev on 20 June ordered parliamentary elections for 18 August, to be held at the same time as the maslikhat elections. Under the election rules, the Majilis seats were distributed among the parties on a proportional representation basis. To obtain seats in parliament, each party needed to poll at least 7% of the votes
Political Parties
There are currently 10 registered parties in Kazakhstan. Political parties are generally based on the personal appeal of leading individuals rather than political orientation.
In 2002, the 1996 Law on Political Parties was amended to include an increase in the minimum number of registered members from 3,000 to 50,000. The effect was to considerably reduce the number of registered political parties. During the 1999 parliamentary elections, 19 political parties were registered. Only 12 parties were registered during the 2004 parliamentary elections.
In March 2005 several of the opposition groups united to form a pre-electoral bloc called For a Just Kazakhstan movement (FJK). The movement was led by former Majilis Speaker Zharmakhan Tuyakbai. He resigned as speaker in November 2004 in protest at what he saw as the manipulation of the September 2004 parliamentary elections. In the December 2005 presidential elections, Tuyakbai received 6.61% of the votes.
In September 2006, Tuyakbai set up a new opposition party, the Social Democratic Party. The Social Democratic Party was registered on 26 January 2007. Two parties, the pro-presidential party, Atameken (Motherland) and Alga, the opposition party comprising of members of the dissolved Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan party, are still seeking registration with the Ministry of Justice.
Several opposition parties merged in the run-up to the parliamentary elections. Ak Zhol joined with Adilet a party representing lawyers (the parties split after the elections). True Ak Zhol merged with the NSDP to become the United Social Democratic Party (USDP). However, the USDP are still widely referred to as the NSDP. These moves were prompted in part by a constitutional amendment imposing a ban on the setting-up of election blocs and alliances ahead of the elections. This left merger as the only option available to those parties wishing to join forces.
The months before the elections also saw the consolidation of pro-presidential forces. In July 2006 Asar, the party of the President’s eldest daughter Dariga Nazarbaeva, joined with Otan. In December, two other pro-government parties, the Agrarian and Civic Parties, merged with Otan. Otan was renamed Nur Otan, a renaming which hints at the first name of the leader- Nursultan Nazarbayev- in December 2006. Nazarbayev became Nur Otan’s official leader at the party congress on 4 July 2007.
Elections
The elections to the lower chamber of the Kazakh parliament were held on 18 August. Seven out of the eight parties contested the election. The Communist Party of Kazakhstan decided to boycott the election in protest at the introduction of proportional representation.
The final results were:
Nur Otan: 88.41%
USDP: 4.54%
Ak Zhol: 3.09%
Aul: 1.51%
People’s Communist Party: 1.29%
Patriotic Party: 0.78%
Ruhaniyat: 0.37%
Given the 7% threshold, Nur Otan took all 98 seats. None of the other parties cleared the 7% requirement to gain representation in parliament. Neither were any of the final 9 seats chosen by the Assembly of Peoples awarded to the opposition.
The OSCE/ODIHR observation mission reported some areas of progress, particularly as regards the information work of the Central Election Commission and the media campaign. However, several fundamental OSCE requirements were not observed, in particular some elements of electoral legislation and the actual vote count, where more than 39% of observers gave negative assessments.
The two opposition parties, Ak Zhol and USDP, refused to recognise the results. The opposition stated that the results did not reflect the real proportion of political power and that the parliamentary elections were not a step forward.
True Ak Zhol and the Social Democratic Party split after the elections. On 29 February 2008, True Ak Zhol changed its name to Azat (freedom in Kazakh).
Reform and Democratisation
Since the December 2005, elections there have been a small number of concrete steps towards political reforms and democratisation. On 15 April 2006 a contentious article, implying undue prohibition on the right of freedom of assembly, was removed from the Election Law.
On 24 March 2006 a new State Commission on Democratisation was established, chaired by President Nazarbayev. It was tasked to work on: widening of the powers of legislative bodies, introduction of local self-governance, improving the judiciary and law enforcement bodies, development of civil society, and constitutional development. But the opposition mostly stayed away, claiming that the Commission was a rubber stamp of the President.
On 19 February 2007 the State Commission on Democratisation submitted its final report. Their proposals formed the basis of the constitutional amendments presented by President Nazarbayev on 16 May 2007 to Parliament. As well as increasing the size of Parliament, the amendments will give a stronger role to the local elected councils, the Maslikhats.
The term of office of the President will be reduced from 7 years to 5 with a bar on the President running more than twice in a row. However, on 18 May Parliament passed an amendment exempting the first president of the country (Nazarbayev). He is therefore able to run for President as long as he wishes.
The political opposition protest that they lack access to a free and independent media. Opposition newspapers regularly face obstacles such as libel suits, withdrawal of registration and cancellation of printing contracts. Recent amendments to the media law have further increased the control of the authorities over the media. However, a new media law has been drafted by several non-governmental organisations working together with the official Congress of Journalists. The law is currently with Parliament. Whether this new draft will be accepted and whether it will respond to the opposition's protests and reduce the difficulties faced by the opposition media remains to be seen.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Kazakhstan's performance on human rights since independence has been patchy. NGOs are active and civil society is developing steadily. But opposition activists are subject to harassment, there are limitations on freedom of assembly for political rallies, and freedom of the press is severely curtailed. Prison conditions have improved and the prison population is decreasing with alternatives to imprisonment being introduced. But there is still concern over TB and HIV/AIDS infection rates.
Kazakhstan signed two core UN human rights conventions: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in November 2003.(both since ratified in December 2005).
HMG, the European Commission and the OSCE are all working on projects in support of the implementation of ICCPR.
The President announced a death penalty moratorium in December 2003. Life imprisonment legislation was introduced in January 2004. On 30 December 2005, the Senate passed the jury bill introducing a continental model (judges and lay people deliberate together both as to the guilt of the accused and the appropriate punishment) for death penalty and life imprisonment cases. The first jury trials started in January 2007.
The constitutional amendments of May 2007 restricted the passing of death sentences to cover only serious crimes committed during wartime and acts of terrorism resulting in death. Other reforms included the transfer of sanction of arrest from the Prosecutor to the courts and introduction of juvenile courts
In September 2007, Kazakhstan signed the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT). On 3 June 2008, Kazakhstan ratified OPCAT.
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Contacts
Address:
Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan
33 Thurloe Square
London SW7 2DS
Telephone:
020 7581 4646
Fax:
020 7584 8481
020 7584 9905 (Consular)
Email: london@kazakhstan-embassy.org.uk
Office hours:
Mon-Fri: 0900-1200, 1400-1800
Mon-Fri: 0900-1200 (Visas) (except Wed)
Website: http://www.kazembassy.org.uk