Kazakhstan

SITUATED IN CENTRAL Asia and bordering Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world. Its territory is four times the state of Texas and five times the territory of France. Part of the former Soviet Union, and having gained its independence in 1991, Kazakhstan in the 2000s has an estimated population of 15.5 million.

Postcommunist transition has exacerbated poverty for some segments of the population, while others have gained economically. Even during the Soviet era, some level of inequality existed in Kazakhstan, especially as perceived by the ethnic Kazakh population regarding their level of socioeconomic status and political influence, when compared to the ethnic Russian population of Kazakhstan. There have always been interregional income disparities in Kazakhstan as well.

For example, the estimated per capita real income ratio between the former capital city of Almaty and the Zhambyl region was six to one in 1999, according to K. Anderson and R. Pomfret. Still, overall poverty is known to have declined rapidly in recent years because of the trickle-down effects caused by the rapid growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), itself growing because of the burgeoning oil and gas sector of the country.

The share of the population living below the poverty line ($35 per capita per month) was estimated at 24 percent in 2002, compared with 34 percent in 1998, and the Ministry of Economy estimates this share to have fallen further in 2003, to 19 percent. In 2003, Kazakhstan had an estimated per capita income of about $2,000 per year, ranking it 14th among the 27 postcommunist states and the richest among the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) outside Russia.

Annual average unemployment, estimated at 8.8 percent of the workforce in 2003, largely improved as compared to the estimated 13.5 percent figure in 1999. One indication of relative prosperity is the large number of illegal immigrants flowing into Kazakhstan from neighboring central Asian republics, especially Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Jobs in Kazakhstan pay salaries at least five times higher than those in the neighboring central Asian states.

But not all sections of the population have shared in the benefits of economic growth and foreign investment. Rural poverty is still deeply entrenched, with ethnic Kazakhs in the southern part of the country known [Page 610]to be among the poorest among the population. There is also a lag in the tangible outcomes of economic growth. Potable or safe drinking water in rural areas, for example, is not readily available to all. Furthermore, because of slow structural reforms, there is considerable hardship in the largely ethnic Russian industrial cities in northern Kazakhstan.

Many have unofficial jobs, and the shadow economy is estimated to constitute as much as 30 percent of GDP, according to the Economic Intelligence Unit. The presence of oil as a natural resource is thought by some to have been more of a curse than a blessing. Among other things, oil extraction is known on the local level to have polluted the air, soil, and water and food supply of some of the local communities. The oil and gas industry has also engendered a culture of corruption.

...