Kazakhstan’s Strategic Window
Kazakhstan faces a unique historical opportunity. We must make the best of it.
In 1977, China was an agrarian, low-income country with very few diplomatic relationships. Its people had recently gone through one of the most severe famines in human history and economic disruption. Then, a series of reforms followed, built important international relations, saw an inflow of overseas foreign investment into its manufacturing.
Over the years, China also took care of investment attractiveness. Special economic zones offered tax breaks and regulatory freedom.
The government expanded the infrastructure with new roads and ports; strengthened the education system inside the country; four decades later, it demonstrated a rapid growth of 10% GDP annually or above.
Today, it is the second-largest economy with well-established production in solar panels, electric vehicles, batteries and telecom equipment.
In 2025, Kazakhstan faces an opportunity window similar to that of his neighbour, or even a demographic dividend, that China faced in 1970s.
The key to bringing the opportunity to life is enhancing education, healthcare, gender equality and labor markets.
Kazakhstan can focus on providing knowledge in line with Fourth Industrial Revolution. That combines technical know-how, digital fluency and problem-solving in fast-paced working conditions.
It is critical for our current and upcoming young generations to learn skills in areas of robotics, automation, data analysis, AI, cybersecurity, as well as Internet of Things, renewable technology, logistics and AgriTech.
Our nation bets on digital transformation for a good reason – realistically, we have all the potential to excel at it and gain a decisive edge. Kazakhstan must prepare its youth for rare earths mining, agriculture, transport and logistics, perhaps tourism and light manufacturing – sectors where we already made some progress and where we can continue to contribute.
We already have to start providing high quality education, vocational trainings and lifetime learning opportunities so that all of our youth is professionally prepared by 2050. The ‘demographic dividend’ does not happen out of nowhere – it is us who must facilitate its realization.
An opportunity window like this one is given once in country-lifetime. We must be fully prepared for it when the moment comes. That means developing education, healthcare and social equality today.
If we harness the opportunity properly, it could launch a new wave of economic development in Kazakhstan. We are together in this, and we are doing a great job.
