• Қаржы
• 16 Наурыз, 2018

Insidermonkey.com: Kazakhstan is 11th richest country in the world by natural resources

Insidermonkey.com, in an article by Aleksandar Jevtic entitled «15 Richest Countries in the World by Natural Resources», put Kazakhstan in eleventh position among top resource-rich countries in its related report. The author has written the following on this subject: «Metal & ore reserves: $292 billion; Oil reserves: $2.275 trillion; Natural gas reserves: $170 billion; Coal reserves: 1.1 trillion; Total worth of natural resources: $3.837 trillion.

The former Soviet republic seems to have it all, oil, natural gas, coal, iron, copper, zinc, and bauxite. The country which ranks 11th on our list of richest countries in the world by natural resources, also serves as a major natural gas hub for pipelines connecting Russia and China. But despite all that wealth, their citizens are yet to feel the benefits. It would seem that resources course isn’t limited to Africa only». By the way, there is no African country in that list of richest countries in the world by natural resources. Of 15 of them, only two of them are from among the newly independent states – Kazakhstan (11th) and Ukraine (13th). Any newly independent economy that relies on natural resources will be facing immense and daunting challenges. This is a pretty common situation. Many countries in Africa got through this. None of them has coped creditably with these challenges. Africa's potential for sustained economic growth is as yet unrealized. Both post-Soviet and newly independent resource-rich countries, and especially Ukraine, are now facing similar challenges. The two countries try to overcome these difficulties, hoping for a better future. Kazakhstan apparently does it better. It is the largest economy in Central Asia. It possesses enormous oil reserves as well as minerals and metals. So it is no surprise that Kazakhstan is the largest, richest and most economically advanced country in the region. On 15 February 2007, «The Strategic Development Plan of the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2025», approved by the Kazakh government on 30 November 2017, was adopted by a presidential decree. This document set an objective to increase crude and gas condensate production by nearly 25% to 2.155 million b/d by 2025. Its growth perspectives for 2018 do not look so bad. One might even say they seem good. According to Focus tengemonitor (Economic Forecasts from the World's Leading Economists), «The economy is expected to continue expanding at a robust pace this year, on the back of an increase in oil output and recovering domestic demand as inflation drops. Growth will likely remain below pre-crisis levels, however, as exports are anticipated to decelerate more sharply than imports, translating into a drag on overall growth by the external sector. Diversifying the economic structure and tackling the high bulk of non-performing loans in the banking sector will be crucial to improving prospects and achieving greater stability».

Aziz AYHAN