Each country in the world has its own national holiday, which is associated with the formation of its statehood or is important for the nation. It is called everywhere in different ways: Republic Day, Liberation Day, Country Day, etc. In Kazakhstan, as in many countries,this is Independence Day, celebrated annually on 16 December. This year is the 27th anniversary of the holiday.
Leaving for an excursion, it should be noted that Independence, which the Kazakh people had dreamed of for centuries, took Kazakhstani people literally by surprise. Then, in 1991, with the collapse of the USSR, sixteen new, now independent states, were clearly not ready for independence, and one could say that life strategies and development courses were adjusted on the move, which Kazakhstan itself did.
The idea that this state, where almost all the factories stopped in the early 90s of the last century, was discontinuously supplied with electricity, was able to achieve any high results in a short time and at that time met with great skepticism. both citizens and expats abroad.
Indeed, few people believed in the possible success of this country. Indeed, besides the problems in the economy, the country had other “vulnerables”, according to experts of the place.One of them, according to the well-known Sovietologist and consultant to US President Zbigniew Brzezinski, was poly-ethnicity of Kazakhstan: “disintegration due to ethnic instability,” which was precisely what the expert predicted for Kazakhstan as early as the 1990s.
Contrary to even the most optimistic forecasts of that time, in just two decades, Kazakhstan has become a firmly standing, confidently developing and deeply integrated state in international processes. Today this country demonstrates to the world the lessons of inter-ethnic peace.Representatives of more than 100 ethnic groups and 18 confessions live in peace and harmony. Today it is a truly politically stable state with a strong economic potential. Today, this country has become a recognized locomotive of regional integration, has attracted multibillion-dollar flows of foreign direct investment.
Considering all this, Zbigniew Brzezinski later stated the following: “I admit that I didn’t pay too much attention to Kazakhstan. But at that time I did not think that Kazakhstan was a new reality in Central Asia. And there is no doubt that since independence, Kazakhstan has shown great progress in terms of economic development, searching for its place in the region, as well as in establishing friendly, good-neighborly relations with the outside world. ”
Indeed, this relatively small time period for Kazakhstan became time equal to the whole epoch in the number of achievements. Let us try to understand – what is the reason for such success, while noting the most key positions in our opinion.
The first and undoubtedly the most important thing is the constant availability of strategy by the state. The president of the country, Nursultan Nazarbayev, is confident that for successful development both the state and society need: A) A positive image of the future and B) of course, a realistic plan for moving towards it.
Kazakhstan clearly knew where it was going since the beginning of the 90s. Thus, in 1992, the “Strategy for the Formation and Development of Kazakhstan as a Sovereign State” was published, the main development guidelines for the coming years were already defined there.
In 1997, a large-scale long-term document was adopted entitled “Kazakhstan 2030”. This document has already indicated along-term and concrete vision of what a country should become and what indicators for this need to be achieved. At the same time, indicators were set such that few people believed in their implementation again. However, their main part was achieved by the beginning of the 10s. For 16 of the planned 33 years, the state managed to fulfill enormous tasks.
Already in 2012, it was announced that almost all of the goals outlined in Strategy 2030 were fulfilled and in the same year a new document was presented to the country with a vision for 2050. Skeptics in achieving no less ambitious indicators of Strategy 2050 have already been significantly less.
Obviously, the presence of a strategic plan is the fundamental superiority of any state over those who do not have it. It is important to note that the strategic documents of Kazakhstan are constantly being supplemented with more detailed documents, a kind of clarifying action plans.
The second fundamentally important direction, thanks to which Kazakhstan made a breakthrough, is a bet on education and development of the country’s intellectual potential. The results of a systematic policy in this area are already giving their qualitative results.
Let’s go back to the early 1990s. The situation in the country is close to depressive. At this time, the head of the country, Nazarbayev, decides to massively direct young people to the best universities in the world at the expense of the state budget. Its goal is to train the best personnel for priority sectors of the country’s economy. Not everyone in this country then understood the strategic importance of this decision, and this is understandable, because in fact there was no money in the country!
25 years have passed since then. Thanks to this presidential program called “Bolashak” (the future), almost 11 thousand specialists have been educated and trained, who are now actively implementing the world’s best practices in various spheres of the country. And this program is just one aspect of educational policy.
The analysis shows that education issues from the first days were one of the main priorities of state policy. The amount of funding in this area is growing to this day. State-of-the-art schools are being opened across the country, and Nazarbayev University, a world-class university operating in accordance with international academic standards and principles of academic freedom, functions. In a word, with such an emphasis on education, the country has a great future and a well-deservedly productive present.
The third thing to note is the openness of the country for business and investors.
The desire to enter the TOP 30 developed countries of the world makes Kazakhstan constantly improve the mechanisms of its laws and create conditions for the active participation of business in the development of the country. This makes it more and more attractive to a foreign investor. Over these 27 years, more than $ 300 billion of direct investments have already come to the country, and this is almost 70% of the total inflow to the countries of Central Asia.
Probably, these are the key components of the success of Kazakhstan. At the same time, the leading role of all of the above is deservedly played by the leader of this country, N. Nazarbayev. After all, it is obvious that without political will, intelligence, and the colossal pressure of the first person of the state, it is simply impossible to achieve such results.
As for the prospects of development of Kazakhstan, and in particular the economy, the key thing to know here is that the country is gradually moving away from commodity dependence and almost 10 years ago made a bet on industrial and innovative development. And this is despite the fact that, according to experts, the country occupies the 6th place in the world in terms of natural resources. Of the 110 elements of the periodic table in itsdepths, 99 are identified, 70 are explored, and 60 are extracted and used. In many ways, their use has helped Kazakhstan in its formative years, but today Astana deliberately moves away from raw material dependence, replacing it with the development of the manufacturing industry. This new sphere is already today becoming the main driver of growth in the industry of the republic and is showing a positive trend.
In addition to domestic work, Kazakhstan is also active in the external direction. Today this country is a member of virtually all leading international organizations – the UN, OSCE, OIC, WTO, SCO, CIS, CSTO, OECD, and other associations. Its chairmanship in authoritative international organizations, such as the OSCE, OIC, EAEU, SCO, CIS, CSTO, CICA, the Turkic Council and the UN Security Council, was effectively held. The country on its own site organizes congresses of leaders of world and traditional religions, and acts as an effective mediator in resolving international conflicts.
All this in a complex gives a positive view of the country. Considering such achievements, it becomes obvious that 27 years of independent development is only the beginning of a great future and even greater results of this country. /// nCa, 16 December 2018