Over the past 30 years, Kazakhstan has found itself trapped in the difficulties of a resource-based economy, warns renowned political analyst Dosym Satpaev.

In his words:

«Over 30 years, we have created a resource-based economy that has fed ruling circles with resource-centric thinking. Such a dismal present is always fraught with a bleak future. Because if in the last 30 years we lost time, resources, and people’s faith in their country, in the next 30 years, we might lose the country itself.

Before moving forward, it is necessary to understand why we ended up in a deadlock. No matter how many crisis programs are implemented, how much crisis money is allocated, or how many reform councils are established, corruption continues to nullify many initiatives.

To this day, new development programs are being laid on top of failed old solutions without public analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of already adopted programs. It’s a process generation, not result generation.

Meanwhile, the number of poor people in the country is increasing, more than the middle class, partly due to ineffective socio-economic policies.

Certainly, authorities like to talk about dependent sentiments in society, unwilling to admit that there is such a large number of poor, low-income, and socially vulnerable layers of the population, partly due to ineffective socio-economic policies. This is because there are many dependents in power, and what they do in their government positions is often undesirable to enemies.

Therefore, poverty in Kazakhstan is often the result of the lack of social justice and the absence of public control over state revenues and expenditures. If reforms are declared to modernize the country, the focus should be on a real, not mythical, fight against the ‘shadow’ and oligarchic economy, against ‘backroom’ politics, economic ‘favorites,’ and the lack of competition. This requires new economic approaches, strategies, and models where the interests of ordinary citizens take precedence over the interests of oligopolies. But most importantly, without political reforms, many economic reforms will get stuck in the quagmire of stagnation.

In the harsh world of global competition for a place in the sun, no one but us will be interested in seeing Kazakhstan as a competitive and prosperous state. Many would be satisfied with our status as a ‘resource appendage’ or ‘gas station’ of the world economy. However, authoritarianism often goes hand in hand with an oligarchic economy.

Therefore, political and economic reforms must proceed in parallel. High levels of corruption, the absence of an independent judicial system and other democratic institutions, social injustice, and so on are already restraining factors for the country’s economic development.»