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    India's key partner Nazarbayev: Role of personality in Central Asian history

    Synopsis

    In 1990s, Central Asia’s biggest country and India’s close partner Kazakhstan began its journey towards modernization. Kazakhstan was at the epicenter of many important events in the field of international security, energy, oil market, as well as formation of a new regionalism moves in Eurasia.

    NazarbayevaAPAP
    File photo: Former President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev
    New Delhi: In the twentieth century, the world witnessed a series of modernization instances in various parts of the world. The first wave of “Asian tigers” in the 1970s, the success of China, the countries of Eastern and Central Europe in the 2000s, current projects in Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and other countries are well known.

    These are examples in which nations have managed to overcome the challenges and imbalances of historical development and radically renovate their state by occupying higher positions in the world hierarchy.

    In 1990s, Central Asia’s biggest country and India’s close partner Kazakhstan began its journey towards modernization. This was the page of a new chapter in the world history, where Kazakhstan was at the epicenter of many important events in the field of international security, energy and the oil market, as well as formation of a new regionalism moves in Eurasia.

    For the world, the 1990s were a time of bright new hopes, the appearance on the world map of a number of new countries. The world community entered a new historical period: Globalization had opened up enormous opportunities for cooperation. In such an international context, the formation of Kazakhstan took place.

    Kazakhstan has become one of the key activists in the field of global nuclear security, has achieved a number of results in peacekeeping policies and the resolution of conflicts around Nagorno-Karabakh, Iran, Ukraine and Syria. The Republic has launched and continues to develop a global inter-religious dialogue based on regular congresses of world and traditional religious leaders in its capital.

    The peace-loving policy of Kazakhstan contributed to the election of the country as chairman of the OSCE, SCO, OIC, non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2017-2019 and other international organizations.

    The Eurasian idea of Nursultan Nazarbayev was implemented in the creation of Eurasian Economic Union. Kazakhstan became a member of the WTO, and thanks to the implementation of major infrastructure projects, it became an operator of growing trade flows between East and West Eurasia, which go through land corridors through the territory of Kazakhstan.

    The foreign policy of the country from the very beginning is constructive and based on the principle of multi-vector. Balance in relations with various geopolitical centers of the world allows Kazakhstan to maintain mutually beneficial partnerships with Russia, China and the USA, the countries of the European Union, Central Asia, and the Islamic world besides India. Launched by Nazarbayev, Indo-Kazakhstan relations has grown in strength with the country now emerging as biggest trade partner in the region.

    Today, one can differently imagine what the path of sovereign Kazakhstan could have been, but the personality factor of its first Leader became crucial in the history of the Republic. It has long been recognized that one person can turn the course of History.

    The ability to take responsibility, to have a clear view of the country's development and to be able to defend it - these features of historical personalities are especially necessary for the people at critical and turning junctures of History.

    Nazarbayev who celebrates his 80th birthday on July 6 played the same role in the history of Kazakhstan as world-famous reformers such as Atatürk in Turkey, Charles de Gaulle in France, Mahathir Mohammad in Malaysia, Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, Mahatma Gandhi in India and others, played in the development of their respective countries.

    Elected by the people to the highest post of the country on December 1, 1991, Nazarbayev became the First President of the young state, which was actually at that time, in his words, "at the very edge of the abyss."

    It was a time when the Kazakh leader chose the national strategy adequate to the realities and the creation of a capable model of public governance – which became the decisive factor for effectiveness of Kazakhstan.

    After the collapse of the Soviet Union, independent Kazakhstan had to answer a whole range of challenges for its development. It is necessary to begin with the fact that its geographical position, sandwiched in the center of the continent between major powers and unstable south, determined difficult geopolitical situation and limited economic opportunities. The Republic was in the midst of an extremely difficult socio-demographic situation.

    At that time, due to the disintegration of the USSR, the volume of industrial production in Kazakhstan for 1990–1994 became half, transport reduced by 2/3, agriculture - by 30 percent. Allied industries in the coal, mining and other industries have stopped. Unemployment grew and there was a mass economic migration.

    In a country that was striving for a market economy, archaic mechanisms of governance and organization of Govt. institutions remained. It was important to maintain peace and harmony in a multinational society, which consisted of more than 130 nationalities, professing more than 30 religious traits. The problem arose of building external relations with neighbors and large countries, it was necessary to look for our place in the world community.

    Over time, it is obvious that in the period of uncertainty, the Kazakhstan’s Leader of the nation managed not only to make bold decisions for his time, but also to unite the nation in the period of crisis and bring it to a new level of development.

    Nazarbayev has always been interested in advanced development experience; he has deeply studied the history of successful nations -- the evolutionary path of development in a few decades led by Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. Kazakhstan, headed by its leader, also preferred the logic of thoughtful sequential transformations.

    Kazakhstan has never copied foreign development models - neither Asian, nor European, nor American. But having independently selected universal principles of country’s development from world experience, the Kazakhstani leader was able to skillfully apply them to the national context and form his own model of effective reforms, development and effective governance.

    He presented his own development formula “first Economy, then Politics”, that is, initially the country relied on economic development, and on its basis, Development of democratic institutions. Today, this experience is known as the “Nazarbayev Model” or the Kazakhstani Way.

    The beginning of the 1990s is the time of the First Modernization. Then the task was to rebuild the public administration system, lay the foundations of a market economy and integrate into the World community. During this period, Kazakhstan carried out "triple transit" to economic, social and socio-political spheres. All spheres of life underwent reforms.

    Kazakhstan deliberately chose democracy as model of political development. On the basis of the new Constitution in 1995, a political system was created with the separation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers and foundation of the rule of law was laid. Kazakhstan has maintained stability and preserved ethnic and religious harmony in society.

    Kazakhstan abandoned voluntarily the 4th largest nuclear arsenal inherited from the USSR.

    In 1997, Nazarbayev presented the Development Strategy until 2030 to the public with a detailed action plan in all spheres of life. The second modernization phase of Kazakhstan started in the third quarter of the 1990s and was completed in the mid-2010s.

    If in the early 1990s, per capita GDP was $ 700, then by 2013 this figure had already reached $ 12,000. The quality of life has improved substantially; as a result, the World Bank has included Kazakhstan among the middle-income countries.

    Through two world economic crises of 1998 and 2008-2009, independent Kazakhstan passed without tangible losses, which confirmed the strength of the young state, proving its viability.

    Over the years, Kazakhstan’s GDP grew from $ 22 billion to $ 184 billion. Efforts to develop the business environment have led the country to rise from 86th place in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” rating in 2005 to 25th position in 2019.

    A major successful achievement of the Republic at that time was the transfer and construction of the new capital of the state, which today bears the name of the First President - Nur-Sultan.

    In 2012, Kazakhstan was among the 50 most competitive countries in the world. Nazarbayev then presented a new ambitious development goal in the Strategy “Kazakhstan-2050” - to take a place among 30 advanced countries of the world in a few decades.

    The future development is based on human capital and spiritual modernization within the framework of the special program “Ruhani Zhangyru”. Three modernization initiatives, not coinciding with each other in current tasks, together constitute a holistic process of updating and development with a single content and algorithm. A stable national system and strong presidential power made it possible to carry out deep reform of the country.

    Thanks to good relations with neighbors, Kazakhstan for the first time in history has found clear, unshakable, documented boundaries recognized by the international community.

    In 2019, Nazarbayev transferred power to successor Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, who, in popular presidential election gained confidence of Kazakh people and today leads the Republic.

    The policy of the second President, in the history of Kazakhstan is based on the continuation of the policy course of the founder of sovereign Kazakhstan.


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