“The gist of the Kazakhstan’s idea of the Central Asian Alliance is in making all Central Asian countries come to a common denominator. It is not the question of leadership,” first deputy director of the Kazakh Institute for Strategic Studies the Kazakhstan’s President Sanat Kushkumbayev told a REGNUM correspondent commenting on the fact that the idea of the Central Asian Alliance was often discussed by political analyst in 2007.
“It is not the question of leadership, as, unfortunately, many mistakenly think. It is not a question of only Kazakhstan’s ambitions or prestige, as if the country wants to become famous as the integrator, it is absolutely wrong. Leadership will claim plenty of expenditures from Kazakhstan, why do we need such leadership? That is why the subject of Kazakhstan’s leadership among other countries is artificially raised sometimes,” the expert said.
According to Kushkumbayev, the causes of the idea of the Central Asian Alliance are much more trivial. “Our market is 15,400,000 people. Even if markets of our neighbors are united, if we move synchronously and form a shared space or a prototype of such space, it does not guarantee that we shall establish an attractive shared market for movement of global goods, world economic and information flows. The question is that only establishment of regional integration, regional market in the globalizing world will promote dynamic development; it is nothing but pragmatism. And we are trying to share this pragmatism with our neighbors,” Kushkumbayev said.
He reminded that in 2007 there was a series of visits of Kazakh leaders to Central Asian countries. “An agreement was reached in Kyrgyzstan to establish the intergovernmental council, in 2006, such an agreement was signed between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan; approximate support of the idea was received from Tajikistan, particularly, in economic integration. A Kazakh-Kyrgyz investment fund and a Kazakh-Tajik investment fund with authorized capital stock of $100mn from each side were established. We are ready to invest money in social and economic projects of our partner countries to make it profitable for those countries first of all,” the expert stressed.
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