Diplomatic representation from the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador John M. ORDWAY
embassy: Ak Bulak 4, Str. 23-22, Building #3, Astana 010010
mailing address: use embassy street address
telephone: [7] (3172) 70-21-00
FAX: [7] (3172) 34-08-90
Flag description:
sky blue background representing the endless sky and a gold sun
with 32 rays soaring above a golden steppe eagle in the center; on
the hoist side is a "national ornamentation" in gold
Economy Kazakhstan
Economy - overview:
Kazakhstan, the largest of the former Soviet republics in
territory, excluding Russia, possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves
and plentiful supplies of other minerals and metals. It also has a
large agricultural sector featuring livestock and grain.
Kazakhstan's industrial sector rests on the extraction and
processing of these natural resources and also on a growing
machine-building sector specializing in construction equipment,
tractors, agricultural machinery, and some defense items. The
breakup of the USSR in December 1991 and the collapse in demand for
Kazakhstan's traditional heavy industry products resulted in a
short-term contraction of the economy, with the steepest annual
decline occurring in 1994. In 1995-97, the pace of the government
program of economic reform and privatization quickened, resulting in
a substantial shifting of assets into the private sector. Kazakhstan
enjoyed double-digit growth in 2000-01 - 9% or more per year in
2002-05 - thanks largely to its booming energy sector, but also to
economic reform, good harvests, and foreign investment. The opening
of the Caspian Consortium pipeline in 2001, from western
Kazakhstan's Tengiz oilfield to the Black Sea, substantially raised
export capacity. Kazakhstan also has begun work on an ambitious
cooperative construction effort with China to build an oil pipeline
that will extend from the country's Caspian coast eastward to the
Chinese border. The country has embarked upon an industrial policy
designed to diversify the economy away from overdependence on the
oil sector by developing light industry. The policy aims to reduce
the influence of foreign investment and foreign personnel. The
government has engaged in several disputes with foreign oil
companies over the terms of production agreements; tensions
continue. Upward pressure on the local currency continued in 2005
due to massive oil-related foreign-exchange inflows.
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$125.3 billion (2005 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate):
$47.39 billion (2005 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
9.5% (2005 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$8,300 (2005 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 6.7% industry: 38.6% services: 54.7% (2005 est.)
Labor force: 7.85 million (2005 est.)