Kazaks Gain Tajik Foothold
Kazaks Gain Tajik Foothold
Kazakstan’s growing economic presence in Tajikistan is all part of its master plan to become a regional leader, Tajik analysts say.
On March 27, the Kazak state communications company Kazaktelecom opened an office in Dushanbe, and the following day the Tajik president received representatives from Samruk, the company that manages Kazakstan’s state assets.
Analysts interviewed by NBCentralAsia in Tajikistan say these events reflect Kazakstan’s growing influence on the Tajik economy. Trade between the two countries went up by 14 per cent last year, reaching 214 million US dollars.
Several large Kazak companies are active in Tajikistan’s mining, banking and communications industries, and in supplying the Tajiks with Kazak grain. Discussions about Kazak investments in small hydroelectric power stations are currently under way.
According to economist Hojimuhammad Umarov, Kazakstan’s supply of aluminium oxide to plants in Tajikistan will strengthen the two countries’ economic ties even further. Aluminium oxide is the raw material processed at Tajikistan’s giant aluminium plant, one of its most important biggest industries.
Umarov says economic relations between the two countries can only get stronger, so that Kazakstan may soon become one of Tajikistan’s most important economic partners.
A diplomatic source at Kazakstan’s embassy in Dushanbe took a similar line, noting that a new development strategy unveiled by President Nursultan Nazarbaev a fortnight ago stresses the importance of building up relations with other Central Asian countries.
“Since [Nazarbaev] presented Kazakstan’s new development strategy, several large state companies have been instructed to invest in Tajikistan,” said the source.
An expert from Tajikistan’s Centre for Strategic Studies says that by building up its economic presence, Kazakstan is also pursuing political interests.
“With Kazakstan’s level of development and its ambition to become regional leader, it does not want its neighbours to be at all unstable,” he says. “Kazakstan will try to consolidate its position in Tajikistan in order to influence domestic events.”
Political scientist Parviz Mullojanov says that Kazakstan may seek to use its economic advantage to get the Tajiks to side with it within regional multilateral organisations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Eurasian Economic Community.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
On March 27, the Kazak state communications company Kazaktelecom opened an office in Dushanbe, and the following day the Tajik president received representatives from Samruk, the company that manages Kazakstan’s state assets.
Analysts interviewed by NBCentralAsia in Tajikistan say these events reflect Kazakstan’s growing influence on the Tajik economy. Trade between the two countries went up by 14 per cent last year, reaching 214 million US dollars.
Several large Kazak companies are active in Tajikistan’s mining, banking and communications industries, and in supplying the Tajiks with Kazak grain. Discussions about Kazak investments in small hydroelectric power stations are currently under way.
According to economist Hojimuhammad Umarov, Kazakstan’s supply of aluminium oxide to plants in Tajikistan will strengthen the two countries’ economic ties even further. Aluminium oxide is the raw material processed at Tajikistan’s giant aluminium plant, one of its most important biggest industries.
Umarov says economic relations between the two countries can only get stronger, so that Kazakstan may soon become one of Tajikistan’s most important economic partners.
A diplomatic source at Kazakstan’s embassy in Dushanbe took a similar line, noting that a new development strategy unveiled by President Nursultan Nazarbaev a fortnight ago stresses the importance of building up relations with other Central Asian countries.
“Since [Nazarbaev] presented Kazakstan’s new development strategy, several large state companies have been instructed to invest in Tajikistan,” said the source.
An expert from Tajikistan’s Centre for Strategic Studies says that by building up its economic presence, Kazakstan is also pursuing political interests.
“With Kazakstan’s level of development and its ambition to become regional leader, it does not want its neighbours to be at all unstable,” he says. “Kazakstan will try to consolidate its position in Tajikistan in order to influence domestic events.”
Political scientist Parviz Mullojanov says that Kazakstan may seek to use its economic advantage to get the Tajiks to side with it within regional multilateral organisations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Eurasian Economic Community.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
