Kazakhstan signed a cooperation agreement on January 22 with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The pact aims to make the Kazakhstani economy more efficient, and provide a boost to Astana’s ambitions of becoming a global economic player.
Meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Kazakhstani Prime Minister Karim Massimov and OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria signed a memorandum of understanding to launch a Country Cooperation Program. The event signaled the start of a process that officials in Astana quietly hope will lead to Kazakhstan’s admission as a full member of the OECD.
“This agreement confirms our national intention to implement the best practice reform model developed by OECD member-nations,” Massimov was quoted as saying in a written statement. “This will help Kazakhstan achieve its long-term goal of becoming one of the world’s 30 most advanced nations by the year 2050.”
The OECD is a club of 34 prosperous nations dedicated to strengthening market mechanisms, solidifying public financing structures and practices, fostering innovation and ensuring dynamic labor markets. Member states are also expected to embrace civil society concepts. “The common thread of our work is a shared commitment to market economies backed by democratic institutions and focused on the wellbeing of all citizens,” reads the OECD’s mission statement. .
The democratization aspect of the OECD’s mission could create dilemmas for Kazakhstan, which has a moved in an authoritarian direction over the past decade. An OECD review conducted in late 2014 recommended that Kazakhstan needed to decentralize decision-making authority, implement reforms to promote transparency and improve coordinating mechanisms among governmental agencies.
The cooperation agreement between Kazakhstan and the OECD comes at a time when Astana is experiencing a rising level of economic stress, due primarily to the fall in global energy prices. Of late, speculation has mounted that the country’s economic woes will force another devaluation of the national currency, the tenge.
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