About Kazakhstan
The Republic of Kazakhstan is a nation situated in the middle of Eurasia, lying partially both in Europe and Asia, with Asian part being the largest; Kazakhstan is surrounded by the Caspian Sea, Lower Volga Basin, Ural, Siberia, China and Central Asia.
Date of Independence | December 16, 1991 (from USSR) |
Official Languages | Kazakh — state language, Russian — official language |
Capital City | Astana |
Major Cities | Astana, Almaty, Shymkent, Karaganda, Aktobe, Pavlodar, Taraz, |
Form of Government | Presidential republic |
Area | World’s 9th Total: 2,724,902 km² % water: 1.50% |
Deserts constitute the largest part of the territory — 44%, while semideserts amount to 14% of the land area. 26% of the Kazakhstan land is steppes, and 5.5% is forests. There are 8.5 thousand rivers in Kazakhstan.
Republic of Kazakhstan is an industrial nation, with mining being one of its primary drivers of economic growth. The mineral resource base of the country consists of over 5,000 deposits, with the forecast cost of dozens of trillions of US dollars. Worldwide, Kazakhstan is ranked first in the world in terms of discovered zinc, tungsten and barite deposits; ranked second in discovered silver, lead and chromites; third in copper and fluorite; fourth in molybdenum, and sixth in gold deposits.
Kazakhstan also possesses considerable amounts of oil and natural gas, found in the western provinces of the country. Today, the Republic is considered among the leading
Over the period of independence, Kazakhstan has managed to raise 150 billion US dollars in foreign investments, which amounts to 70% of total investments raised in Central Asia.
Kazakhstan’s foreign trade turnover in 2011 totaled at 125 billion dollars. The nation’s primary exported goods are provided by the mining,