Alexei Vlasov. Exclusively to VK
The Kazakhstan agency Rating.KZ published data of a poll which indicates the foreign political priorities of Kazakhstan in the sphere of relations with key partners. Unlike previous research of this agency the expert poll was not conducted, and materials were summed up from open sources.
Three factors were considered: frequency of meetings, mutual turnover, and the investment aspect. The results didn’t bring sensations. The first-second places are traditionally taken by Russian and China. Ii can be told without carrying out any research.
It is interesting that Nursultan Nazarbayev met the Russian authorities most often, but in the sphere of turnover and investments Russia yields its position to China and the Netherlands. However, 3-6 places were difficult to predict.
For example, Ukraine took third place with a great advantage over Germany. Fifth and sixth places were taken by France and the US. Washington achieved this high position due to investment, while France – due to a significant level of turnover.
At the same time, neither Paris nor Washington is presented in top-10 of countries-partners according to number of official meetings. They yield positions not only to the CIS countries, but also to the UAE and even Armenia, as these two countries took fifth and sixth places according to frequency of top officials meetings.
However, here we can see a relevant mismatch. In the final rating Armenia took 32nd place because neither turnover nor investment doesn’t correlate with frequency of meetings (39th and 37th places correspondingly).
Along with Russia and Ukraine such countries of the CIS and Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan got into top-20. Azerbaijan left Italy and Austria behind, even though Austria takes a high position according to turnover with Astana. The rating’s authors note that those countries which President of Kazakhstan visited during the year, for example, Malaysia and Indonesia, are not among leader in turnover, they take 32nd and 33rd places.
At the same time, probably these circumstances cause visits of Kazakhstan’s top management to the country which is called an example of economic modernization (Malaysia), even though Kazakhstan has no common economic interests with it.
Unlike previous rating research based on expert estimations this material seem to be more independent, but more illustrative and systemic. Probably the data would be more interesting if one more aspect is added – social view on countries-partners by Kazakhstan’s residents.
