CIC Special Briefing - Astana: A New Beginning?

A mere three years after the Kazakhstan President announced the decision in parliament, Astana, once a Russian fortress town, replaced Almaty as the capital of Kazakhstan.

There were good reasons for the move. In the words of the President, the old capital was simply in the wrong place. Kazakhstan is a land-locked state covering 2,717,300 sq km (1,049,150 sq miles), an area eight times the size of France but with a population of only 15,000,000 (equivalent to that of Holland). But Almaty is situated in the far South East of the country, near the 1,460-mile border with China, cut off from the industrial and agricultural centres and remote from much of the rapid economic change now occurring. For ordinary Kazakhs living in the western and northern regions of the country, the journey to the capital was prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. Moreover, there was a danger that because of its remoteness, decisions taken in the capital reflected the interests of the bureaucracy rather than of the population as a whole. And there were powerful practical reasons for the decision: Almaty is hemmed in by the Altai mountains, and with a population of 1.5 million there was no longer scope for expansion. Despite their beauty, the mountains also affect the quality of the air.

Described by Mary Hemmingway, wife of the American novelist, Ernest, as the most beautiful city in the world, Almaty will remain the commercial, financial, scientific and cultural centre of Kazakhstan. In order to prevent its decline following the departure of large numbers of public servants, the government is carrying out ambitious plans to give it the special status of a free economic zone, enabling entrepreneurs to develop industry as well as the region's huge potential for tourism and leisure. During 2002, Kazakhstan attracted a record of 3.7 million tourists, who contributed US$2.5 million to the economy, the majority of whom will have visited the country's former capital.

The choice of Astana (formerly called Akmola) meets economic and political, as well as strategic, criteria. Lying at the crossroads of North-South and East-West communications, Astana has trebled its population since its inauguration as capital in 1998. It currently stands at more than 500,000 and is expected to exceed one million by the end of the decade.

Almost a dozen foreign embassies have moved to the new capital, which is undergoing a boom in construction and service industries. This expansion includes top-class hotels, business centres, shopping malls and a large entertainment centre, as well as government offices. Although many may have been reluctant to leave the old capital, and others criticised the move on the grounds of cost, Kazakhs take evident pride in the fact that, for the first time in the country's turbulent history, the choice of capital was made in Kazakhstan.