Multi-dimensional Review of Kazakhstan
Volume 2. In-depth Analysis and Recommendations
Kazakhstan has embarked upon an ambitious reform agenda to realise its aspiration of becoming one of the top 30 global economies by 2050. The country’s economy and society have undergone deep transformations since independence. To sustain economic progress, overcome recent difficulties, and drive improvements in well-being to realise its aspirations, Kazakhstan will need to address a number of challenges to ensure its economy becomes more productive and diverse, and is sufficiently flexible and resilient in the face of an ever-shifting external environment. This next stage of economic transformation will require continuing reforms. This report discusses policy actions to address four key obstacles to development in Kazakhstan, identified in Volume 1 of this review. It presents in-depth analysis and recommendations to improve the economy’s resilience through diversification, to mobilise financing for development, to transform the role of the state in the economy, including through privatisation, and to improve the effectiveness of environmental regulations.
Privatisation and the role of the state in the economy of Kazakhstan
OECD Development Centre
Kazakhstan is in transition from an economy dominated by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to a full market economy. Since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 Kazakhstan has made efforts to reduce, through privatisation programmes, the share of the state in the economy. The current goal is 15% by 2020. Most important industries are organised into large groups of companies owned and managed by independent national managing holdings, with politically powerful people on their boards and in top management. Yet the government has published no ownership policy to manage and reduce the number of SOEs currently under dispersed governance by several ministries. This chapter presents the national managing holdings system of state ownership; their legal framework and governance structure; generic OECD recommendations regarding state ownership and measurement methodology; the privatisation programme under way; and recommendations to meet the set state ownership goal and to strengthen the policies of Kazakhstan in governing its state-owned entities.