POLITICS

Askar SHOMANOV, Alisher TASTENOV

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Askar Shomanov, Ph.D. (Philos.), First Deputy Director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the First President of the RK Foundation (Almaty, Kazakhstan)

Alisher Tastenov, Leading research associate at the Institute of Strategic Research of Kazakhstan under the President of the RK (Almaty, Kazakhstan)

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In 2006, the post-election sociopolitical lull was short: all the political forces were drawn into the hectic activities around the State Commission on the Development and Specification of the Program for Further Democratic Reforms set up under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan early in the year. The domestic political process mainly rotated around the commission and the measures needed to promote political modernization and transform the country’s party and political expanse. This was accompanied by more active political moves in both the pro-presidential and the opposition camps. Politics became even more public than before and kept the nation in expectation of another round of political reforms, which could not but affect the nature and specifics of the period under discussion.

Two historic events restarted the political process in 2006: on 11 January, Nursultan Nazarbaev was inaugurated as President of the Republic of Kazakhstan; the country also received a new anthem and a new Cabinet.

Soon after that, on 1 March, the head of state presented his annual Address to the Nation, in which he formulated Kazakhstan’s Strategy for Joining the World’s Fifty Most Competitive Countries. The Address outlined several new strategic development trends designed to make the country more competitive on a global scale. The president emphasized the socioeconomic factors and…………..

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