Policy Brief Number 4: Kazakhstan’s Contribution to the OSCE Economic Dimension

One of the main factors behind the November 2007 decision to award Kazakhstan the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2010 was to recognize the country’s economic achievements and its economic potential. As OSCE’s chair, Kazakhstan can play a significant role in reinvigorating the organization’s contribution toward addressing the economic and environmental challenges confronting the former Soviet bloc states as well as other OSCE members.

Kazakh officials share the OSCE perspective, embodied in its principles of cooperative and comprehensive security, that an inherent linkage exists between members’ economic conditions and policies and their general regional security. They also believe that Kazakhstan would benefit from greater Eurasian economic integration and the reduction of regional environmental threats.

Kazakhstan’s vast energy wealth and other endowments have already empowered the Kazakh government to promote economic cooperation in Eurasia. The OSCE chairmanship will create additional opportunities for the Kazakh government to pursue its cooperative economic and environmental agenda, which also benefits other OSCE members.