Annual Speech by President of Kazakhstan Sets Ten-Year Targets February 9, 2011

In the annual address to the Nation, the President of Kazakhstan,  Nursultan Nazarbayev, set out  his vision for the countries continued economic growth.

If you follow Kazakhstan’s economic plans like we do, the targets President Nazarbayev has laid out look to build on the strong momentum the economy has experienced coming out of the financial crisis.

Speaking of Kazakhstan’s economic development, Nazarbayev said its record since independence 19 years ago offers a great promise for the future. In 1994, Kazakhstan’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was slightly above $700, while today it has approached $9,000, a 12-fold increase. “We had planned to reach such a level only by 2015,” Nazarbayev said. “International experience shows that in their first 20 years of independence, no other country was able to do that.”

President Nursultan Nazarbayev outlined major priorities for the country’s development for both 2011 and the coming decade in his recent State of the Nation address.

Visor Capital summarized some of the key points in a recent note issued to its subscribers, which includes:

Target of 30% higher GDP; Refresh of existing utility systems; Reform of science and education to provide incentives for innovative activities, while increasing the quality and affordability of education; Encourage production through loans; Domestic and foreign investments in non-resource industries to increase by 30%

Visor Capital Issues 6% GDP Forecast for Kazakhstan in 2011 January 25, 2011

Visor Capital, a Kazakhstan investment bank and research house, recently updated their GDP outlook for 2011. The firm  notes that while the government has a conservative outlook of 4-5% real GDP growth, Visor is forecasting 6% growth for the year.  Visor maintains that growth will “remain mostly driven by the oil and mining industries, rather than by the production of manufactured goods.

Prime Minister Karim Massimov announced earlier this month that Kazakh 2010 economic growth hit 7 percent

In a related report from Reuters, the wire service notes that:

“Kazakhstan’s resource-driven economy, among the first and hardest hit by the global financial crisis, rebounded last year as oil prices rose and some of its banks completed billion-dollar debt restructuring programmes.

Central Asia’s largest economy has expanded by an average 9 percent annually over the last decade, although growth slowed sharply in 2008 and 2009 as the crisis took hold.

The government expects GDP growth to have reached around 7 percent in 2010.”

Alhambra featured in one of China’s leading business publications January 10, 2011

On a recent trip to China ahead of the New Year, Alhambra’s Vice President & CIO Ihor Wasylkiw, had an opportunity to meet with the editors at one of China’s leading financial and business publishers, Caixin Media Group. The article is posted online in Mandarin on Caixin’s financial news portal.  For those not able to read Chinese, we’ve translated the full article into English below:

Major Factors that Determine Gold Price

By Arina Tian

Gold prices have recently dropped as the U.S. Dollar appreciated after positive economic news from the Euro zone and the U.S. In Europe, Ireland’s parliament approved a multi-billion euro EU/IMF bailout package where European Union (EU) leaders have agreed to create a permanent financial safety net starting from 2013, and the European Central Bank also vowed to combat the debt crisis. In U.S., the latest CPI and manufacturing index was positive, while the U.S. Senate passed President Barack Obama’s tax bill. It is also said that the Federal Reserve does not plan on expanding its quantitative easing program.

Gold price and the US Dollar have always had negative correlation. However, an industry expert advises that only by understanding the unique features of gold as a financial instrument and commodity would investors be able to grasp the direction of gold price.

Gold mining rush in China and overseas

Headquartered in Canada’s Alhambra Resources might not compare significantly in terms of its market value with gold giants in China.

But the company’s latest growth momentum was remarkable, riding on its promising gold mining resources in Kazakhstan, where already four potential mining strips harbor relatively high quality reserves.  Alhambra’s share price has appreciated substantially from C20 cents to C$1 in about half-a-year during H2 this year. (more…)