Economic Development Strategies of Major Central Asian Countries and Their Implications for Korea

Abstract

Amid global economic uncertainties arising from prolonged oil prices, China’s economic slowdown, and increased protectionist US trade policies, the Central Asian governments are developing and pursuing individual economic development strategies which reflect their own socio-economic characteristics and key policy goals. Central Asia’s three resource-rich countries, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, have several common obstacles threatening further economic growth: inadequate transportation and logistics networks due to land-locked locations, high dependency on primary commodity exports, among others. Thus their economic development strategies aim to pro-mote economic diversification for sustainable growth. The purpose of this study is to focus on Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, analyzing the new economic development strategies of these countries, and to discover opportunities and demand for economic cooperation.