The 2008 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency (ebook reader 8 inch .txt) 📕

2em">Diplomatic representation from the US:

chief of mission: Ambassador Richard E. HOAGLAND embassy: Ak Bulak 4, Str. 23-22, Building #3, Astana 010010 mailing address: use embassy street address telephone: [7] (7172) 70-21-00 FAX: [7] (7172) 34-08-90

Flag description:

sky blue background representing the endless sky and a gold sun with 32 rays above a soaring golden steppe eagle in the center; on the hoist side is a "national ornamentation" in gold

Economy
Kazakhstan

Economy - overview:

Kazakhstan, the largest of the former Soviet republics in territory, excluding Russia, possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves and plentiful supplies of other minerals and metals. It also has a large agricultural sector featuring livestock and grain. Kazakhstan's industrial sector rests on the extraction and processing of these natural resources. The breakup of the USSR in December 1991 and the collapse in demand for Kazakhstan's traditional heavy industry products resulted in a short-term contraction of the economy, with the steepest annual decline occurring in 1994. In 1995-97, the pace of the government program of economic reform and privatization quickened, resulting in a substantial shifting of assets into the private sector. Kazakhstan enjoyed double-digit growth in 2000-01 - 8% or more per year in 2002-07 - thanks largely to its booming energy sector, but also to economic reform, good harvests, and foreign investment. Inflation, however, jumped to more than 10% in 2007. In the energy sector, the opening of the Caspian Consortium pipeline in 2001, from western Kazakhstan's Tengiz oilfield to the Black Sea, substantially raised export capacity. In 2006 Kazakhstan completed the Atasu-Alashankou portion of an oil pipeline to China that is planned in future construction to extend from the country's Caspian coast eastward to the Chinese border. The country has embarked upon an industrial policy designed to diversify the economy away from overdependence on the oil sector by developing its manufacturing potential. The policy aims to reduce the influence of foreign investment and foreign personnel. The government has engaged in several disputes with foreign oil companies over the terms of production agreements; tensions continue. Upward pressure on the local currency continued in 2007 due to massive oil-related foreign-exchange inflows. Aided by strong growth and foreign exchange earnings, Kazakhstan aspires to become a regional financial center and has created a banking system comparable to those in Central Europe.

GDP (purchasing power parity):

$168.2 billion (2007 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):

$103.8 billion (2007 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:

8.5% (2007 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):

$11,000 (2007 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:

agriculture: 5.8% industry: 39.4% services: 54.8% (2007 est.)

Labor force:

8.229 million (2007 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:

agriculture: 32.2% industry: 18% services: 49.8% (2005)

Unemployment rate:

7.3% (2007 est.)

Population below poverty line:

13.8% (2007)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:

lowest 10%: 3.3% highest 10%: 26.5% (2004 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:

30.4 (2005)

Investment (gross fixed):

30.3% of GDP (2007 est.)

Budget:

revenues: $23.58 billion expenditures: $25.33 billion (2007 est.)

Fiscal year:

calendar year

Public debt:

7.7% of GDP (2007 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):

10.8% (2007 est.)

Central bank discount rate:

11% (31 December 2007)

Stock of money:

$12.74 billion (31 December 2007)

Stock of quasi money:

$25.75 billion (31 December 2007)

Stock of domestic credit:

$43.75 billion (31 December 2007)

Agriculture - products:

grain (mostly spring wheat), cotton; livestock

Industries:

oil, coal, iron ore, manganese, chromite, lead, zinc, copper, titanium, bauxite, gold, silver, phosphates, sulfur, iron and steel; tractors and other agricultural machinery, electric motors, construction materials

Industrial production growth rate:

7.2% (2007 est.)

Electricity - production:

74.93 billion kWh (2007 est.)

Electricity - consumption:

61.81 billion kWh (2006 est.)

Electricity - exports:

3.528 billion kWh (2007 est.)

Electricity - imports:

3.665 billion kWh (2007 est.)

Electricity - production by source:

fossil fuel: 84.3% hydro: 15.7% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (2001)

Oil - production:

1.445 million bbl/day (2007 est.)

Oil - consumption:

243,100 bbl/day (2006 est.)

Oil - exports:

1.236 million bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - imports:

127,600 bbl/day (2005)

Oil - proved reserves:

30 billion bbl (1 January 2008 est.)

Natural gas - production:

27.88 billion cu m (2007 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:

30.58 billion cu m (2007 est.)

Natural gas - exports:

8.1 billion cu m (2007 est.)

Natural gas - imports:

10.8 billion cu m (2007 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:

2.832 trillion cu m (1 January 2008 est.)

Current account balance:

-$7.184 billion (2007 est.)

Exports:

$48.35 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)

Exports - commodities:

oil and oil products 59%, ferrous metals 19%, chemicals 5%, machinery 3%, grain, wool, meat, coal (2001)

Exports - partners:

China 15.5%, Germany 11.5%, Russia 11.2%, Italy 7.2%, France 6.7% (2007)

Imports:

$33.21 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.)

Imports - commodities:

machinery and equipment, metal products, foodstuffs

Imports - partners:

Russia 35.4%, China 22.1%, Germany 8% (2007)

Economic aid - recipient:

$229.2 million (2005)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:

$17.63 billion (31 December 2007 est.)

Debt - external:

$96.36 billion (31 December 2007)

Stock of direct foreign investment - at home:

$40.16 billion (2007 est.)

Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad:

$3.97 billion (September 2007)

Market value of publicly traded shares:

$10.52 billion (2005)

Currency (code):

tenge (KZT)

Currency code:

KZT

Exchange rates:

tenge (KZT) per US dollar - 122.55 (2007), 126.09 (2006), 132.88 (2005), 136.04 (2004), 149.58 (2003)

Communications
Kazakhstan

Telephones - main lines in use:

3.237 million (2007)

Telephones - mobile cellular:

12.588 million (2007)

Telephone system:

general assessment: inherited an outdated telecommunications network from the Soviet era requiring modernization domestic: intercity by landline and microwave radio relay; number of fixed-line connections is gradually increasing and fixed-line teledensity is about 20 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular usage is increasing rapidly and subscriptions now exceed 80 per 100 persons international: country code - 7; international traffic with other former Soviet republics and China carried by landline and microwave radio relay and with other countries by satellite and by the Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic cable; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (2007)

Radio broadcast stations:

AM 60, FM 17, shortwave 9 (1998)

Radios:

6.47 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations:

12 (plus 9 repeaters) (1998)

Televisions:

3.88 million (1997)

Internet country code:

.kz

Internet hosts:

36,417 (2008)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs):

10 (with their own international channels) (2001)

Internet users:

1.901 million (2006)

Transportation
Kazakhstan

Airports:

97 (2007)

Airports - with paved runways:

total: 65 over 3,047 m: 9 2,438 to 3,047 m: 27 1,524 to 2,437 m: 17 914 to 1,523 m: 4 under 914 m: 8 (2007)

Airports - with unpaved runways:

total: 32 over 3,047 m: 4 2,438 to 3,047 m: 6 1,524 to 2,437 m: 6 914 to 1,523 m: 4 under 914 m: 12 (2007)

Heliports:

5 (2007)

Pipelines:

condensate 658 km; gas 11,082 km; oil 10,376 km; refined products 1,095 km (2007)

Railways:

total: 13,700 km broad gauge: 13,700 km 1.520-m gauge (3,700 km electrified) (2006)

Roadways:

total: 91,563 km paved: 83,717 km unpaved: 7,846 km (2006)

Waterways:

4,000 km (on the Ertis ((Irtysh)) River (80%) and Syr Darya ((Syrdariya)) River) (2006)

Merchant marine:

total: 5 by type: petroleum tanker 4, refrigerated cargo 1 (2008)

Ports and terminals:

Aqtau (Shevchenko), Atyrau (Gur'yev), Oskemen (Ust-Kamenogorsk),
Pavlodar, Semey (Semipalatinsk)

Military
Kazakhstan

Military branches:

Ground Forces, Naval Force, Air and Air Defense Forces, Republican
Guard

Military service age and obligation:

18 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service obligation - 2 years; minimum age for volunteers NA (2004)

Manpower available for military service:

males age 16-49: 4,176,731 females age 16-49: 4,219,636 (2008 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:

males age 16-49: 2,871,205 females age 16-49: 3,551,032 (2008 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 145,495 female: 140,149 (2008 est.)

Military expenditures:

0.9% of GDP (Ministry of Defense expenditures) (FY02)

Transnational Issues
Kazakhstan

Disputes - international:

Kyrgyzstan has yet to ratify the 2001 boundary delimitation with Kazakhstan; field demarcation of the boundaries with Turkmenistan commenced in 2005, and with Uzbekistan in 2004; demarcation is scheduled to get underway with Russia in 2007; demarcation with China was completed in 2002; creation of a seabed boundary with Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea remains under discussion; equidistant seabed treaties have been ratified with Azerbaijan and Russia in the Caspian Sea, but no resolution has been made on dividing the water column among any of the littoral states

Refugees and internally displaced persons:

refugees (country of origin): 3,700 (Russia); 508 (Afghanistan) (2007)

Illicit drugs:

significant illicit cultivation of cannabis for CIS markets, as well as limited cultivation of opium poppy and ephedra (for the drug ephedrine); limited government eradication of illicit crops; transit point for Southwest Asian narcotics bound for Russia and the rest of Europe; significant consumer of opiates

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008

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@Kenya

Introduction
Kenya

Background:

Founding president and liberation struggle icon Jomo KENYATTA led Kenya from independence in 1963 until his death in 1978, when President Daniel Toroitich arap MOI took power in a constitutional succession. The country was a de facto one-party state from 1969 until 1982 when the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) made itself the sole legal party in Kenya. MOI acceded to internal and external pressure for political liberalization in late 1991. The ethnically fractured opposition failed to dislodge KANU from power in elections in 1992 and 1997, which were marred by violence and fraud, but were viewed as having generally reflected the will of the Kenyan people. President MOI stepped down in December 2002 following fair and peaceful elections. Mwai KIBAKI, running as the candidate of the multiethnic, united opposition group, the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), defeated KANU candidate Uhuru KENYATTA and assumed the presidency following a campaign centered on an anticorruption platform. KIBAKI's NARC coalition splintered in 2005 over the constitutional review process. Government defectors joined with KANU to form a new opposition coalition, the Orange Democratic Movement, which defeated the government's draft constitution in a popular referendum in November 2005. KIBAKI's reelection in December 2007 brought charges of vote rigging from ODM candidate Raila ODINGA and unleashed two months of violence in which as many as 1,500 people died. UN-sponsored talks in late February produced a powersharing accord bringing ODINGA into the government in the restored position of prime minister.

Geography
Kenya

Location:

Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Somalia and
Tanzania

Geographic coordinates:

1 00 N, 38 00 E

Map references:

Africa

Area:

total: 582,650 sq km land: 569,250 sq km water: 13,400 sq km

Area - comparative:

slightly more than twice the size of Nevada

Land boundaries:

total: 3,477 km border countries: Ethiopia 861 km, Somalia 682 km, Sudan 232 km, Tanzania 769 km, Uganda 933 km

Coastline:

536 km

Maritime claims:

territorial sea: 12 nm exclusive economic zone: 200 nm continental shelf: 200 m depth or to the depth of exploitation

Climate:

varies from tropical along coast to arid in interior

Terrain:

low plains rise to central highlands bisected by Great Rift Valley; fertile plateau in west

Elevation extremes:

lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m highest point: Mount Kenya 5,199 m

Natural resources:

limestone, soda ash, salt, gemstones, fluorspar, zinc, diatomite, gypsum, wildlife, hydropower

Land use:

arable land: 8.01% permanent crops: 0.97% other: 91.02% (2005)

Irrigated land:

1,030 sq km (2003)

Total renewable water resources:

30.2 cu km (1990)

Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural):

total: 1.58 cu km/yr (30%/6%/64%) per capita: 46 cu m/yr (2000)

Natural hazards:

recurring drought; flooding during rainy seasons

Environment - current issues:

water pollution from urban and industrial wastes; degradation