Kazakhstan's oil does not belong to Kazakhstan, it is owned by the West — expert

Kazakhstan's oil does not belong to Kazakhstan. It is owned by the USA, Britain and the EU. This was stated by Petr Svoik, an economist from Almaty, in an interview with the Asia Today portal.

"Here is our oil, but it is not really ours, it is American-British-European oil, it is produced by foreign consortia at our Tengiz, Kashagan and Karachaganak is swinging, by the way, through the CPC oil pipeline through Russia," the expert said.

He added that energy resources produced by foreign consortia are exported at transfer prices. This, according to him, means that, firstly, only that part of the money that is needed for foreign miners is returned to the country. And secondly, the main oil sales transactions take place outside Kazakhstan.

"Therefore, foreign companies do not pay taxes and fees in the republic. Although they are present here to extract oil," the expert further said.

According to the expert, precisely because the economy of Kazakhstan is based on the export-raw material model, Astana's attempt to become an international financial hub failed.

"Smart glass buildings have been built in the capitals for financial centers, but the republic has not become an international financial hub. It's like trying to open a store in the desert where there are no customers," Svoik said about this.

According to him, foreign miners physically enter Kazakhstan because they need to mine. While foreign international financial companies do not need to be present in the republic.

"If all such foreign economic activity is carried out outside the national jurisdiction, then there is simply nothing for finance to do inside this very international one. In general, speaking between us, I am amazed at the naivety of our high-ranking leaders, who, after all, are not deceiving anyone, they are deceiving themselves, trying to build some of their financial hubs inside such an economy and investing huge resources in it," the specialist continued.

He added that Kazakh politicians and economists have been taught that such an approach to the economy is the only way to develop.

"But in fact it's just pumping resources out of the country," Svoik concluded.