Kazakhstan Parliament Approves Creation Of Military Industry Fund

Officials from Kazakhstan have announced the government’s intent to launch a state-run fund that will allow Astana to boost the defense capabilities of what is Central Asia’s largest country and the Caspian region’s third largest economy.

“The activities of the fund are expected to boost defense industry exports, to attract investors and modern technologies, as well as to ink deals with foreign companies, including those providing for the transfer of technology,” Beibut Atamkulov, the Minister of Defense and Aerospace Industry, told journalists last week following a meeting held in the Majlis, or Kazakhstan’s parliament.

Shortly before Atamkulov’s statement parliament had given its initial approval to the appropriate bill, but the ministry has not yet revealed when the fund will be established.

“The project is now under consideration …. and the ways to [create and operate the fund] will be discussed for a long time,” Atamkulov said on May 30.

Meanwhile, officials in Astana believe the project may receive funding at the expense of money earned from the country’s selling its unused military property that remained there since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The vast steppes of Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic, were once used to station some of the USSR’s most powerful army units, nuclear weapons and space projects. After 1991, the government of an independent Kazakhstan vowed to get rid of nuclear weapon, while other non-nuclear arsenals went unused.

“So far, this is the only thing that we can offer,” the minister said regarding ways to raise money for the fund.

Earlier this year, Kazakhstan’s finance ministry revealed the country has increased its military spending up 20 percent from last year. Expenditures totaled roughly $250 million in January-February 2018. The military strength of the country was ranked 50 among 136 countries according to the 2018 Global Firepower rankings, making it the second strongest in the Central Asia region, behind Uzbekistan.

Kazakhstan’s army is equipped with 300 tanks, 744 artillery units, 393 missile launchers, 214 military aircraft, 15 military naval vessels and 18 combat helicopters, according to a report issued by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Eighty percent of Kazakhstani military-technical purchases are imported from Russia, which is considered the second-largest military power in the world, after the U.S. In recent years, Kazakhstan purchased Russian-made lightweight MiG-29 fighters, Su-25 attack aircraft, Su-27 and Su-30MK fighters, IL-76 military transport planes and Mi-8/17 helicopters, BTR-80 armored personnel carriers and the BTR-80A.

Meanwhile, experts from Kazakhstan are working hard to develop a home-grown military industrial base.

Last month domestic defense companies, such as the state-run Kazakhstan Engineering and Tynys Company, showcased Kazakhstan’s latest military technologies during KADEX-2018, a four-day international exhibition of weapons systems and military equipment. Exhibits included an armored wheeled vehicle called Alan, which has high ballistic protection and can reach speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour. The Barys 8x8 armored wheel vehicle can reach speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour and carry a payload of nearly seven tons.

Following the exhibition, officials from Kazakhstan signed nearly 20 agreements with foreign aerospace and defense companies such as French Tales, Turkish Otokar and Polish Wtorplast.