Time for Central Asian economies to end resource dependence - Tokayev

ASTANA. Aug 8 (Interfax) - It is time for Central Asian countries to end their dependence on resources, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said.

"The technological development of our economies is an important task. We should get rid of our resource dependence little by little," Tokayev said in an article titled "Central Asia's Renaissance: On the Path to Sustainable Development and Prosperity," published by the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda newspaper on Thursday.

Digital transformation and the creative industries, which includes media, cinema, music, design, education and information technologies, could serve as points of growth in this context, Tokayev said. Regional countries have good potential for joint projects of this kind.

"A boom in digital and creative industries will promote a gradual transition from the resource economy to smart production. I have no doubt that Central Asian economic cooperation is quite capable of becoming if not the main then one of the key sources of growth for our national economies," Tokayev said.

The joint efforts of the region's countries and strong economic potential are turning Central Asia into a space of vast opportunities in trade, investment, science and innovation, he said.

"The total area of our states is 3,882,000 square kilometers, the population is more than 80 million people, and the combined gross domestic product reaches $450 billion. The region contains about 20% of the world's uranium reserves, 17.2% of oil, and 7% of natural gas. In terms of coal production and electricity generation, Central Asia ranks 10th and 19th in the world, respectively. The complementarity of our economies allows us to ensure their resilience to external shocks and diversify trade and production cycles. Effective implementation of joint economic processes can facilitate this process," Tokayev said.