ASTANA, October 21 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan has applied for 2009 presidency in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and expects to join the WTO next year, the Kazakh leader said Friday.

"Kazakhstan's application for the OSCE presidency will be a test for both Kazakhstan and the OSCE in terms of acknowledging our country's obvious achievements in political and market reforms," said Nursultan Nazarbayev, the leader of the oil-rich Central Asian republic.

He said Kazakhstan's bid for the OSCE presidency was also an attempt to contribute to the development of the organization that had virtually become Eurasian.

Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan remained committed to democratic values promoted by the OSCE, including human rights and civil society based on partnership and mutual respect.

Nazarbayev thanked countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose union of former Soviet republics, for their support in the bid, and said Kazakhstan's presidency in the OSCE would boost socioeconomic reforms in Central Asia as a whole.

Nazarbayev also said Kazakhstan would join the World Trade Organization next year.

This "will open access for [domestic] goods and services to WTO member countries and encourage domestic producers to take up international business standards," Nazarbayev said.

He said the republic had already signed WTO agreements with the majority of its member states.

"Kazakhstan's accession to the WTO is backed by the United States, and the European Union. We have now to sign agreements with just a few countries, and I ask their ambassadors to support our ambition," the president said.

He said Kazakhstan would be one of the top 50 competitive economies in the second decade of the 21st century. The republic already holds the 61st position in the World Economic Forum's competitiveness rankings, above all the other CIS countries.

Nazarbayev thanked international financial institutions, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, for assistance in market reforms, and said the republic would continue cooperation with them.

Nazarbayev said the republic's average annual economic growth had been 9-10% in the past seven years. He said the budget topped $10 billion, foreign trade had quadrupled, and per capita GDP tripled in 1999-2005.

He said Kazakhstan's fuel and energy development program would help the republic produce up to 150 million metric tons of oil by 2015, and thereby join the top ten oil producers in the world.

Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan would honor its commitments and would not review deals with foreign oil companies unilaterally.

"We also expect our foreign partners to comply with the terms of contracts, namely in social and environmental programs," he said.