ASTANA, June 8 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan will double its gross domestic product in 2008 as compared with 2000, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said Thursday.
The Central Asian republic's huge mineral reserves have allowed its economy to grow dynamically over the last few years, which the long-running leader said would allow the ambitious objective to be accomplished.
"High rates of economic growth allow us to plan that GDP in 2008 will be double what it was in 2000," Nazarbayev told an investment forum in the commercial capital, Almaty.
"The annual growth of Kazakhstan's economy averaged 10% in the last five years," he said, adding that the country had attracted more than 80% of foreign investment in Central Asia.
Kazakhstan's GDP grew 9.4% in 2005 and the country's deputy economics minister said earlier that average annual GDP growth for 2007-2009 would be 8.8%.
Nazarbayev highlighted an upward trend in attraction of direct foreign investment (FDI), adding that over 60 countries now invested in Kazakhstan's booming economy.
"Aggregate direct foreign investment since 1993 is approaching $50 billion," Nazarbayev said. "In 2003 about $5 billion was attracted, while in 2005 investment rose by 50%."
He added that the U.S., the Netherlands, the U.K., Italy, and China were leading investors, and that domestic investment had also been shooting up.
"In 2005 alone the figure for fixed capital investment stood at about $20 billion. In the first four months of this year it grew by 30%," Nazarbayev said, adding that the country's good economic record had been a result of joint efforts by the government and the private sector.
