Nazarbayev: Kazakhstan started from scratch

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Head of State Nursultan Nazarbayev recalled the first years of Kazakhstan's Independence during the TV project entitled "How the history was made" on Friday, Kazinform correspondent reports.

"We started from scratch. There was nothing: no state, no institutes, no money. Enterprises put a halt on their activities due to broken ties [with the Soviet Union countries]. The enterprises couldn't export their products and, hence, had no money to buy raw materials. Agricultural complex was also brought to a halt and we had no idea in which direction to move. We had to start from scratch, we had to do something," Nursultan Nazarbayev said.

The Kazakh leader reminded that the situation in early 1990s was very difficult, "We needed to find the way out. We had no foreign policy, no defense industry and no program to follow. We had nothing," the President added.