KISI announced 10 challenges and trends expected in CA in 2016

ASTANA. KAZINFORM Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies forecasts 10 challenges and trends for Central Asian in 2016. According to experts, all of them are of key importance for ensuring political and economic development, stability and security in the region.

“At the beginning of the year, the majority of economic structures is used to announce their forecasts regarding the areas they are specializing in. By tradition, we have also decided to present our forecast for year 2016,” Director of the Institute Erlan Karin said at the roundtable meeting on “Central Asia 2016: Trends and Challenges.”

According to him, the idea and objective of such forecasts is to orient the population towards the main themes of the year and to concentrate their attention on those representing certain interest.

Among the main challenges is deterioration of global markets conjuncture and economic slowdown in Central Asian region.

The second one is search for new ways of economic interaction in the Eurasian space. The third one is expansion of investment presence of China in Central Asia. The fourth challenge is update of Afghan factor in the context of the Syrian conflict. The sixth expectation is activation of the CA countries’ efforts in regional security sphere. The seventh one is entering of the Central Asian countries the regular electoral cycle. The eighth trend is a new stage in development of the regional transport and energy projects. The ninth one is return of Iran to regional processes and the tens one is the voting in regard to election of Kazakhstan as the UNSC non-permanent member in 2017.

“These are the main challenges and trends to be in spotlight in 2016, in our opinion. This forecast is expected to be of interest both for Kazakhstani and CA experts,” said Karin.