Turkestan Sees Little Economic Growth Despite Massive Investment

Bank employee Alibek Zhaksylykov analyzed how much state funding has been allocated to Turkestan in recent years and what impact it has had, Orda.kz reports.

On March 3, the President of Kazakhstan signed the law "On the Special Status of the City of Turkestan," officially recognizing it as the country’s spiritual, historical, cultural, and tourist center.

According to an Orda reader, nearly 5 trillion tenge has been funneled into the region from the national budget over the past five years — essentially creating a "second Astana."

Annual allocations:

• 2020 – 766 billion tenge
• 2021 – 794 billion tenge
• 2022 – 939 billion tenge
• 2023 – 1,203 billion tenge
• 2024 – 1,246 billion tenge
• 2025 (planned) – 1,103 billion tenge 

This means the budget for just one region rivals the combined budgets of four others.

Despite this massive investment, the region — one of the country's most densely populated and economically disadvantaged  — has seen little to no improvement in living standards.

Over the past five years, the Turkestan region has remained more economically disadvantaged, with an average salary of 280,000 tenge, far below the national average of 382,000 tenge. Other regions with similarly low wages— North Kazakhstan, Jambyl, and Qyzylorda — haven’t received trillions in continuous investment.

Zhaksylykov also examined construction in Turkestan. In 2023, the region saw the completion of just 0.9 million square meters of new housing—only 5% of the 17.5 million square meters built nationwide.

For comparison, the Aqtobe region saw 1.3 million square meters of new housing, while the Qyzylorda region added 0.6 million square meters. In other words, Turkestan isn’t experiencing any record-breaking construction. So the big question remains — where did all these trillions of tenge go? Meanwhile, people in Almaty and Astana have only seen the so-called 'Styrofoam Venice' on the news. Alibek asked.

Original Author: Raushan Korzhumbekova