Central Asian countries attract investment in transport infrastructure to rebuild the Silk Road paths and enjoy economic benefits from the participation in international trade. The Kazakhstani government approached the Russian and Chinese governments intending to join the Western Europe–Western China (WE–WC) initiative to boost the country’s regional development. The paper aims to assess how the WE–WC transport corridor affected the economic potential of linking cities and regions starting from the quality of transport infrastructure and leading to their export potential. The study’s findings showed that the Kazakhstan section of the WE–WC corridor was at an early stage of transformation from a transport into an economic corridor. While the Russia-Uzbekistan section continues to serve mainly a transit function and operate at the level of transport infrastructure, the China-Kyrgyzstan section has started evolving from the level of multimode transport corridor to the level of logistics corridor. The economic sustainability of the WE–WC linking mining and agricultural regions of Kazakhstan still comes into question and depends on the government’s further region-specific policy actions.

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This book presents the changing roles of urban governments and how local governments struggle to gain administrative, fiscal, and political power to combat current urban challenges in Kazakhstan.Focusing on the cities and regions selected by the national government of Kazakhstan to be the drivers of national economic development, the author analyses the impact of decentralization on the role of local governments. The book examines the practical experiences of city and regional governments with an emphasis on urban planning, public investment in national projects, and management of urban transport. Due to the complexity and irregular distribution of political reforms at different levels of local government in Kazakhstan, three separate studies are presented, each looking at a specific aspect of decentralization reform and local government function related to physical urban development and distribution of public investment. The author argues that, if the national government of Kazakhstan wants to concentrate economic resources in urban agglomerations, it is not enough to assume that local governments are ready to play the role of efficient planners and managers of urban development.A useful analysis illustrating cities and urban conglomerations as engines of growth in economic development, this book will be of interest to academics studying Central Asian Studies, in particular political and economic development, Development Studies, and Urban Studies. List of tables viAcknowledgements viii 1 The changing roles of cities and local governments 1 2 Uncovering administrative, fiscal, and political powers of local governments in Kazakhstan 18 3 Administrative urban struggle: Almaty City versus Almaty Region 42 4 Fiscal challenges facing Nur-Sultan and Almaty: fighting for national projects and transfers 71 5 Clash of local deputies versus local bureaucrats in urban transport development 99 6 Reconsidering the role of local governments in the Central Asian context 121 Index 133 Contents Tables

The main objective of this dissertation is to understand the role of local government in economic development, with a focus on the cities and regions selected by the national government of Kazakhstan to be the drivers of national economic development by the Regional Development Program 2020. The dissertation presents three studies based on qualitative assessment of locally obtained evidence and locally produced data. The first essay examines administrative decentralization and studies how the Almaty city and Almaty region governments failed to use delegated urban planning for the management of urban development. The second essay challenges the fiscal system by exploring how the Almaty and Astana governments struggled to use national transfers provided for the implementation of national projects. The third essay focuses on political decentralization reforms and assesses the capabilities of elected representatives from Almaty, Astana, Shymkent and Aktobe city governments in managing urban transport based on public needs. Together, these three case studies provide a broader picture for understanding the productivity of the implemented administrative, fiscal and political reforms. It argues that the absence of a functioning decentralization strategy is leading to unexpected development outcomes and a lowering of public trust in local and national governments. The main contribution of the three studies is that they allow identification of key institutional weaknesses and obstacles faced by local governments in the management of local development in Kazakhstan.iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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