From ‘small and risky’ to a target for partnership

Kazakhstan’s spectacular financial boom is beginning to attract the attention of European banks, reports Christopher Pala from Almaty.European banks have long perceived Kazakhstan, the largest after Russia of the former Soviet republics, as “too far, too small, too risky”. Five times the size of France with its economic capital, Almaty, close to the Chinese border and as far from Paris as Paris is from New York, Kazakhstan’s population is only 15 million: a small market spread over a huge area, ruled by an authoritarian president unwilling to make the transition to democracy.