"Dvesti," or 200, is a magic word for traveling to any part of the city. With 200 Tenge, or $1.50, you could flag any car and go anywhere. Top officials, even CEOs of some companies traveling in swank cars do not mind extra cash on their way to work or returning home.

Despite the independence from the Soviet Union, some of the Communist element is still prevalent. The cab fare is the same whether you take a ride aboard a shaky Russian made Lada car or a BMW or a Benz.

The public cars as cabs system is not driven by the lack of public transportation facilities but the natural urge of Kazakhs to leave no chance to make that extra bit of cash.

Every car on the Almaty streets can be used as a cab and that is leading more and more people to buy cars. After all, there are not many places in the world where you buy a car and do not have to worry about the gas money.

Almaty, formerly known as Alma-ata, or city of apples, is fast turning out to be a concrete jungle with high rise buildings mushrooming all over the town. The space is shrinking while the economy is growing.

"Not long ago this city used to look like an orchard," said Askar Elemesov, the Deputy Governor of Kazakhstan's National Bank.

While the citizen in Elemesov rues the loss of green belt, the banker in him is happy to see the pace of growth of the nation that won its independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

"We (Kazakhstan) have done extremely well as compared to other Stans in the neighborhood," he told United Press International in an interview. "We have one third of Central Asia's population and three fourths of its natural resources," he said.

The GDP of Kazakhstan is 41 billion dollar, which is more than the combined GDP of the four other Stans and also more than the combined GDP of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Kazakhstan is world's 13th largest oil producer in the world and among the top 10 producers of Zinc and among 20 top producers of silver.

Several oil majors have invested in the country's energy sector that swelled its foreign direct investment kitty to $30 billion.

And to prove its largesse, Kazakhstan is considering sending aid to its beleaguered poor neighbor Kyrgyzstan that saw a political turmoil last month that changed the government.

With the economy growing at the behest of booming energy sector, the banking sector is not far behind. People have overcome the fear of putting money in the bank following the collapse of Soviet Union and banks registered a 50 percent growth rate over the last year.

Consumer loans have grown by more than 100 percent in the last year, Elemesov said with a beaming smile on his face.

He is proud of the performance of local banks that have edged out foreign banks like ABN-Amro and Citibank to below top 10 banks.

Elemesov said that Kazakhstan is aware of its depleting oil reserves and it is one of the 15 nations/states to have the non renewable natural resources fund which has about $5.1 billion in reserves. Each year we put some cash into this fund to meet an eventuality," he said in his office at Almaty.

Despite being landlocked and surrounded by China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Russia, Kazakhstan's exports are increasing. The trade balance is also in favor of the natural resources rich country.

The exports last year were worth $21 billion as compared to $13.5 billion of imports.

Buoyed by the statistics provided by the National Bank, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev is unfazed by the revolutions against the governments in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan in recent months.

He has blamed the revolutions on the poor economy of those nations.

Although Nazarbayev too has ruled the country with an iron hand, but he claims that the dividends of the rich and vast natural resources of the nation have been passed on to his people, making Kazakhstan what he called a "model country."

Although the oil-rich Kazakhstan doesn't have the advantage of geographical proximity to Europe like Ukraine, it has gradually made inroads with its closer ties with European nations that have invested in its growing economy.

Nazarbayev told a recent gathering at the fourth Eurasian Media Forum that the radical market reforms has hiked the per capita GDP of Kazakhstan from over $700 a decade ago to $2700 by the end of last year.

But some common people say that the life of urban people have changed dramatically and people in Kazakh villages continue to reel under poverty and unemployment.

"The situation is quite different in the villages," an oil industry worker Galiya Sharipova said, adding that people have a comfortable life in Almaty, Astana and Atyrau but life in the countryside is tough.

But Nazarbayev has pledged the country's over 15 million people that by year 2010, the per capita GDP would be $5800 making it first post Soviet Union nation to reach at par with Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Malaysia.

All rights reserved. � 2005 United Press International. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by United Press International. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of United Press International.

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