| About a quarter of Kazakhstan's workers are farmers
and herders. They produce wheat, cotton, wool, meat and milk. Another quarter
of the workforce is employed in industry. Kazakhstan's factories produce
petroleum products, steel, farm machinery, fertilizer, electric motors
and construction materials. Kazakhstan also has rich deposits of coal,
iron, copper, nickel and other minerals and important oil and gas reserves.
Among the many metals Kazakhstan produces are bismuth, cadmium and thalium.
They are essential to high-tech industries such as electronics, nuclear
engineering and rocketry. |
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| Workers make leather products and manufacture
clothing from wool and astrakhan (curly lamb's wool). Kazakhstan artisans
also make carpets for export. This tradition comes from the nomadic peoples
who use carpets to line the floors and walls of their tents.
An economic crisis followed the end of Soviet
rule. Prices soared, there were problems harvesting crops, and many skilled
workers emigrated. To help their economy recover, Kazakhstanis began to
permit private ownership of land and businesses. They replaced the Russian
ruble with their own currency, the tenge. Foreign investment in Kazakhstan's
resource industries has brought more money into the country. Inflation
has slowed down, more people are able to find jobs, and the economy has
improved. However, unemployment remains high. |
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Did you know? |
| The
Russian space program is based at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Kazakhstan.
The Soviet Union was first to send into space a satellite, a lunar probe,
astronauts (the first man in space in 1961 and the first woman two years
later) and a space station. Russia still runs the centre, but pays rent
for it to Kazakhstan. |
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