KJCKorea
Journal Central

Kazakhstan's economy growth and business development produced business elite groups since the mid-2000s. These elites can be largely divided into two groups: one that can be viewed as purely civilian group of entrepreneurs and the other that are executives of nationalized companies – bureaucratic business elites in this paper. A group of purely civilian entrepreneurs, in other words financial-industrial group, accumulated big wealth based on the business of oil, gas, metals, minerals and banks and some of them are announced by the journal <Forbes> as world billionaire. Until this year 9 business elites are recorded as world billionaires in Kazakhstan, among them Vladimir Kim of "Kazakhmys" Corporation is the wealthiest. Analyzing these billionaires more minutely, we can find the interrelationship between these wealthy men and the political power – the President. The other business elite group in this paper is leading members of the National Welfare Fund "Samruk-Kazyna". The chairman of the board of directors is Prime Minister of Kazakhstan but the key person is the very Timur Kulibaev who is also <Forbes> billionaire. He occupies the post of Deputy CEO of "Samruk-Kazyna" and gets confidence from the President. All the leading members of the National Fund including 5 ministers concerning economic ministries are appointed by the President, they belong to a friendly group with Nursultan Nazarbaev. In conclusion all the business elites in Kazakhstan today are very close to the President and are associated with political power. Thinking this fact reversely, no one can obtain success in doing business without the aids of the President as far as big business like oil, gas, mineral resources and even financial sectors are concerned.

Kazakhstan, Business Elite, Financial-Industrial Group, Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhmys