Kazakh youth optimistic about economic future

Speaking about today's young people compared when he was in school, Ambassador Umarov said, "When we are talking about young people, I think they are absolutely different from those who were brought up during the Soviet Union, because they are more pragmatic, more ambitious. They are focused on economic prosperity." The day's discussion was keynoted by Ambassador Richard Hoagland, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs of the U.S. State Department. Panel participants included Sayasat Nurbek, director of the Institute for Public Policy, Pavel Koktyshev, CEO and cofounder of the Young Entrepreneurs Club, Azamat Junisbai of Pitzer College and Serik Beysembayev of the Sociological Centre Strategy in Almaty, The Astana Times reports.

Azamat Junisbai, Presenting, for the first time, data collected in public opinion surveys held in 2007 and 2012-2013 in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Junisbai highlighted that a young generation more optimistic about their future and more trusting of government and other large public institutions, including banks, higher education and the judicial system. Young people just aren't that interested in politics, Beysembayev reported. Only one in five, his research found, regularly checks into political processes, primarily urban Kazakh youth. Democracy, however, was not as highly rated a value as independence, justice, personal security and freedom. However, his research found young Kazakhs feel the country should forge its own path. Forty percent of those polled said Kazakhstan should look up to no one, but go its own way.