Nearest stage of global development to be extremely difficult: Nazarbayev

Nursultan Nazarbayev has shared an opinion that the world will soon face hard times, Tengrinews reports citing the President's speech at last week's Nur Otan party meeting. "My political intuition and experience tell me that the nearest stage of the global development will be extremely difficult. Amid such conditions, Kazakhstan citizens should value their stability and predictability of our country's development," Nazarbayev said. To support his point of view he referred to the recent report of the UN General Secretary. "The UN Secretary General has released a report saying that by 2050 50 percent of the world's population will be experiencing severe shortage of water. Around 800 million people of the Earth are living in extreme poverty, 1.5 billion people have less then two dollars a day to sustain them. Around 40 million children die of starvation every year. The Middle East has already started experiencing the Arab Anti-Spring. Almost a year of Islamist regime was enough for citizens of Egypt and Tunisia to see the dead-endedness of the policies. The civil war in Syria ended up in the use of chemical weapons of mass distraction against defenseless and innocent people," Nazarbayev said. Against this backdrop, Kazakhstan is enjoying a stable development and expected to finish this year with 6 percent GDP growth. "This is a high growth rate in the today's world. And this is more that we had last year, in spite of the volatility of the global markets that are hindering us," President Nazarbayev said. By Renat Tashkinbayev