They’ve also been working on building/fostering an innovation hub in the capital, Astana. A “free trade” zone, of sorts, where Western property and business law

They’ve also been working on building/fostering an innovation hub in the capital, Astana. A “free trade” zone, of sorts, where Western property and business law applies in order to attract talent & encourage investment. My understanding is they’re hoping to be a “market” for startups between East and West similar to Singapore or Hong Kong. They want to attract talent from China and Russia who can then fundraise from the West who will (presumably) be more interested in investing in a lower-risk jurisdiction that uses a familiar legal system. I’m not sure it’s quite as easy to just “use” Western law as Kazakhstan seems to think. The black letter law doesn’t matter so much as how it’s interpreted and whether it’s consistently applied in court. It’s an interesting idea, though. And if they can get it off the ground it seems like a good strategy to take advantage of their unique geo-political position.