• Provide the financial resources needed to elevate the level of scientific research in Kazakhstan to an internationally competitive level in selected areas of particular promise.¹⁵

The government recognizes that in the near term the interest of government-owned and private enterprises in the products and services of local S&T institutions will be limited. When they need such products or services, they will usually look abroad for well-proven products or services. Therefore, the government intends to select priority areas for support that will enable local S&T institutions to develop the capabilities to complement the flow of technologies from abroad with technologies that are also of interest to the enterprises that have been developed locally.

In short, the government seems to recognize the importance of taking advantage of imported technologies while building an indigenous S&T infrastructure that increasingly provides homegrown technologies. Details of how this approach is carried out are described throughout the remainder of this report.

As to basic research, which should be an essential component of the educational process and the foundation for applied activities, the situation in Kazakhstan in many fields lags behind international developments. This topic is addressed in subsequent chapters.