Germany’s future in Central Asia’s boom market will be decided in the lecture hall Kazakhstan is the gateway to a growth region, yet Germany lacks knowledge of it. Those who invest in talent gain networks and markets. Those who wait fall behind. Berlin needs to act.
On Monday, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has arrived in Germany. Interest is high, since Kazakhstan is becoming one of Germany’s most important economic partners. Knowledge about the country has barely kept pace. Some would call it typically German. We discover new markets, debate billion-euro projects and know surprisingly little about the countries behind them.
In 2025, the country accounted for more than 80 percent of German trade with Central Asia. The country is evolving from a commodity supplier into a production location and logistics hub, and it is the gateway to a market of more than 80 million people. Yet who in Germany knows Kazakh universities, companies and institutions?
Who speaks the languages, has studied there or has built networks over years? Very few. In Kazakhstan, this gap is increasingly becoming a competitive disadvantage. Too few German students spend extended time in the country, university partnerships remain limited and personal networks are thin.
The result is a shortage of people who know the market from first-hand experience, beyond presentations and statistics. An analysis by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) shows how far the region’s economic weight has already shifted. In the paper “Why Investors Are Turning to Central Asia and Caspian,” published in September 2025, the authors examine the investment potential of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and the Kyrgyz Republic.
Together, the four states have around 70 million inhabitants and an economic output of about $440 billion. Kazakhstan accounts for almost 60 percent of regional GDP. The study also highlights the region’s comparatively well-educated labor pool, with almost seven million workers holding a university degree and a further 11.5 million with vocational or equivalent qualifications.
Konstantin Polunin, the director and partner at BCG and one of the study’s authors, summarized the development to this newspaper last year. “What we are seeing is a lasting structural change,” he said. “Germany underestimates this potential,” Kanat Kozhakhmet, the president of Narxoz University in Almaty, told this newspaper.
“Cooperation between Kazakh and German universities has so far been clearly insufficient.” In his view, universities, internships, research and skilled-worker programs belong much closer to the center of economic relations. “We need to build a roadmap for cooperation,” he said.
Founded in 1963, Narxoz University is one of the nation’s long-established economics universities. For German partners, Kozhakhmet sees potential in joint study and practical programs, resource research, technology projects and the training of technical specialists.
Kazakhstan sends its students into the world His criticism concerns the reach of German universities, whose quality he does not question. German universities, he said, are barely visible at Kazakh schools, at education agencies and in the networks through which families organize study abroad.