Kazakhstan is selling location, location, location--in addition to oil & gas

ASIA: "Kazakhstan's 'New Silk Road': Eyes on the road; Becoming Central Asia's crossroads," The Economist, 15 November 2008.

This piece captures nicely the innate ambition of the place, which I immediately picked up while there last year: the Kazakhs want to be taken very seriously and thus model themselves finely on all things great power-like.

Now the Kazakhs are announcing a true "inter-state" road to link up China and Russia, tapping some Asian Development Bank money as part of an overall $7B package of road improvements.

Nice byproduct to be seen: a reduction of Kazakhstan's stunningly high road casualty rates. Not a lot of hospitals along the Silk Road, so accidents tend to be fatal.