The Public Policy Research Center at Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research (KIMEP) in Almaty, Kazakhstan was established in September 1998. The Center is KIMEP’s think tank aimed at stimulating research, contributing to disciplinary knowledge, building potential within the local faculty and student body, and serving as a research link to other institutions in Central Asia and abroad.

The central objectives of the Center are to conduct survey studies on social, economic and political issues; organize conferences and seminars on national, regional and international levels; and establish collaborative research projects with foreign research centers. In its one and a half years of operation, the Center has held more than ten symposiums, conferences and forums devoted to various aspects of Kazakhstani life. These events were attended by diplomatic guests including US Ambassador Richard Jones and OSCE Ambassador Ulrich Schoning, as well as top representatives of international organizations, local governments, Kazakhstani institutions of higher education, foreign and local banks.

Last year the Center accomplished a research project on local government. Currently it is engaged in an USAID funded one-year project on the social and economic situation in the Republic of Tajikistan. As a result of its work, the Research Center has produced a number of publications. The Center’s trilingual New Lexicon Dictionary, includes concepts, theories, key words for Social Sciences, Public Administration and Public Policy in English, Russian and Kazakh.

The Central Asian Journal of Economics, Management and Social Research is the only English language periodical publication of this kind in the region. It includes 14 articles by Central Asian, and foreign authors on legal, managerial, business, economics, religious, educational, and political issues. Presently, the Center is in the process of collecting articles for the next issue of the Journal, which is anticipated by July 15, 2000. We welcome authors to submit papers on management, economic, political, social issues related to the Central Asia. The Center would be pleased to re-publish any excellent articles on these topics.

Dr. Raisa A. Ayazbekova, Coordinator, Public Policy Research Center at KIMEP