The news has come from the Regnum.Ru agency — first deputy director of the Kazakh Institute for Strategic Studies under the Kazakhstan’s President once again voiced the idea of the Central Asian Alliance, which had been earlier repeatedly put forward by N.Nazarbayev.

“It means making all Central Asian countries come to a common denominator. It is not the question of leadership,” he said in particular.

According to the expert, the reasons for integration lay in the area of pragmatism — uniting the labor and trade markets with a view that a shared market would become attractive enough for movement of global goods-and-services and and information flows.

However, one of the main indicators of a market’s attractiveness is the level of foreign direct investments (very low for non-extractive sectors even in Kazakhstan, most booming economy of the region), which in its turn is predetermined by a whole row of political factors — rule of law, judicial independence, separation of powers, counter-corruption and so much more. Bringing five Stans to “a common denominator” - to be recognized appropriate by the developed countries - would be an exceptionally tough challenge.