Tristan

AGRARIAN REFORM OF RUSSIA

The Agrarian Reform in Russia was against communist and foreign investors. For them, a liberal market and the distribution of their land to their own people for them to benefit from it and make it more productive would be one of the key to economic growth. To begin with, they took the first step closer to liberalism which was the land code adopted by the coucil of the federation on their final reading. This code entitles them to buy and sell only 2% of the land in the country, mainly in the cities. Although the communist tried to hinder the bill from becoming a law for they want to endure the “koholz” style of land management wherein they have a lot of benefits, they did not succeed because they lack the ability to do so and thus, it became a law which became their basis of the principle that land can be like any goods in the market which can be freely biught and sold. Another tool that they used to reach their objectives of destroying the economic and social foundations of the communist party and protecting the land against foreign investors was the so-called heirarchic economic structures from which they gain many advantages. These entities, being a private own one, do not depend on the country for funds. It was also exclusively owned by Russians so they won't be betraying their own country. It was also a way of having the support of the government for participation in the countrymen's business without the involvement of the foreigners who were threats for them. Russia also promotes private farming. To enable this, the association of peasant farms and cooperative (AKKOR) developed independent farms by making funds available and allowing farmers to avail credit which was issued 7% interest per year. There was also a substantial finanacial incentive to become a private farmer. However, as a Russian academic said, “... not everyone has the right to land, but only the best of the best, those who are experienced and who are trained professional.”

AGRARIAN REFORM OF KAZAKHSTAN

Kazakhstan imposed a land code in 2003 whose policy is allowing private ownership of land, increase efficiency and encourage sustainable land use. This is because the government noticed the undeveloping agriculture of their country due to the disuse of the capable farmers because lands have been used by others through lease and sublease. This is believed to affect the incentives of the farmers. The landcode also contains interim provisions intended to accomplish a shift towards dived cultivation and required those whohave leased or subleased their conditional lands to cancel those contracts. They then have three options, first is to assume direct cultivation of the land under government lease. Second is to purchase the leased land or third, to contribute their land shares or land plot to the capital of an agricultural enterprise. These landowners were required to act by a deadline of January 1, 2005 or else the world lose their land or land share. The interim provisions indirectly affected a large number of population especially in the rural areas such as those who had converted land shares to land plots and begin to farm. It has also reallocated the use of land holdings among the different agricultural organizations and citizens and has ended a transitional period in the reform during which much of the property rights in land were represented by bond shares not tied to particular farcels of lands. Under this land code, roughly 28% of the original conditional land shares (CLS) were granted and 29% of the areas of agricultural land allocated were represented by the CLS and atleast 9000 plots of lands were subleased due to the implementations of the said code. It totals around 11 million hectares.

ECONOMIC BACKGROUND OF KAZAKHSTAN Kazakhstan is one of the example of the region's potential economic dynamism because it moves to take its place among the world's top energy-producing nayions. It has attravted foreign investors to invest in their lands, to creat jobs, and established a banking system good for their region. The government is working so hard for the stability of the economy and to ensure that its oil wealth benefits more than just a few. The U.S. is supporting its bid to join the World Trade Organization to help Kazakhstan integrate itself into the global economy. The United Sates is working with the Kazakhstan government to strengthen the protection of the intellectual property rights and help create an economy open to foreign goods and services. The economy of Kazakhstan is richly gifted with natural resources. The mineral resources found in exploitable amounts in the economy are oil, associated gas, coal, copper, nickel, gold, titanium, tungsten, molybdenum, lead, zinc, manganese, aluminum, and iron ore. In the north, its boudless lands supports wide variety of rainfed and in the south it supports irrigated agriculture. Livestock economy is the traditional industry of the indigenous people of Kazakh upon the large scope oppurtunites for grazing. Industrilization has largely been natural resource based. It has been developed for the processing of plants for both ferrous and non-ferrous especially on the northern and southern sections of the economy close to the mineral deposits. The existing of hydrocarbon resources, the refineries and petrochemical plants take its advantage. The agroindustries develop the southern crops of cotton and sugar beets as well as the harvest of fruits and vegetables throughout the economy.

ECONOMIC BACKGROUND OF RUSSIA The most important sector of Russia today is the sale of the raw materials and primary commodities such as oil, timber, and gold. Russia now ranks one of the world's leading producer of petroleum, gas, copper, manganese, bauxite, graphite, uranium, titanium, gold, silver, and platinum. Much of the industrial base of manufactured items such as chemicals, weapons, and military and aerospace equipment was located within the Russian Republic itself. For 2008, the GDP growth and industrial production were 5.6% and 2.1% compared to 8.1% and 6.3% in 2007 according to the World Bank. However, in the first seven months of 2008, the GDP growth was 7.7% on average before collapsing in the fourth quarter. In the first quarter of 2009, GDP contractes by over 7% and its growth estimates for the range from the Russian Government's -2.2% to the IMF's -6%. The GDP growth comes from the non-tradable sectors but still the investments remains concentrated in tradables like oil and gas. In 2000-2001 , the Russian federal budget ran growing surpluses as the governmnet taxed and saved much of the rapidly increasing oil revenue. At the same time, the government inspect its tax system for both corporations and every individuals, introducing a 13% flat tax system for both corporations, which improved overall revenues. In 2007, the federal budget surplus was 5.5% of GDP and in 2008 and in 2009, the government's anti-crisis packages according to the World Bank's estimates areworth about 6.7% of the GDP. Russia has experienced of an inflation rate as high as of 18% a month since Yelstin renoved price controls. The rate of inflation has dropped down to its current rate of 5%. There is a strong black market economy going on in the country, part of this is for hard currency, and part of this is a counter economy. The Russian government has also engaged in counter-trade with other independent states.