ABSTRACT
In the Soviet period, Central Asia was not considered a propitious zone for tertiary economies: Although its education level was high, as everywhere else in the Union, the region lacked technical and industrial knowledge and relied heavily on support from qualified specialists from Russia and the European republics (Ukraine, Belarus, Baltic countries). At the fall of the USSR, this handicap increased: the technical specialists, who often belonged to the European minorities, left the region or went into retirement without passing on their knowledge; and the last remaining specialists moved into other, more profitable professional niches. The region still pays a high price for this brain drain, especially in a world economy characterized by information technologies, cutting-edge industries, and the need for continuous industrial innovation. A global economy in which knowledge has become more important than capital and labor does not work in Central Asia’s favor as the region is hampered by its distinct dearth of senior managers, its poor connectivity with the rest of the world, and weak public investments in education and research.
