Of the almost 2 billion people who are expected to join the global middle class in the next decade, 85 percent live in China and India. The resulting growth in consumer demand offers a great opportunity for Central Asian countries to create new markets. This is especially true of Kazakhstan, which is located smack in the center of China’s “new Silk Road”—the broad infrastructure and market-building initiative linking Asia to Europe. The big question is how to quickly realize this potential.

The short answer: it will depend on Kazakhstan’s private markets, but its government can help a lot—or hinder greatly.

Given its location, size, and endowments, Kazakhstan has a comparative advantage in tradable sectors. But that includes a wide range of goods and services. Using a simple methodology, we tried to assess which sectors hold the most promise, what’s holding them back, and what the government could do to help.

The sectors with the most development potential included wheat, livestock, and transport and logistics.

Read the full article on Kazakhstan by Wolfgang Fengler, Indermit Gill, Christopher Miller, and Aimilios Chatzinikolaou at Brookings