Gamble of the week: a play on Kazakhstan's prosperity

Profit from the rise of Kazakhstan with this London-listed small-cap builder, says Paul Hill.

Living standards are soaring in Kazakhstan, the huge central Asian country born out of the old Soviet Union. Unemployment is modest and GDP growth is set to hit 6% in 2012, after averaging 8% over the past decade. At the state level, national debt is a mere 13% of output, thanks to a small current account surplus. How do they do it?

The reason seems to be that this autocracy borders Russia and China, and is therefore perfectly situated to satisfy demand from Europe and the Far East for its abundant supply of mineral and fossil fuel resources.

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Paul gained a degree in electrical engineering and went on to qualify as a chartered management accountant. He has extensive corporate finance and investment experience and is a member of the Securities Institute.

Over the past 16 years Paul has held top-level financial management and M&A roles for blue-chip companies such as O2, GKN and Unilever. He is now director of his own capital investment and consultancy firm, PMH Capital Limited.

Paul is an expert at analysing companies in new, fast-growing markets, and is an extremely shrewd stock-picker.