kazakhstan: A country eager for business.

Foreign investors who are beating a path to the leafy capital of Kazakhstan need a strong appetite for risk - and deep pockets.

On the tree-lined avenue of Ablai Khan, recently changed from Kommunistichsky Prospect, stands an elegant peach and white building that has become a hub of activity in Alma Ata - the leafy capital of the ex-Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. It houses the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations whose task it is to encourage the foreign investment that Kazakhstan so desperately needs as it sets out on the road to capitalism.