Territorial and sectoral structure of the economy of Kazakhstan: production concentration and regional disparities

Abstract

The article examines the territorial and sectoral structure of Kazakhstan’s economy through the relationship between production concentration, regional specialization and spatial disparities. The relevance of the topic is determined by the fact that uneven industrial development affects regional resilience, employment, labour productivity, value-added depth and the ability of territories to build interregional production chains. The aim of the study is to identify industries in which Kazakhstan’s regions have pronounced production advantages and to determine which forms of concentration can become growth points and which indicate structural constraints. The methodological basis is the PCR/ECR diagnostic model, where PCR reflects the relative production performance of a sector and ECR reflects labour-force concentration. Based on 2025 data, industries are classified into four quadrants: priority, highly efficient, socially significant and sectors requiring productivity upgrading. The results show that Kazakhstan has a heterogeneous industrial space: western regions retain a resource-processing profile, central and eastern regions have industrial and technological potential, northern and southern regions develop agro-industrial specialization, while large cities concentrate service-industrial and consumer-oriented production. The practical significance lies in justifying differentiated regional industrial policy instruments.