he
Caspian Consortium pipeline in 2001, from western Kazakhstan's
Tengiz oilfield to the Black Sea, substantially raised export
capacity. The country has embarked upon an industrial policy
designed to diversify the economy away from overdependence on the
oil sector, by developing light industry. Additionally, the policy
aims to reduce the influence of foreign investment and foreign
personnel; the government has engaged in several disputes with
foreign oil companies over the terms of production agreements, and
tensions continue.

Kenya
The regional hub for trade and finance in East Africa, Kenya
has been hampered by corruption, notably in the judicial system, and
by reliance upon several primary goods whose prices have remained
low. In 1997, the IMF suspended Kenya's Enhanced Structural
Adjustment Program due to the government's failure to maintain
reforms and curb corruption. A severe drought from 1999 to 2000
compounded Kenya's problems, causing water and energy rationing and
reducing agricultural output. As a result, GDP contracted by 0.2% in
2000. The IMF, which had resumed loans in 2000 to help Kenya through
the drought, again halted lending in 2001 when the government failed
to institute several anticorruption measures. Despite the return of
strong rains in 2001, weak commodity prices, endemic corruption, and
low investment limited Kenya's economic growth to 1.2%. Growth
lagged at 1.1% in 2002 because of erratic rains, low investor
confidence, meager donor support, and political infighting up to the
elections. In the key 27 December 2002 elections, Daniel Arap MOI's
24-year-old reign ended, and a new opposition government took on the
formidable economic problems facing the nation. In 2003, progress
was made in rooting out corruption, and encouraging donor support,
with GDP growth edging up to 1.7%.

Kingman Reef
no economic activity

Kiribati
A remote country of 33 scattered coral atolls, Kiribati has
few natural resources. Commercially viable phosphate deposits were
exhausted at the time of independence from the UK in 1979. Copra and
fish now represent the bulk of production and exports. The economy
has fluctuated widely in recent years. Economic development is
constrained by a shortage of skilled workers, weak infrastructure,
and remoteness from international markets. Tourism provides more
than one-fifth of GDP. The financial secto