Kazakhstan economy

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kz.html
After being in Kazakhstan for only a couple days, I could see that Kazakhstan's economy was much better-off than that of Mongolia. Firstly, when traveling through the markets, I saw just almost as many meat stands as in Mongolia, but these markets also emphasized on something barely seen locally-produced in Mongolia: grains. Well, mainly grains. Of course there were other plant-based commodities such as fruits and veggies, but grains was the most boasted. Mongolia's growing season is fairly meager in length, hence the rarity of Mongolian produce. Globally, Kazakhstan has a better foot-hold in the world economy, too. They were the first of the former soviet nations to get an investment-grade credit rating. I started a conversation with my host family on the third day. Going off of what I learned about Mongolia, I asked them some related questions to get started. I asked them how hard Kazakhstan was hit by the financial crisis of 2008. He responded that Kazakhstan handled the situation very well, and their economy has continued to expand at a steady rater ever since. I asked him about their economic relations and interactions with nearby countries, and he said that they mostly depend on other countries with ocean access for further exportation of goods. The children and mother continue to respectfully sit idly by while the father answers all my questions with almost surreal self-confidence and authority, and a small Russian accent. Going off of that, I asked about their infrastructure. He said that insured good pipelines, railways and ports (however meager the latter being)  for for their oil, but most everything else is left in the background, like roads and airlines. He also said that communications and information technology is slowly moving forward, but still behind most modern technology. I asked about any other economic issues they have had recently. He said that the biggest was the financial crisis I asked about. The preliminary shock was felt in late 2007 in the banking field when the global market started to slow down, and the banks' money flow hit a bit of a drought, causing a credit crisis. This in turn made their prime oil and goods prices fall steeply which just made things worse and sent the country into a recession. Ultimately, their part of the blow and their response was smaller than but similar to the situation in the U.S. The economy was able to get back up quickly by mounting the rising commodity prices. Similar to Mongolia, they fear the economy is founded too much on its rare commodities, but they are otherwise confident in it. To solve this, he said, the government is striving to diversify their economy more emphasis on things like transportation, improved telecommunications, other oil-based chemicals, and food products. He also said that in terms of economic relations, Kazakhstan joined the Belarus-Kazakhstan-Russia Customs Union in 2010 which also helped to encourage foreign investment. Kazakhstan also has been planning to better its trade relations by joining the World Trade Organization for a while now, and acceptance has been pushed back to 2013; this will also help to improve the manufacturing and service fields of the economy.