Almaty. September 9. Kazakhstan Today - Construction of West - South gas pipeline in Kazakhstan will begin in the first half of 2009. The Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Karim Masimov, informed on Friday during the Internet-conference Strategy of the Government Policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, organized by RosBusinessConsulting, the agency reports. "We will begin construction in first half of the next year," K. Masimov said, answering Russian Internet-user's question. "The structure of our economy is such that we can extract gas in the west of Kazakhstan and have deficit of gas in the south of the country with all the consequences, therefore, we have made a decision on construction of the gas pipeline from the west of Kazakhstan to the southern region of the country. This has been the assignment of the President," he reminded. "This gas pipeline will be constructed by state-private partnership principle. 50 % will be spent from the budget of the Republic of Kazakhstan and 50 % will be paid by a strategic investor chosen on a competitive basis," the Prime Minister specified.