JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Soldiers from Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan started their annual military exercises, dubbed Caucasian Eagle 2017, highlighting improved ties between the three countries. This is the third military exercise between the triumvirate. Turkey has hosted the other two military exercises.
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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)
JUNE 10 2017 (The Bulletin) — Russian energy company Inter RAO has begun proceedings at the Stockholm International Arbitration court against Georgia because of losses incurred at its two hydropower plants Khamri-1 and Khamri-2, Georgia’s deputy energy minister Mariam Valishvili told Retuers. It blamed the losses on the devaluation of the Georgian lari and on the government for blocking its move to increase electricity prices.
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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)
JUNE 6 2017 (The Bulletin) — Exports from Armenia have increased by 16.1% in the first four month of the year compared to the same period in 2016, media reported quoting the national statistics service. Russia was still the biggest trade partner and China the second biggest. Like the rest of the region, Armenia has been shrugging off an economic malaise triggered by a fall in oil prices and a recession in Russia that has lingered from 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)
MAY 29 2017 (The Bulletin) — Car imports from Russia into Kazakhstan dropped by 11% in the first quarter of the year to 4,700 cars, media reported. Reports said the drop in Russian car imports was mainly due to a sharp rise in prices linked to a drop in the value of the Kazakh tenge. In the first quarter of 2014, Kazakhstan imported 32,400 cars from Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
MAY 31 2017 (The Bulletin) — Armenia’s Central Bank raised its inflation target for 2017 to 2.5% from 0.6%, a leading indicator that it feels the worst of an economic downturn has passed. Armenia has been struggling to deal with deflation over the past couple of years. Recent data showed the economy starting to grow. The government targets 3.2% growth.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
MAY 28 2017 (The Bulletin) — Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the Manchester United footballer, received Armenia’s highest order for “Services to Motherland” at a ceremony presided over by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. Mr Mkhitaryan who has played for Manchester United for one season is arguably the world’s best-known Armenian. He is certainly the best footballer Armenia has produced and is the first Armenian to play in the English Premier League.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
JUNE 1 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan announced a tender for the construction of 14 small hydropower stations across the country, part of its plan to boost electricity production. Hydroelectric power production is an essential part of Kyrgyzstan’s economy. It aims to become an exporter of electricity through the TAPI project that will send power generated by hydro schemes in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
JUNE 2 2017 (The Bulletin) — Halyk Bank will buy Kazkommertsbank’s two largest shareholder’s combined stake of 54% for a nominal fee of $1, Reuters reported. The nominal fee highlights the state-sponsored natured of the merger, agreed in March, between the country’s two largest banks. Under the deal, a government unit set up to buy banks’ bad debt will buy 2.4 trillion tenge ($7.5b) of bad debt from the new bank. Kazkommertsbank’s two biggest shareholder are Kenes Rakishev, a financier close to the elite, and Samruk Kazyna, the sovereign wealth fund.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
JUNE 2 2017 (The Bulletin) — Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov sacked the head of the Supreme Court, Begench Charyev, just the latest in a string of high-profile sackings that he has made this year. State-owned media did not give a reason for Mr Charyev’s sacking. He had been head of the Supreme Court since September 2013. Gylychmyrat Halliyev director of the Turkmen National Institute for Democracy and Human Rights was appointed the new Supreme Court chief.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
ALMATY, JUNE 1 2017 (The Bulletin) — Russian gold miner Polymetal increased its stake in the Kazakh mine Dolinnoye to 50% by buying a 25% stake for $1.6m.
Polymetal bought its original 25% stake in the gold mine, based in northern Kazakhstan, in 2015. Polymetal is one of Kazakhstan’s biggest mining companies.
“This transaction further expands and strengthens our Varvara hub concept,” said Vitaly Nesis, Group
CEO of Polymetal. “We expect first ore to go through the mill in Q3 2017.”
The so-called Varvara hub is the collective term that Polymetal uses to describe its group of gold mines in Kazakhstan centered around the processing plant of the same name.
Polymetal’s assets in Kazakhstan include, the Kyzyl project in north- eastern Kazakhstan. In 2015, it bought the Kyzyl project for $620m from Sumeru, a private group owned by Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
In the first quarter of the year, Polymetal said that its gold production had increased by 8% compared to the same period in 2016, helped partially by a rise output at the the Varvara hub.
It also said, though, that its Kazakh operations had required more capital investment than expected.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
