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AIFC promises Bitcoin lead for Kazakhstan

JULY 17 2017 (The Bulletin) — Nurlan Kussainov, head of the Astana International Finance Centre Authority (AIFC), said that he wanted Kazakhstan to become a global centre for the bitcoin virtual currency, promising to set up a legal framework to regulate and stabilise the controversial cryptocurrency. The AIFC Authority is the legal body set up to regulate the AIFC, an attempt by the Kazakh government to lure international finance companies to set up companies in Astana.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

94% of creditors support restructure plan says International Bank of Azerbaijan

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JULY 18 2017 (The Bulletin) — More than 94% of International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) creditors supported a debt restructuring scheme, the bank said. It made the statement a few days after saying that it had won approval to go through with a controversial scheme that will see creditors lose 20% of their $3.3b investments. IBA said in May that it needed to restructure its debts.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

Chinese arrest Kazakhs in the West

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JULY 7 2017 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in China have been detaining Kazakhs in an apparent crackdown on ethnic minorities, angering relatives in Kazakhstan, media reported. There have been reports from China for the past month that the authorities were targeting ethnic minorities, including Kazakhs, living in the Xinjiang region of western China.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

IRFC head visits Uzbekistan for first time since 1925

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JULY 3 2017 (The Bulletin) — After visits to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Tadateru Konoe, President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said that both countries had inspired him and given him “a great deal of hope” because of the way that different ethnic groups worked together. Mr Konoe was the first head of the IFRC to visit Uzbekistan since 1925 when the Red Crescent Society of Uzbekistan was set up.IRF

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Analysts warn of Azerbaijan- Armenia war

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JULY 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan and Armenia are drifting towards war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, analysts warned after a shell killed a grandmother and her grandchild on the Azerbaijani side of the conflict. Azerbaijan accused the Armenian side of shelling civilians. Armenia-backed rebels said that Azerbaijan had deployed weapons deliberately close to civilians. Commentators have been warning throughout the year that tension in the region is close to triggering another major outbreak of violence. This last exploded in April 2016.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Kazakh police arrests four officials

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JULY 10 2017 (The Bulletin) — Police in Kazakhstan arrested four members of the pharmacy committee within the health ministry for corruption, Kazakh media reported. Reports said that the four officials were suspected of taking bribes to give distribution certificates for drugs and of embezzling state funds by overstating the cost of medicines they were buying. Kazakhstan is trying to improve its reputation for corruption and this year has arrested several senior officials, including a former economy minister.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Kazakh buys regional bank

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JULY 4 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh businessman Arif Babayev bought the Ukraine-based Region- Bank, renamed Sky Bank, for an undisclosed fee, Ukrainian media reported. Mr Babayev used to be the managing director of Kazkommertsbank, which has recently merged with Halyk Bank. He bought an initial 53.54% stake in Region-Bank in December 2016.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Fire burns market in Tajikistan

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JULY 3 2017 (The Bulletin) — A fire burnt down most of the biggest bazaar in Dushanbe, destroying hundreds of people’s livelihoods. Police have not yet determined how the fire at the Korvon bazaar started but arson has not been ruled out. The state news agency reported that President Emomali Rakhmon ordered his officials to exempt traders from rent and other taxes.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Council of elders in Turkmenistan set for October

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JULY 11 2017 (The Bulletin) — Turkmen media said that President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov had called for a Council of Elders to convene on Oct. 9. The Council of Elders consists of 600 men over the age of 70 from across Turkmenistan’s five regions. It is officially an advisory body for the President but in effect is used to rubberstamp his decisions, often major government matters. The President decides on when to call a Council of Elders, although it usually takes place every year.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)

Czech firm buys into Kyrgyz hydropower

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BISHKEK, JULY 10 2017 (The Bulletin) — Liglass Trading, a Czech company, signed a deal with the Kyrgyz government to buy into a major hydropower project that Russia pulled out of in December 2015 after a drop in oil prices and US-led sanctions triggered an economic recession.

The deal means Liglass will pay $37m for a 50% stake in Upper Naryn HPP, the company created to build and operate the Akbulun and Naryn-1 hydropower plants. It will also build 10 smaller hydro stations by end-202o.

Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev hailed the deal.

“The arrival of large-scale private investment in Europe will serve as a strong signal to potential investors from around the world, confirming the readiness of Kyrgyzstan to create all the necessary conditions for doing business and effective implementation of mutually beneficial joint projects,” he was quoted as saying in a government press release.

RusHydro had planned to invest more than $700m into Kyrgyz hydropower before it quit in 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)