SEPT. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – High inflation over the past year has brought down average income for Kazakhs, according to the Statistics Committee. Average revenues per person in Kazakhstan for the first six months of the year grew by 12% compared to the same period in 2015, but a 16.8% growth in consumer good prices meant that average purchasing power decreased.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia returned to Kazakhstan the skull of Keiki Batyr, one of the leaders of the 1916 Kazakh revolt against Russia. In 1923, Keiki Batyr was captured and killed by the Red Army. Kazakhstan had asked Russia to return Keiki Batyr’s skull for burial. In August, Russian PM Dmitri Medvedev agreed to return the relic to Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Natig Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s energy minister, said that, once operational, the Kashagan offshore will increase Kazakhstan’s oil shipments to Baku to 150,000 barrels of oil/day, feeding into the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Mr Aliyev’s statement relied on the assumption that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which pumps oil around the Caspian Sea to the Russian port of Novorossiysk, and the Kazakhstan-China pipeline will not be able to absorb the additional 370,000 barrels of oil/day that Kashagan will produce at its peak. Kazakhstan has slashed oil shipments from Aktau to Baku this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
SEPT. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s parliament approved a deal to build the TANAP pipeline across Turkey, a long-overdue step in the development of the project to pump gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe. An initial agreement on TANAP, a $10b gas pipeline, was signed in May 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan sentenced five residents of the Tashkent region to between three and eight years in prison for drug trafficking. The court said that the group, which worked seasonally in Kyrgyzstan, repeatedly smuggled drugs into Uzbekistan. Police found around 10 kilos of opiates in their apartments.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev met in Astana at the Kazakhstan-Russia Business Forum and signed several bilateral agreements worth $4b. Both parties said they want to boost trade ties. No specific details of the deals were released.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Anaklia Development Consortium started construction at the $2.5b Anaklia Deep Sea Port, just north of Poti, on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. At the groundbreaking ceremony, Georgia’s PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili said the port will be complete by 2020. TBC Holding and US-based Conti are part of the consortium. Mamuka Khazaradze, chairman of TBC Bank, owns TBC Holding.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
ALMATY, OCT. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan-focused copper producer Central Asia Metals reported a 38% growth in production in Q3 2016 compared to the same period last year, because of the expansion of its Kounrad project near Lake Balkhash.
The company, listed in London, said it could potentially surpass its goal of producing 14,000 tonnes of copper this year. In the first nine months of the year, it produced 11,010 tonnes of copper cathode, up 31% compared to last year.
The news sent its shares up 3.6% to 181.75p, its highest level since April. The depreciation of the Kazakh tenge after the Central Bank ditched the peg to the US dollar in August 2015 also helped the company cut production costs which should help its full-year results.
“As a result of the devaluation of the tenge as well as some engineering cost savings, we remain confident that we can complete this capex programme approximately 25% below our initial budget of $19.5m,” chairman Nick Clarke said.
Central Asia Metals mainly exports its copper products to Turkey. Its exposure to other markets is limited.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Statistics Committee said that trade turnover improved during the first eight months of the year, compared to last year. Exports increased by 19% to $1.1b, while imports decreased by 2% to just below $2b, reducing the country’s trade deficit. Trade with CIS countries increased, while it remained flat with EU countries.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
BISHKEK, OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Joining the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) has made conditions worse for Kyrgyz businesses, economy minister Arzybek Kozhoshev said in some of the harshest criticism so far levelled at the Kremlin-focused project.
Kyrgyzstan joined the EEU last August but has always been a reluctant partner — the other partners are Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Belarus — with businesses speaking out about the extra red tape and the risk of damaging important trade relations with China.
Now Mr Kozhoshev said that data showed extent of the damage.
“The first year in the EEU has not shown any positive results yet. Some economic indexes have worsened and export volumes have dropped,” Mr Kozhoshev said at a business forum.
“Textile exports dropped by 21.5% in the first half of the year compared to last year. Dairy products exports also fell by 24% in the same period. Our trade partners have created artificial barriers for our manufacturers.”
Kyrgyzstan’s economy has been under pressure, much like the rest of the region, but Mr Kozhoshev’s message was clear. Much of the problem, he said, was down to the EEU.
Coincidentally the two main architects of the EEU, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, were meeting in Astana for a Kazakhstan- Russia Business Forum. They had a very different take on the EEU.
During the session, Mr Nazarbayev lauded the EEU and encouraged all ministers to recount a positive story about the bloc.
“The Eurasian Economic Union is a key element in the revival of the Great Silk Road,” he was quoted by media as saying.
Some analysts in the West have said the driving force, and the Kremlin’s main aim, behind the EEU was political rather than economic.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
