Category Archives: Uncategorised

China to invest into Kazakh Glencore

JULY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – State-owned China National Gold Group and Silk Road Fund will partner to invest $2b to buy the Vasilkovskoye mine in Kazakhstan, owned by Glencore. China’s Shandong Gold Mining and Zijin Mining Group have also expressed interest in the mine. Glencore owns 70% of Kazzinc, the company that operates Vasilkovskoye, which is located 300km north-west of Astana.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Tajikistan hands out $3.9b contract to build Rogun

DUSHANBE, JULY 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan awarded a $3.9b contract to Italian construction company Salini Impregilo to build the controversial Rogun dam in the Pamir mountains.

The Soviet-era plan has been on hold for several years because of worries over its funding and opposition from Uzbekistan that it will siphon off water needed to irrigate its cotton fields.

The timing of the $3.9b deal for Salini Impregilo was unexpected and appears to suggest that the Rogun dam project is up and running once again.

Tajikistan needs the dam to boost electricity production. It suffers countless blackouts in winter, when there is less water generating hydropower, and has also committed itself to supplying both Pakistan and Afghanistan with power from 2018.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Uzbek CBank orders foreign cash limit

JULY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Central Bank ordered banks to impose a $300 monthly limit on card withdrawals abroad, possibly an effort to limit exchange rate speculation. The previous limit was set at $100/day. Uzbeks typically withdraw cash in US dollars and local currencies when travelling abroad to hoard and hedge against the sum currency, which has steadily weakened against the US dollar in recent months.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakhtelecom improves corporate governance ahead of a potential IPO

ALMATY, JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Aleksander Klebanov, one of Kazakhstan’s richest men, bought a 24.47% stake in Kazakhtelecom, the state-owned telecoms company, in a move to improve corporate governance ahead of a planned IPO in London.

Mr Klebanov’s Sobrio Ltd, a London-registered shelf company, bought shares from two companies officially owned by Aigul Nuriyeva, the 8th richest Kazakh according to Forbes. She was widely perceived as holding these companies on behalf of Mr Klebanov.

Wary of past corporate governance flops, Kazakhtelecom said the transfer of shares would improve transparency ahead of an IPO.

“The deal was conducted for Kazakhtelecom ownership structure optimisation and transparency purposes in preparation for a possible IPO,” the company said in a press release.

For two years, Kazakhtelecom has mulled over an IPO in London.

Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, owns 52% of Kazakhtelecom. Earlier this year, Kazakhtelecom’s subsidiaryAltel merged with Tele2, a Swedish telecoms company, in an effort to boost its mobile profile.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Rouhani to visit Azerbaijan

JULY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani will visit Azerbaijan in August, official media reported, for talks likely to focus on energy and transport issues. The neighbours share a 756km border and jurisdiction over the Caspian Sea. Mr Rouhani last visited Baku in November 2014, before a raft of international sanctions were lifted.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakh capital grows in population

JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said triumphantly that Astana had grown to 1m residents. The announcement came just days before the celebrations of Astana Day, a holiday in Kazakhstan that coincides withMr Nazarbayev’s birthday. The figure appears designed to impress upon people the success of the Astana project. By most estimations, the population of Astana is around 800,000.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kyrgyzstan wants to import electricity from Tajikistan

JULY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan wants to import 1.5-2m kWh of electricity every day from Tajikistan over the summer, Aleksey Borodin, deputy director of National Electric Network, told local media, another sign that its power generating systems are not operating at their expected levels. In 2015, Kyrgyzstan imported 146m kWh from Tajikistan, before they halted trade because of the completion of theDatka-Kemin transmission line in Kyrgyzstan which was supposed to ensure the country’s energy independence.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Tajikistan forces shops to accept credit cards

JULY 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Shops in Tajikistan larger than 40 square metres will now have to accept payment by both credit cards and bank cards or face a $1,000 fine under regulation passed in 2014 that has now come into force. The imposition of the 2014 rules may be linked to a cash shortage in Tajikistan whichhave caused liquidity problems for its banks.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Inflation in Georgia falls, again

JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s statistics committee Geostat said annualised inflation dropped to 1.1% in June, its lowest since December 2013, piling pressure on the Central Bank which has tried to boost price rises through interest rate cuts. Importantly, prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages fell by 2.6%.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakhstan’s trade turnover sinks

JULY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hit by a sharp drop in commodity prices, Kazakhstan’s foreign trade turnover shrank by 30% in Jan.-April compared to the same period last year, the Statistics Committee said. Exports fell by 31% in the first four months of the year to $11b while imports fell by 29% to $7.2b. The global drop in oil and commodity prices has exposed Kazakhstan’s over reliance on its extractive industry.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)