Category Archives: Uncategorised

Kazakh President tells people not to panic

JAN 29 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — At a televised conference for his Nur Otan political party, a stony faced Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev played down a 50% drop in the value of the tenge currency and told viewers to look at the economic positives.

Mr Nazarbayev likes to act the elder father figure during times of economic and political strife in Kazakhstan and with oil prices at a 12- year-low, government spending being cut and inflation rising, Mr Nazarbayev clearly thought it was time to calm the increasingly jittering nerves of his countrymen.

“We have been living with $30 per barrel oil for half a year now and nothing has happened. We will overcome (this) and maybe we should get used to this, I think it has come here to stay,” he told the 2,000 assembled delegates.

Kazakh officials know that they are treading a thin line and are eager to head off any sign of discontent.

In Azerbaijan, unease at the economic malaise triggered several clashes between protesters and police in regional towns last month but in Kazakhstan, the authorities have been able to dampen public frustration.

Judging the public mood — when to be firm and when to be conciliatory — is a key skill during this time of economic hardship and one that Mr Nazarbayev has previously shown that he is adept at.

Last month, Mr Nazarbayev called a parliamentary election for March, 18 months early. Analysts said that this had been arranged so that Mr Nazarbayev and his officials could hold an election now, before the economic situation worsened further.

At the Nur Otan conference, though, Mr Nazarbayev avoided mention of the election and instead told Kazakhs that the government was working hard to look after them.

“We support our working population through implementation of the Employment Roadmap-2020 Program. There is no place for unemployment in Kazakhstan. We have all resources in place to avoid it,” he said.

Official unemployment figures in Kazakhstan are considered unreliable. Correspondents in Kazakhstan, though, and reports from various regional towns suggest that people are losing their jobs.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Inflation increases in Georgia

FEB. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Annualised inflation in Georgia rose to 5.6% at the end of January, the state’s statistics agency said, an increase from 4.9% in December. Inflation increased steadily in Georgia last year hitting 6.3% in November, fuelled by a drop in the value of the Lari currency, until it dropped off slightly. By comparison, in January 2015, annualised inflation had been 1.4%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Russia boosts assistance to Tajikistan

FEB. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s deputy defence minister Anatoly Antonov said that Russia would supply Tajikistan with all the equipment and intelligence that it needed to fend off various threats from the Taliban who are looking increasingly powerful. Mr Antonov made the promise on a trip to Tajikistan a few days after news that Taliban forces in Afghanistan had attacked a power-line running from Uzbekistan to Kabul. Central Asian states are increasingly worried about a resurgent Taliban.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Stock market: Bank of Georgia, Tethys, Centerra

FEB. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bank of Georgia shares were up 6.9% this week, closing at £18.14 on Thursday. The bank has followed a downward trend since the beginning of the year, but news of the merger between its corporate banking and investment management departments lifted its shares.

BGEO Group, the holding that owns Bank of Georgia, said it is confident that the move will boost returns and reduce risk.

Tethys Petroleum shares jumped by 19.7% to 2.25p off the back of stable oil prices, leading an upbeat crowd of oil and gas companies involved in the region. Only Nostrum continued the slump.

Among miners, Centerra Gold posted a significant jump of 7.2% to 6.73 Canadian dollars after the Mongolian parliament unblocked negotiations over ownership and licences linked to one of their gold mines in the north of the country.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

First petrol from Iran arrives in Tajikistan

FEB. 3 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran shipped its first batch of petrol to Tajikistan, a deal both countries credited to the lifting of Western sanctions.

It’s also, importantly, more evidence of the impact that post-sanctions Iran is having on Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Reports from across the region have shown a sharp increase in trade with Iran since the US and the European Union lifted sanctions on Jan. 16.

These deals have included an agreement with Kazakh airline Air Astana, grPain agreements with Kazakhstan, trade arrangements with Armenia and the arrival of the first train, via Central Asia, direct from China in Iran.

But it is, perhaps, petrol exports to the Central Asia/South Caucasus region where Iran can have the biggest impact.

Officials from the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company told local media the shipment of petrol to Tajikistan measured 2.9m litres, a volume they could maintain on a daily basis. If it did send this amount of petrol to Tajikistan every day, Iran’s petrol exports would measure around 750,000 tonnes a year. This roughly equals Tajikistan’s total current consumption. It had previously imported most of its petrol from Russia.

Mohammad-Mehdi Gharaei, director of the distribution company, told media that Tajikistan had asked for the petrol products. “In view of the [post-sanctions] conditions, Tajikistan requested in early February to purchase Iranian gasoline,” he said.

Iran sent petrol to Tajikistan on trucks through Afghanistan.

Iran is a net importer of petrol. This, though, will change later this year when a new super-sized refinery opens on the Persian Gulf. This refinery will turn Iran into a petrol exporter and Central Asia and the South Caucasus will be a prime target market. They just don’t have enough refinery capacity.

Iman Nasseri, of FGE energy consultancy in London, said Iran is looking to capture market share.

“In the post-sanctions era we expect more shipments from Iran. Most of these might have been discussed and negotiated before sanctions were lifted,” Mr Nasseri told The Bulletin.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Georgian PM attends Pres. speech

FEB. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili attended President Giorgi Margvelashvili’s annual state-of-the-nation address to parliament, a sign that relations between the president’s office and the PM’s office are improving. Mr Kvirikashvili’s predecessor, Irakli Garibashvili, had snubbed the speech for the past two years. Mr Kvirikashvili was installed as Georgia’s PM at the end of last year by Bidzina Ivanishvili, the richest and most powerful man in Georgia. Mr Garibashvili had lost popularity and his public rows with Mr Margvelashvili had become a distraction in the build up to what is likely to be a tough fought election at the end of this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Kyrgyzstan imposes fines for USD

FEB. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s anti-monopoly said it would start to impose fines against shops, companies and people selling products in US dollars rather than the local som currency. The new rules appear designed to boost the use and the strength of the Kyrgyz som. The som has lost around a third of its value.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Kyrgyzstan looks to cash in on expropriation of MegaCom

BISHKEK, FEB. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s government said that it wanted to sell Alfa Telecom, which owns the mobile brand MegaCom, for around 19b som ($253m), cashing on its most lucrative asset grab from a revolution in 2010.

The sale of Alfa Telecom will mark the end of a battle for control over one of Kyrgyzstan’s most valuable companies.

Alfa Telecom had been controlled, directly and indirectly, by the son of former Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. He was forced to flee the country in 2010 and one of the first moves by the new government was to start nationalising Alfa Telecom by taking control of a 49% stake in the company. It completed this process in 2014 when a court in Bishkek handed it the final 51% stake in the company from Alexey Yeliseyev, regarded as a frontman for the Bakiyev family.

Presenting plans to sell off, Alfa Telecom, Kyrgyz PM Temir Sariyev said: “We are presenting the auction to the international market, where competition is very high. The company is appealing for foreign investors and it needs a technological upgrade.”

Local audit firm All Star and the Kazakh branch of Ernst & Young assessed the total price of Alfa Telecom shares at $306m.

But with markets, especially Emerging Markets, subdued it will be a tough time to sell a telecoms company.

Last December, the government said companies from Russia, China, Turkey and Azerbaijan have expressed interest in buying Alfa Telecom.

A successful sale would be a boon for the Kyrgyz government which is struggling to fight off the impact of a worsening economic downturn.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Kazakh bank sells shares

FEB. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazkommertsbank, one of Kaza- khstan’s largest lenders, said it sold the 99.4% stake it owned in BTA Bank to Kenes Rakishev, Nurzhan Subkhanberdin and other minority shareholders. The total cost of the transaction amounted to around 6.1m tenge ($16,200). Mr Rakishev and Mr Subkhanberdin now each own 49.18% in BTA. Both are also major shareholders in Kazkommertsbank.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)

Stand Energy files claims against Kyrgyzstan

FEB. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Canadian mining company Stans Energy said it filed a claim for damages in the UN arbitration court against the Kyrgyz government. The company says Kyrgyzstan wrongfully terminated its licences to operate the Kutessay II and Kalesay mines in 2012. Stans claims to have invested $128m in the gold mines and will also seek a $91m compensation for interests. The UN court will deliberate in mid-March.

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(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)