DEC. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree to create two new security agencies, the State Security Service and the Foreign Intelligence Service, and disband the National Security Ministry. Earlier this year, Mr Aliyev sacked Eldar Mahmudov as national security minister. The next day police arrested several ministry officials.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 15 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s government wants Russian tourists now blocked from travelling to Turkey for a week or two in the sun to head to Lake Issyk-Kul instead.
Media quoted Mikhail Kim, deputy director of Kyrgyzstan tourism department, as saying that he expects an influx of Russians after Russia blocked tourists from travelling to Turkey in retaliation for a Turkish warplane shooting down a Russian warplane. He also said he had written to Russia’s tourism officials to encourage them to send people to Issyk-Kul and other Kyrgyz resorts.
“It is like in the USSR, when workers from all over the Soviet Union were coming to Kyrgyzstan for vacations,” he said.
Industry insiders, though, told the Bulletin that although there has been an increase in the number of Russians holidaying in Issyk-Kul to around 60,000 per year, they doubt there would be a deluge next summer.
The head of a local tour agency who preferred to remain anonymous told the Bulletin: “For the last 1-1⁄2 years, we have seen a gradual increase of Russian tourists coming to Kyrgyzstan, and we want to have more of them coming.”
During the Soviet Union, Issyk Kul used to be regarded as a top holidaying spots. It dropped back in popularity with the onset of cheap flights to Turkey and Europe, though.
Emil Umetaliev, head of the Kyrgyz Concept tour agency, said there would not be boost in tourism.
“We have high prices, bad service and long way from Russia,” he said told local media. Russia will prioritise their own resorts like Crimea, he added.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh tenge fell to its record low against the dollar this week, after the US Federal Reserve decided to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, a move that will inevitably dent Kazakhstan’s fragile economy.
On the eve of the celebrations for the 24th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s independence, the tenge had already bottomed out at 337.8/$1 (Dec. 15). When trading re-started after two days of holidaying in Kazakhstan and an interest rate rise in the US, the tenge fell another 1.4% to hit 342.5/$1.
The tenge now trades at half its value in August, before the Central Bank ditched the Tenge-US dollar peg.
The Fed’s rate rise decision on Dec. 16 was expected, but it was still bad news for Emerging Markets.
And Kazakh state-owned companies seemtobeplanningforworsetocome.
An alleged official letter sent out by state-owned energy company Kaz- munaigas and leaked on social media, instructed its subsidiaries to draft plans for the period 2016-2020 accounting for oil prices at $30/barrel and a tenge/dollar rate of 360 (Dec. 14). Brent oil is currently trading at $36.70/barrel.
Kazmunaigas could not be reached for comment.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The lower house of Tajikistan’s parliament ratified a $145m investment deal to boost cement production in the country. Under the agreement, a Tajik-Chinese joint venture will build three new facilities, including a cement plant with a capacity of 1.2m tonnes in the Yovon district, 40km south of Dushanbe. Three unnamed Chinese businessmen will own 75% of the joint venture and the Tajik government will retain the remaining 25%.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – KazTransGas, Kazakhstan’s gas distributor, named Rustam Suleymanov as its new CEO. Mr Suleymanov has worked at KazTransGas for 15 years. Former CEO Kairat Sharipbayev was named chairman of the board.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan is not prepared to support the creation of a free trade zone with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as some other members have suggested, first deputy PM Rustam Azimov told media. Russia and China dominate the SCO which is focused on Central Asia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian government said the development of the Gudauri ski area will cost around $150m to build, the first time that a price tag has been put on plans to give the country what officials say will be a world-class winter sports resort. Canadian mountain resort developers Ecosign and consulting firm Ernst&Young have drawn up plans to develop infrastructure at Gudauri, a ski resort around 120km north of Tbilisi. The government’s Partnership Fund is set to be one of the biggest investors in the project.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Commodities prices keep declining and the industry continues to worry and use caution. This is reflected in the markets, which show the poor performance of Central Asia and South Caucasus focused firms.
Tethys Petroleum (-6% in the past week), Nostrum Oil & Gas (-5.8%) and Roxi Petroleum (-4%) were hit by oil prices plummeting to around $37/barrel.
Industrial and judicial news affected the performance of several miners in the region.
KAZ Minerals closed at 88.5p on Thursday a 7.7% fall in share prices compared to last week. Centerra Gold lost 11% on the Toronto Stock Exchange, closing at 7.07 Canadian dollars on Thursday.
Generally stable Tengri Resources also fell after it announced it was not going to mine the Taldybulak gold and copper project in Kyrgyzstan. It lost 17.4% in one day to close at 3p per share on Thursday.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — He must thinks we’re fools.
“We did all we could to keep oil prices high by cutting oil production domestically, now it’s time for other countries to do the same,” Kazakhstan’s minister of energy Vladimir Shkolnik told the press in Astana.
He attributed this year’s 1.5m tonnes production cut in Kazakhstan’s oil output to a deliberate decision to help keep oil out of the market to try to raise prices. If this was the intention, it clearly hasn’t worked, because prices are down to a seven-year low, at around $37/barrel.
But, incidentally, this was not the intention.
As several experts have told the Bulletin throughout the year, Kazakhstan only produces around 2% of the world’s total oil output and does not have a seat at price- setting assemblies such as OPEC.
This makes it a price taker, one that cannot, even by freezing completely oil exports, bring back oil prices above $100/barrel.
A 1.5m tonne cut represents roughly a 2% cut in Kazakhstan’s yearly production and is entirely attributable to aging oil fields and delays in the start of new projects.
The re-start of production at the Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea is now looming on the horizon, but at the ministry of energy its production forecast is lower than previously assessed.
Tengizchevroil, the consortium operating Kazakhstan’s largest field, finally said it would go ahead with its expansion project in H1 2016, two years behind schedule and with a $15b cost overrun.
So please, Mr Shkolnik, don’t say you cut production on purpose. The main reason that Kazakh output has dropped is because low oil prices have discouraged production.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev flew to Kuwait to open Kyrgyzstan’s new embassy. Mr Atambayev wants to boost ties with the Gulf states. He clearly considers this important as, with budgets under pressure, he has prioritised extending Kyrgyzstan’s diplomatic reach over other issues.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
