DEC. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna has cut some costs but still needs to do more to help Kazakhstan through the current economic downturn, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said in an interview with local journalists. Mr Nazarbayev said the fund cut costs by 50b tenge ($145m) this year, but was continuing to buy subsidiaries.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it would allocate a loan of up to $2.24b to co-finance transport and energy projects in Azerbaijan in 2016- 2017. Out of this loan, the ADB said it would allocate $500m to developing the electricity network and $40m for renewable energy.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Kyrgyzstan sentenced Dilger Zhaparov, former head of state-owned gold miner Kyrgyzaltyn, to three years in prison for corruption, after he made an unauthorised payment to Toronto-listed Centerra Gold.
Zhaparov has been in jail since May 2014, when he was arrested.
According to the prosecution, in December 2013 Zhaparov illegally withdrew funds from Kumtor Gold Company (KGC), a holding company operating the Kumtor gold mine, to pay a $200m dividend to Centerra Gold. The court in Bishkek agreed and gave him the maximum three year jail sentence.
During the trial there was never any suggestion of wrongdoing by Centerra Gold and John Pearson, vice-president of Investors Relations at Centerra Gold, said he was disappointed by the jail sentence as he thought the transaction was legal.
“We are puzzled by the decision of the Kyrgyz authorities. The payment was perfectly legal as it was an inter- company dividend payment between KGC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Centerra, and Centerra itself,” Mr Pearson told The Bulletin.
Kyrgyzaltyn owns 32.7% of Centerra Gold. Centerra Gold, in turn, owns 100% of KGC.
When Zhaparov was arrested, the authorities said the payment needed government approval.
The Kyrgyz authorities have repeatedly rowed with Centerra over KGC’s ownership. The Kumtor gold mine is Kyrgyzstan’s most valuable asset, making up 10% of its GDP.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a business forum in Beijing, Kazakh and Chinese officials said they reached agreements worth $10b that will increase cooperation between state-owned companies. One of the deals involved the sale of 51% of KMG International, a subsidiary of Kazmunaigas, to a Chinese energy company.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in Bern to discuss peace plans for the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, their first meeting since 2014. There was no sign of any tangible progress from the Bern talks.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police have detained the family of Muhiddin Kabiri, the fugitive leader of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), media reported. The IRPT had been Tajikistan’s main opposition group until it was outlawed. Most of its leaders have been arrested. Mr Kabiri, though, is on the run.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tengizchevroil (TCO), the Chevron- led consortium operating the Tengiz oilfield in western Kazakhstan, said it increased output in the first nine months of 2015 and that it intends to push ahead with its expansion project in the first half of next year. In January-September 2015, Tengizchevroil produced 20.3m tonnes of crude oil, up 2.5% compared to the same period last year when it produced 19.8m tonnes. The so-called Future Growth Project expansion project will cost around $38b to complete and will increase output by 44%. Earlier this year, TCO delayed its expansion plans because of the low price of oil.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dozens of people queued up outside the MEGA shopping mall in Almaty to buy a coffee from Kazakhstan’s first Starbucks cafe. MEGA had previously said two Starbucks shops would open in 2016.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh ambassador to Singapore, Yerlan Baudarbek-Kozhatayev, put out a statement denying reports in Malaysia’s media that the Islamic extremist group IS had established a training map for children in Kazakhstan. Malaysian media had been quoting Malaysia’s counter- terrorism chief.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – South Korea opened its first embassy in Georgia, highlighting Georgia’s increased prominence on the world stage and also, perhaps, South Korea’s rising interest in the South Caucasus. S.Korea also gave Georgia’s foreign ministry computer equipment worth $100,000.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
