OCT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia and Azerbaijan have opened up their Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line project to outsiders, Azerbaijan’s transport minister Ziya Mammadov said at a conference. The project will link the Caspian Sea with the Black Sea, aiding transport between Asia and the Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked Abdrashit Zhukenov and Ali Komekbayev from their posts as the deputy chiefs of the Financial Police and Agency for Civil Service Affairs, part of a strategy to reorganise the agencies in charge of combating corruption.
Mr Nazarbayev has wanted the ministry of finance and the newly-created Agency for Civil Service Affairs and Anti- Corruption to take over managing corruption cases in a high-profile move aimed at grabbing the attention of international investors who are worried about corruption levels as much as people living inside Kazakhstan.
This year a number of high profile officials have been arrested and charged with corruption.
Muslim Omiraev, former deputy at the ministry of agriculture was arrested in December 2013 and sentenced to 10 years in prison (Oct. 16). Earlier in September, police arrested the former governor of Karaganda, Baurzhan Abdishev for corruption. He goes on trial in November.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan plans to increase the size of its walnut forests to meet rising demand for the nut from consumers in Iran, China, Turkey and south-east Asia, media reported. Kyrgyzstan has very few exports and a boost in walnut sales would give the economy a lift.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh lower house of parliament ratified an extradition treaty with Italy, media reported, part of a process by Kazakhstan to update its legal treaties. Last year, Kazakhstan illegally transferred the wife of the then fugitive businessman Mukhtar Ablyazov from Rome.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A series of murders of women by their husbands or ex-husbands in Georgia has triggered the government into action, the civil.ge website reported. The website said 20 women have been murdered this year. The government has pledged tough action on domestic violence although it is still unclear what this pledge means.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh officials have earmarked four cities — Almaty, Astana, Aktobe and Shymkent — to develop as mega cities. The plan to create four hubs, which has overtures of Soviet economic planning, will cost an estimated $4b and run through to 2020.
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(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)
OCT. 8-9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev flew to Brussels to sign a deal that will bring Kazakhstan, economically, closer to the European Union.
Concerns, though, over Kazakhstan’s human rights and corruption records threatened to overshadow Mr Nazarbayev’s trip. He is also facing increased pressure over Kazakhstan’s alliance with Russia which is accused of aiding separatist fighters in Ukraine.
European Union and United States sanctions on Russia have hit linked-in economies, including Kazakhstan.
“Sanctions, especially economic ones, are not helpful to anyone neither Europe, nor Kazakhstan or Russia,” Mr Nazarbayev said at a joint press conference with Jose Manuel Barroso, the EU’s outgoing chief.
The EU-Kazakhstan agreement, which took nearly four years to sign, will boost Kazakhstan’s application to enter the World Trade Organisation, enhance energy and security cooperation and air travel links.
The so-called Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement also makes Kazakhstan the European Union’s most important partner both in Central Asia and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union.
Importantly tariffs remain unchanged as they are central to the Eurasian Economic Union that Kazakhstan is a member of alongside Russia and Belarus.
And this is important. Kazakhstan is trying to play both Russia and the European Union with its self-described multi-vector foreign policy. While Mr Nazarbayev talked with the European Union, Kazakh senators in Astana ratified a new Eurasian Economic Union treaty.
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(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)
OCT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – As expected, Armenia signed a deal in Minsk with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan to join the Eurasian Economic Union. The Eurasian Economic Union will come into effect from Jan. 1 as the successor of the Customs Union. The Kremlin sees the Eurasian Economic Union as a counterbalance to the EU.
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(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)
OCT. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s president Giorgi Margvelashvili has said he wants to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin, Russian news agency Interfax reported. Georgia-Russia relations have improved since a 2008 war. Kremlin intervention in Ukraine, though, has threatened to damage them once again.
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(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)
OCT. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Norwegian energy company Statoil sold its final 15.5% stake in the Shah Deniz oil field in the Azerbaijani Caspian Sea to Malaysia’s Petronas for $2.25b.
Officially, Statoil said the sale was part of a worldwide reorganisation. For the partners in Shah Deniz, though, the sale represents yet another major shake-up of one of Azerbaijan’s biggest energy projects.
The sale is also another indicator that Western energy companies are looking to reign in investments that require large capital commitments.
In May, Statoil sold a 10% stake in Shah Deniz to BP and SOCAR and French energy company Total sold its 10% stake in the project to TPAO. For its part, Petronas has been looking to diversify its energy assets across the world.
The other shareholders in Shah Deniz are: BP (28.8% of the project); Turkey’s TPAO (19%); Azerbaijani state energy company SOCAR (16.7%); Russia’s Lukoil (10%) and National Iranian Oil Company (10%).
Clearly the diverse nature of Shah Deniz’s stakeholders makes it a complex project. Azerbaijan is also staking much of its future riches on the success of the project and Europe is hoping to pump around a fifth of its gas from Shah Deniz over the next few years.
Statoil’s deal with Petronas also included selling its stakes in the South Caucasus pipeline. It kept, though, its 8.56% stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil field and also its 20% stake in the TAP pipeline that will pump gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 204, published on Oct. 15 2014)
