MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – China’s Export-Import Bank has agreed to give a loan of $185m to Kyrgyzstan to help it build a road and tunnel between the north and south of the country, media reported. China has been funding more and more projects in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif flew to Ashgabat to meet with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and discuss prospective energy projects.
After their meeting, Mr Sharif said Pakistan wanted to speed up regional energy projects, including the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan- India (TAPI) pipeline — a much-discussed project that could deliver Turkmen gas to South Asia.
Mr Sharif’s visit to Ashgabat highlights just how important the TAPI project is to South Asia and also reflects Turkmenistan’s burgeoning status in the region.
Turkmenistan is trying to push the TAPI project forward in order to diversify its export routes. Its main client is China although it is also in talks with the EU to supply gas.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered the Central Bank to move from Almaty to Astana by 2017.
The Central Bank is the last major government institution to move to Astana,
marking the final act of the ascendency of Mr Nazarbayev’s purpose-built capital over the far more louche Almaty.
He built up Astana, after declaring it his new capital in 1997, to reflect his status as the creator of a modern Kazakhstan. New buildings and towers dot the city’s skyline every year.
Now, it appears, Mr Nazarbayev has decided that it’s time for the economic and financial power to be transferred north. Both the Central Bank and Kazakhstan Stock Exchange had remained stubbornly based in Almaty, anchoring other commercial banks to the city. By wrenching the Bank to Astana, Mr Nazarbayev will pull other companies with it.
In 2013, Mr Nazarbayev replaced the popular and independent-minded Grigory Marchenko as Central Bank chief with the more pliant Kariat Kelimbetov.
At the time, the financial community speculated that the change would precede a move north to Astana by the Central Bank. This was denied. Now, it seems, this speculation has been borne out.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Central Bank said it will switch its monetary policy from targeting rigorous exchange rate stability to prioritising hitting inflation targets. Analysts have criticised the Central Bank for being too inflexible with its exchange rate controls.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan questioned businessman Ibrahim Ibrahimov over an outstanding loan from the state-linked International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), media reported, the second high-profile Azerbaijani company owner to be hauled into a police station in a week.
Turan news agency reported that Mr Ibrahimov took a loans $57m, but sources in IBA told the news agency that the sum was actually $850m.
Last week police detained Nizami Piriyev, head of Azerbaijani Methanol Company. He was charged with financial fraud. Mr Piriyev is also charged with not repaying bank loans.
Natiq Cafarli, economist and executive director of ReAL opposition movement said in an interview with faktxeber.com that he does not expect the oligarchs to stay in jail for a long time. He said that the government just wants to recover its money.
“The ruling party does not need a lot of news around famous people,” he said. “They will be released soon.”
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – London-listed Bank of Georgia reported Q1 profit up 16% because revenue from its banking and healthcare units offset weaker contributions from insurance and real estate sectors. The results are much needed positive news after a bleak economic Q1 dominated by the falling value of the lari currency.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Outside the financial sector, SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state energy company, is the largest company in Georgia, media reported quoting research from Ilia University in Tbilisi. SOCAR Petroleum Georgia is a SOCAR subsidiary. Its main business in Georgia is a network of petrol stations.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Swiss railway rolling stock manufacturer Stadler has won a 70m euro contract to deliver five double decker carriages to Azerbaijan’s railway company, media reported. The first two carriages will be put into operation ahead of the European Games in Baku next month.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
SUMQAYIT/Azerbaijan, MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Absheron, the narrow peninsula surrounding Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, gives a remarkable insight into the country’s patchy oil-funded growth.
Dystopian industrial decay, dirty villages of crumbling homes and bleak oil fields of rusty drills share the same few dusty square miles with newly built sumptuous seaside resorts, whitewashed villas and long stretches of crowded beaches dotted with flashy restaurants and garish wedding palaces.
The coexistence of opposites is arguably not a harmonic one. Embarrassed by the deteriorating state of Absheron’s infrastructure and the dire living conditions of much of its population Azerbaijan’s political elite seems to have opted for the creation of a Potemkin-façade of disproportionate lavishness.
Along the modern highway connecting Heydar Aliyev International Airport to the resort town of Buzovna high marble walls veil the view of surrounding shantytowns and oil spills.
Azerbaijan’s government indulges in creating unrepresentative showcases of the country, while the huge revenues of the oil and gas industry centred in and around Absheron, fail to filter down to the local inhabitants.
The uneven distribution of both profits and investments is epitomised by the fate of Sumqayit, Absheron’s biggest town. A thriving industrial centre during Soviet times, this northern shore town of concrete blocks and wide alleys now feels abandoned.
Resentment towards the government is high in Sumqayit and the town has become a breeding ground for religious extremism. Last year there were reports that Sumqayit had become a hotbed for Syria-bound would-be jihadists and a string of arrests and search operations were carried around town.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan could buy a 29.25% stake in the Karachaganak oil and gas project in the north of the country when Shell completes its buyout of BG Group next year, BG Group said in its annual report.
Kazakhstan has been looking to increase its stake in various projects. Karachaganak was one of the last major operations that the Kazakh government took a stake in. It bought a 10% stake in Karachaganak for $3b in 2012.
Now, with Shell buying BG Group, Kazakhstan has the opportunity to buy a far larger chunk of Karachaganak.
“It is possible that the Republic of Kazakhstan may claim to have a right to acquire the Group’s interest in the Final Petroleum Sharing Agree- ment governing the operation of the Karachaganak gas and con- densate field in the event of a change of control of BG Group following a takeover bid,” BG Group said.
The Kazakh government hasn’t commented.
Karachaganak is one of BG Group’s most prized posses- sions, accounting for 9% of its revenues in 2014. Analysts have said that BG Group’s stake maybe worth around $4.4b.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
