Tag Archives: business

Tajikistan cancels electricity rationing

JAN. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan cancelled electricity rationing because a new thermal power station has come online and the water levels in its reservoirs, vital for turning the hydropower stations, are high. This is important because power rationing had become a staple of Tajik life every winter. Tajikistan wants to turn itself into something of a regional electricity hub.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Designing a yurt-shaped greenhouse for Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK, JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tilek Toktogaziev has a vision. The 27-year-old Kyrgyz businessman wants to make farming more efficient and he wants to do it by turning the yurt, Kyrgyzstan’s national icon, into a greenhouse.

Or at least construct greenhouses in the shape of a yurt.

“We often copy models of greenhouses from the Koreans or the Dutch,” he told The Conway Bulletin (Jan. 6). “But they have their own climatic conditions. Even in cold times Kyrgyz people have survived in yurts.”

He has set about designing a greenhouse that will look and function like a yurt – the circular, heavy felt tent-like structure used by nomads to live in during the summer when their horses graze in lush valleys under snow-capped mountains.

Mr Toktogaziev has been building greenhouses since 2012, but it was only in 2016 that he thought of the yurt-shaped greenhouse.

“Out of season, local greenhouses cover 10% of market demand in Kyrgyzstan, whereas 90% of vegetables come from China and Uzbekistan,” he said, indicating market potential.

For now, though, Mr Toktogaziev wants to find foreign investors to help propel his concept onto the world market and also to educate Kyrgyz on the benefits of the greenhouse. He already has local investors and says the first greenhouse will be built in 2017.

It’s an uncertain road. What he is certain about, though, is keeping the national identity of the greenhouses.

“Local thermofelt (produced in a village near Bishkek) will be used to cover yurt-shaped greenhouse roof in nighttime to keep warmth,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Estonian builder says Kazakhstan hasn’t paid fine

JAN. 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Estonian construction company Windoor said that Kazakhstan had refused to pay a 23m euro settlement imposed by Stockholm’s arbitration court last year for reneging on a 2012 deal to build a conference centre in Astana for the Kazakh foreign ministry. Windoor said that it would now take the judgement to an international tribunal in Washington.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Georgia-based Zenith lists on LSE, raises $.2.77m

TBILISI, JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Calgary-based Zenith Energy completed a share listing on the London Stock Exchange, raising £2.3m ($2.77m) to fund the debt repayment and exploration costs at its oil and gas fields in Azerbaijan, Italy and Argentina.

Zenith Energy signed a production sharing agreement with Azerbaijan’s state-owned Socar in March 2016 to jointly develop the Muradkhanli, Jafarli and Zardab oil producing sites, 240km inland from Baku. They are the biggest onshore oil fields in Azerbaijan and had produced up to 9,000 barrels of oil a day at their peak during the Soviet Union. They now produce around 300 barrels a day.

At the time of the deal Zenith’s CEO, Andrea Cattaneo, said that new techniques and infrastructure investment could reboot the fields and boost production.

Now Zenith has raised more cash to help pay for this exploration.

Commenting on the listing on the London Stock Exchange, Mr Cattaneo said: “We believe that the Company’s listing on the Official List will provide a supportive platform to help us achieve our ambitious growth objectives.”

Zenith Aran Oil Company was the Virgin Islands-registered company set up Zenith Energy to push the Azerbaijani projects forward.

Zenith’s shares in London started trading at 7p but moved to over 10p.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakhstan cuts uranium production, forcing prices to rise

ALMATY, JAN. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan, the world’s top uranium producer, pledged to cut uranium output, immediately pushing up the price of the metal by 10%.

The production cut promise, and subsequent price rise, demonstrated just how much influence Kazakhstan has over the global uranium market. It currently produces around 40% of the world’s uranium.

Announcing the 10% cut in production, Kazatomprom chairman Askar Zhumagaliyev, said that 2016 had been scarred by a global oversupply of uranium.

“It will be better for our shareholders and stakeholders to leave these strategic uranium resources in soil, rather than use them in the current situation of oversupply,” media quoted him as saying. “The uranium will be produced when the situation improves in the markets in the coming years.”

Uranium prices collapsed in 2016, hitting a 12-year low of $18/pound in mid-December. This represented a drop of 25% since September.

Analysts blamed a number of factors.

A tsunami in 2011 knocked out the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. Fukushima had been a major buyer of uranium before the accident and knocking it out of the market had triggered an immediate oversupply.

The accident at Fukushima also dented the reputation of nuclear power as a safe and reliable energy source and a drop in global oil prices also switched attention away from nuclear power and back to hydrocarbon-fired power which has dropped in price.

Kazakhstan has also contributed to the glut of uranium as it moved to become the world’s biggest supplier. Kazakh uranium production shifted from 18,000 tonnes in 2010 to 24,000 tonnes in 2016. In 2007, Kazatomprom mined 5,000 tonnes.

After the Kazakh cut announcement, which represents around 3% of global supply, Uranium’s spot price rose to $24.25/pound, its highest since September.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakh Central Bank to stress test the sector

JAN. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Clearly worried about the solvency of its commercial banks, the Kazakh Central Bank said it intends to stress test the sector in H1 2017. Oleg Smagulov, the deputy chairman of the Kazakh Central Bank, told the kapital.kz website that it wanted to limit banks’ expose to bad debt. Last month it cancelled KazInvestBank’s licence to operate and unnamed sources also told Bloomberg that Kazkomertsbank, the biggest Kazakh bank, may be looking for a government loan.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

EBRD to support power station construction in Georgia

JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will part-finance a new $14.3m hydropower station on the Lukhuni river in Georgia, media reported. Georgia produces much of its power from hydropower stations. Like its neighbours, Georgia is trying to boost its power generation capacity to keep pace with demand. The new power station will have a capacity of 17MW.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Georgia agrees for gas transit fee with Russia

JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a major success for Georgian energy minister Kakha Kaladze, Russia will start paying for the right to pump gas across Georgia, scrapping a barter arrangement that had allowed Georgia to keep a 10% share of the gas. Russian officials had resisted the shift to monetary payments but appear to have relented at talks in Geneva. Mr Kaladze did not name the transit price agreed with Russia.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Uzbekistan cancels move to scrap visas

JAN. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan cancelled plans to drop visa requirements for tourists only a few weeks after President Shavkat Mirziyoyev surprised people by promising to open up the notoriously hard-to-enter country.

The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website reported that Uzbekistan’s official legislation website had published a document delaying by four years the introduction of the visa-free regime for tourists. The document had been signed Mr Mirziyoyev.

In December he had said that tourists from Western countries would be allowed to enter the country for up to 30 days without a visa.

Kate Mallinson, a London-based Central Asia analyst, said that the change of plan on the tourists’ visa- free regime hinted at a power struggle within the Uzbek system.

“The Uzbek government’s volte face on allowing visa free entry highlights the continuing leverage of the hidden state and all-powerful security services, the SNB,” she said.

“The SNB fiercely scrutinises entry of foreigners into the country and will have challenged this move which would have significantly undermined its control.”

Uzbekistan has one of the most tightly controlled visa regimes in the world.

Mr Mirziyoyev’s move to relax it appeared linked to the increased openness after the death in September of Pres. Islam Karimov. Karimov had ruled since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union and was regarded by many as a harsh autocrat.

Since taking over as president, Mr Mirziyoyev has improved ties with Uzbekistan’s neighbours and promised to improve the country’s business environment.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Georgia sends first wool exports to Britain

TBILISI, JAN. 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia has started shipping wool to Britain, media reported, an important first step towards integrating its exports into the EU.

The Georgian Wool Company said it had exported 22 tonnes of wool to Britain in December and that it was preparing a second batch of 45 tonnes for export in January.

“Our British partners were satisfied with the first test shipment and placed an additional order,” Zaur Yuliev, a director at the Georgian Wool Company told Agenda.ge.

The deal is important to Georgia because it is the first animal product export to the EU. Georgia received permission to export wool to the EU a year ago and sees it as an important new market.

In July 2016 it signed an Association Agreement with the EU that was primarily aimed at helping it to export fruit, vegetable and other animal products to the EU. Georgian honey has been touted as a potentially major export.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)