NOV. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s state-owned telecoms operator UMS said it has expanded coverage of its 3G network to the provinces of Ferghana and Namangan. UMS installed 56 new base stations that will boost coverage both in the cities and in the rural areas. Central Asian countries have invested heavily in improving mobile connectivity across their territory.
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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
NOV. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The IMF downgraded Georgia’s economic growth to 2.7% this year, from an earlier estimate of 3.4%. The downgrade was due, it said to a slightly bigger than expected drop in remittances and exports. It also downgraded growth in 2017 to 4% from 5.2%. Like the rest of the region, a recession in Russia and falling currency values have hit Georgia’s economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
NOV. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered his government to modernise the country’s oil refineries so that it could boost its output of refined oil to 20m tonnes by 2020, 22m tonnes by 2022 and 25m tonnes by 2025, media reported. The Central Asia region in general has been suffering from a shortage of refinery capacity.
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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
NOV. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan expects total oil output next year to measure 39.8m tonnes, down from 41.3m tonnes this year, Russia’s Interfax news agency reporting quoting a government official. Oil is Azerbaijan’s most valuable commodity, although it is developing gas exports. The downturn confirms a general drop in production from Azerbaijan’s aging infrastructure despite a boost in investment.
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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
NOV. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Guernsey-registered Tethys Petroleum posted a 46% decline in revenues in Q3 2016, compared to the same period last year, due to a production slump and a decrease in the price that its Kazakh customers pay for its oil and gas supplies. The company said that average production declined by 57% to 742 barrels/day as production cost increased. In a separate corporate note, the company said that a Kazakh prosecutor had dismissed allegations of misconduct against its subsidiary, but said that its assets remained frozen.
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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)
BISHKEK, NOV. 17 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz MPS blamed the Eurasian Economic Union for unfair restrictions which have slowed meat exports.
The criticism of the Eurasian Economic Union, and the implied bias towards the bigger member states, is just the latest attacked on the Kremlin-led economic bloc from Kyrgyz politicians and businesses who have always been sceptical of the benefits of joining.
Earlier this year, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev said that the Eurasian Economic Union had actually resulted in a drop in exports and also created mountains of extra red tape for businesses to deal with.
In parliament, Kyrgyz PM Sooronbai Jeenbekov said that meat producers have not been able to export to Eurasian Economic Union states since it joined the bloc because of alleged sanitary infractions.
“Kyrgyzstan fulfils all terms of the Eurasian economic union,” he said. “But protection of individual interests does not contribute to the deepening and strengthening of integration as a whole.”
A few weeks ago, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev accused Kazakhstan, also a Eurasian Economic Union member, of reneging on a promise to build a new site on the border that would have allowed Kyrgyz producers to receive the necessary paperwork needed to export meat. He alleged that Kazakhstan was trying to prevent Kyrgyz meat imports to stamp out competition.
Like the rest of the Central Asia and South Caucasus region, Kyrgyzstan has been dealing with an economic downturn since 2014 linked to a fall in oil prices that triggered a recession in the Russian economy. Kyrgyz timing in joining the Eurasian Economic Union in August 2015 means that it has become even more tightly bound to Russia.
The Eurasian Economic Union includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)
NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russo-Kazakh Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) said it is ready to consider supporting the modernisation of the Nurek hydropower plant, the largest in Tajikistan. In an interview with Avesta, EDB chairman Dmitri Pankin said that, if the government asked for help, the EDB would help fund reconstruction work at the dam together with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The Tajik government had previously said the modernisation will cost $700m.
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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)
NOV. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a half-year report, the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), the country’s largest lender, said it completed the first stage of a cleanup of its toxic assets. In the first half of 2016, IBA transferred 9.9b manat (around $6b) to the government-owned credit company Aqrar Kredit. Azerbaijan’s ministry of finance owns 54.9% and Aqrar Kredit owns 27% in IBA.
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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)
NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting in Brussels, Turkmen and EU energy officials confirmed their commitment to making the so-called Caspian Development Corporation, which aims to send gas from Turkmenistan to Europe, become a reality. The Caspian Development Corporation is a concept that has been talked of and worked towards since at least 2010. One of the projects Caspian Development Corporation is exploring is building a pipeline across the Caspian seabed.
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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)
NOV. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — During an official visit, a delegation from SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state owned energy company, said it was interested in building an oil terminal in Cotonou, the capital of Benin. The SOCAR officials didn’t say why they were interested in building an oil terminal in Benin. Azerbaijan’s energy minister Natig Aliyev also visited Burkina Faso’s PM Paul Kaba Thieba and discussed potential cooperation between SOCAR and SONABHY, the coun- try’s state energy company.
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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)
