Tag Archives: civil infrastructure

Gazprom wants 60% of Kyrgyz households to have gas

SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting in Bishkek, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev the Russian gas monopoly wanted 60% of the country to have access to gas.

Gazprom bought the Kyrgyz gas network in 2013 but this is its first major plan for Kyrgyzstan’s pipeline system. Mr Miller said the plan would cost $700m and mean building 2,500km of new gas pipes.

“We are working ahead of our schedule with the government to get Kyrgyzstan ready for the winter,” Mr Miller said at the press conference. He also noted that construction work on the final section of the Tashkent Bishkek-Almaty gas pipeline had started.

The Tashkent–Bishkek-Almaty gas pipeline is touted as a key component of Central Asia’s energy nexus as it will double capacity being sent from Uzbekistan to populated areas in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

World Bank approves loans to Uzbekistan

JULY 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The World Bank approved a $305m loan to Uzbekistan to update and modernise its motorway network and a second loan of $105m to improve the irrigation network in the Bukhara region, media reported. Human rights groups have criticises the world Bank for the loans.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

Tajikistan needs $2b to fix water supply

JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan needs to invest about $2b into its infrastructure if it wants to provide clean drinking water for its entire population, Alimurod Islomzoda, head of the Tajik state public utilities company, said.

This is a rare public omission in Tajikistan but Mr Islomzoda didn’t stop there. He also said that updating the system would take 80 years.

“To date, only some 57 percent of the country’s population has access to safe drinking water,” the Asia-Plus news agency quoted Mr Islomzoda as saying. “About $2b is needed and the full rehabilitation of the water supply systems will take 80-85 years.”

Tajikistan is one of the poorest countries in the world and with vital remittances from Russia dropping by around 40% this year because of a downturn in the Russian economy, the outlook is looking worse.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)

EU grants Uzbekistan $168m

JULY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Union will give Uzbekistan $168m to boost infrastructure in rural areas, the European Commission envoy Yuri Sturk said.Mr Sturk specifically said that the EU grant was earmarked to improve irrigation and to boost renewable energies.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)

Armenia to build north-south motorway

JUNE 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s parliament approved a $150m loan from the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) to build a north-south motorway across the country. The EBD is headquartered in Almaty and is bankrolled mainly by Russia and Kazakhstan. It concentrates on member states of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 237, published on June 25 2015)

EBRD agreed loan with Armenia

MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it had agreed a €3.5m, 15-year loan with Armenia to build the country’s first EU-compliant landfill site. The EU has also agreed a €3.5m grant for the project.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Uzbekistan launches metering project

MAY 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – KT, the second largest South Korean mobile network, said that it had won a $110m contract to build an advanced electricity metering system. The project is in partnership with the Asian Development Bank. The plan is to install 1m metres in Uzbekistan’s three biggest cities by 2017.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)

Kazakh city to build a ring road

DEC. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan unveiled a project to build a six-lane 66km ring-road around Almaty which they hope will both ease congestion in the city and provide a new financing model for major infrastructure projects.

The FT reported that the number of cars in Almaty has exploded by 50% in the last five years. Anybody walking around its choked-up streets at rush hour will be able to taste the exhaust fumes in the air.

With support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Kazakhstan has launched a plan to raise $680m in what has been dubbed its first internationally-tendered public-private partnership scheme.

Importantly, as the EBRD’s infrastructure chief, Thomas Meier, said the project is a test of Kazakhstan’s attractiveness and in particular law changes made this year. Most important of these was that any disputes concerning infrastructure developments would be settled by international arbitration.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)

South Kyrgyzstan survives without gas

MAY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan said that Uzbekistan was still restricting gas supplies to its southern city of Osh. Osh has reportedly been without gas for a few weeks, generating some social tension. Uzbekistan’s Soviet era gas system supplies southern Kyrgyzstan with gas. Relations between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are strained.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

ADB approves road project in Azerbaijan

FEB. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to approve a $45m loan next month to finance the reconstruction of road and bridges along the Georgian border, Azerbaijani media reported. The ADB has been instrumental in pushing ahead plans to rebuild Azerbaijan’s Soviet-era infrastructure.

(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)