Tag Archives: economy

Kazakhstan appoints new Central Bank chief

OCT. 9 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — If the outgoing Kazakh Central Bank chief Grigory Marchenko was an independent-minded career finance-man, Kairat Kelimbetov, the new one, could not be more different.

Mr Kelimbetov, 44, has instead picked a career path through the ranks of Kazakh officialdom based on efficiency and party loyalty. Now he has been thrust into the spotlight as the surprise choice of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to replace Mr Marchenko.

Some say Mr Nazarbayev sacked Mr Marchenko, others that he resigned for family reasons. Whatever the reason, Mr Kelimbetov takes over a demanding brief. Mr Nazarbayev has said that he wants to unite Kazakhstan’s pension funds. There is also intensifying downward pressure on the tenge.

Mr Kelimbetov is the son of a well-known Kazakh academic. His peers are the group of Kazakhs in their mid-40s who are now assuming some of the top jobs. These include Timur Kulibayev, the president’s son-in-law.

He started his career at various government planning departments before becoming the minister of economy in 2002. That posting launched his career which began to carry the hallmarks of a favourite of Mr Nazarbayev.

Mr Kelimbetov was made a deputy head of Mr Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan political party in 2007 and for a few months in 2008 he was head of the presidential administration, a powerful position. In 2008, he took over as chairman of Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna until 2012 when he became a deputy prime minister.

At each stage of his career, Mr Kelimbetov has parachuted into a role picked for him by Mr Nazarbayev. Heading the Central Bank is another important notch in his distinctive career resume.

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(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)

Protest erupts in Kyrgyzstan’s main gold mine

OCT. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Around 200 people protested in east Kyrgyzstan against a potential deal between the Kyrgyz government and Toronto-listed Centerra Gold over ownership of the Kumtor Gold mine. Media reported that the protesters kidnapped the regional governor briefly. Anti-government groups are likely to have organised the protests.

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(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)

IMF forecasts strong growth for Kyrgyzstan

OCT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The IMF has predicted strong economic growth for Kyrgyzstan because of rising output at the Kumtor gold mine, Reuters reported. Kumtor is Kyrgyzstan’s largest industrial asset. Problems with the pit at Kumtor slowed production last year. This year, the IMF said, Kyrgyzstan’s GDP would grow by nearly 8%.

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(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)

Uzbekistan signs major cotton deal with China

SEPT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Shaking off the West’s child labour accusations, Uzbekistan signed a major cotton export deal with China, media reported. Uzbekistan will now export 300,000 tonnes of cotton fibre to China, half its total production.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

ICG report shows inequality problems in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s oil wealth is masking major structural problems, a report by the Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group (ICG) said. Corruption, a lack of a succession plan, spreading Islamic extremism and inequalities are the main problems, the report said.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

ICG says inequalities are a problem for Kazakhstan

OCT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan may look like a stable and prosperous nation, the influential Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group (ICG) wrote in a new report, but this glossy facade hides serious structural problems.

The ICG report is a rare foray into Kazakhstan. The think tank normally concentrates on Kazakhstan’s more obviously problematic southern Central Asian neighbours.

And that’s really the point that the ICG makes. Kazakhstan may look different from the rest of Central Asia but its energy wealth is hiding very similar problems.

These are, the report said, an aging autocratic leader without a proper succession plan, official corruption, spreading Islamic extremism and a yawning inequality gap.

Kazakh officials point to the country’s rise through various global indexes but the ICG was unequivocal.

“Kazakhstan risks becoming just another Central Asian authoritarian regime that squandered the advantages bestowed on it by abundant natural resources,” it said.

Perhaps the least documented of these issues is the inequality gap. Astana and Almaty are booming. It doesn’t take long, though, for the landscape to change.

“Many rural residents learn only from state television that they live in a prosperous energy-rich country,” the ICG wrote. “Residents of a small village only 60km from Astana do not have a regular supply of drinking water in the winter and say the authorities have ignored their situation for years.”

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Inflation continues to go up in Armenia

SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Inflation in Armenia continued to climb in August, bucking the Central Bank’s forecast. Media reported that in August prices were 9.3% higher than the same time last year. In July annualised inflation had been 8.5%. This is double the Central Bank’s target. It has increased interest rates to 8.5% this year.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Kazakhstan increases harvest forecast

SEPT. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has increased its grain harvest forecast for 2013 to 18.5m tonnes from around 16m tonnes, media reported quoting agriculture minister Asylzhan Mamytbekov. The grain harvest has become an increasingly important part of Kazakhstan’s economy. In 2011 it harvested a post-Soviet record of 27m tonnes of grain.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Armenians welcome the Customs Union

YEREVAN/Armenia, OCT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — President Serzh Sargsyan’s announcement last month that Armenia will join the Russia-led Customs Union was a surprise both for officials and local people.

Armenia has been negotiating to join the EU for four years and a document representing progress was expected to be signed in November in Vilnius, Lithuania. Still, 14 of the 20 people interviewed by The Conway Bulletin on a mild September evening in central Yerevan supported the move.

Importantly, though, they backed Armenia’s entry into the Customs Union, which also includes Kazakhstan and Belarus, not to improve their economic prospects but because they considered Russia the best defender of peace from perceived Azerbaijani aggression.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are still officially at war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia maintains a large military base in Armenia.

“We’re living in very dangerous times. Syria, Nagorno-Karabakh, Iran, war. We’ve no other alternative,” said 33-year-old Minasyan Levon.

Liana Gevorgyan agreed. “We’ve no choice,” she said. “It’s better than feeling insecure.”

Some also said Russia’s traditional Christian Orthodox values were important.

“The EU is not only about trade, it’s also about homosexuals, feminism and a range of Western moral norms which ruins our country and its identity,” said Davit, 40.

(Correspondent’s Notebook from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Kazakhstan changes Central Bank chief

OCT. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked the country’s long-serving Central Bank chief Grigory Marchenko in a surprise move that may sow doubt over Kazakhstan’s economic direction.

Former economy minister Kairat Kelimbetov will take over from Mr Marchenko.

Mr Nazarbayev didn’t give a clear reason for sacking Mr Marchenko, considered a favourite of investors. Mr Marchenko, 53, was brought in to head Kazakhstan’s Central Bank for a second time in 2009 to help weather the financial crisis. Under his leadership Kazakhstan nationalised a handful of banks that were teetering on the brink of collapse and devalued the tenge national currency.

Mr Marchenko won international plaudits and in 2011 was touted as a possible replacement for Dominique Strass- Kahn, the disgraced French politician, as head of the IMF.

More recently, Kazakhstan’s Central Bank has been grappling with downward pressure on the tenge and the reorganisation of the country’s pension funds.

Mr Nazarbayev may have just decided that it was time for a change and to replace the notoriously independent-minded Mr Marchenko with the more pliant Mr Kelimbetov.

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)