Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakh Riot police steps in

FEB. 15/16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Riot police in the southern Kazakh region of Zhambyl broke up a potential race riot after ethnic Kazakhs accused Turks of murdering a 16-year-old boy. Video from the confrontation showed police in full body armour with dogs trying to separate a group of people who had gathered around a house in the village of Burylov. The incident highlights the fragile social spectrum in regional Kazakhstan just as the economy worsens.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)

Carrefour opens first store in Kazakhstan

FEB. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev toured a newly-opened Carrefour supermarket in Almaty in a publicity stunt aimed at showing that despite a collapse in both oil prices and the tenge, Kazakhstan’s economy was still prospering.

Instead, though, the video of the Mr Nazarbayev’s walk-about appeared to betray how out-of-touch he was with ordinary people.

“Why are these called dirty,” Mr Nazarbayev said pointing at a pile of unwashed root vegetables – possibly carrots, possibly potatoes. “These are normal.”

Carrefour’s Kazakhstan director, Stephane Maurier, who was walking around the supermarket with Nazarbayev, explained. “We have clean and dirty,” he said.

Mr Nazarbayev, though, wasn’t impressed. “These are better than the clean ones,” he said and again pointed at the unwashed vegetables. “You don’t know what they are washed with.”

Things didn’t improve when Mr Nazarbayev, looking stiff in his tailored suit but smiling and apparently enjoying his trip to the supermarket, visited other sections.

He said the bananas were not ripe enough, told Mr Maurier croissants were unhealthy and dangerous and had to clarify with an elderly woman shopping for bread that 70 tenge ($0.2) was an average price for a loaf.

This particular Carrefour was located in the Grand Park shopping centre in Almaty. The franchise holder is Dubai-based Majid Al Futtaim Group which operates other Carrefour shops around the world.

It was the first of nine planned stores that Carrefour wants to open in Kazakhstan. Five of the stores will be located in Almaty; four in Astana.

The opening of the Carrefour stores will give Kazakhstan’s battered economy a boost, create hundreds of jobs and hand Mr Nazarbayev more photo-ops in supermarkets.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)

Alstom partners with Kazakh railway

FEB. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – French train-maker Alstom has bought another 25% stake in EKZ, its joint-venture in Kazakhstan with Kazakh state railway company Temir Zholy and Russia’s Transmashholding, media reported. The deal means that Alstom is now the majority partner in EKZ. It may also show Kazakhstan’s willingness to sell off part of its most cherished companies to foreigners so that it can raise cash during the worsening economic downturn.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)

Kazakh GDP rises by 1.2%

FEB. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s statistic committee said the country’s GDP grew by 1.2% in 2015, its lowest rate for six years. The official figure is in line with what analysts expected. Both Halyk Finance, part of one of Kazakhstan’s biggest banks, and the Economist Intelligence Unit expect Kazakhstan’s GDP to shrink in 2016 if oil prices stay at $35/barrel.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)

Tele2 merges with Kazakhstan’s Altel

FEB. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Swedish telecoms company Tele2 said a deal to merge its operations in Kazakhstan with Altel, owned by KazakhTelecom, was close to completion. The deal was announced last November. The new company will be 51% owned by Altel and 49% by Tele2, although the voting rights will be reversed. It will have a market share of around 22%, behind Kcell and Beeline, the brand name of Russia’s Vimpelcom.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

Volume of Turkish goods entering Kazakhstan rises tenfold

FEB. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The volume of Turkish products entering Kazakhstan through Aktau, its main Caspian Sea port, has increased by 10 times since Russia imposed sanctions on Turkey in December, media reported quoting the Kazakh Chamber of Entrepreneurs .

Turkish producers appear to have targeted Central Asia as a decent market since Russia imposed sanctions after a Turkish warplane shot down a Russian warplane over Syria.

Products are sent to Azerbaijan, a strong Turkish ally, and then shipped over the Caspian to Aktau.

The row has put countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus in a difficult position as they need to maintain good ties with both neighbours. Russia has said it is monitoring Central Asia to make sure it is not used as a backdoor way for Turkish goods to enter the country.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

Kazakh president orders spending spree

FEB. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered his government to spend more than 360b tenge ($1b) building houses and supporting small and medium-sized businesses, a policy he hopes will both stimulate Kazakhstan’s flatlining economy and cement support for his Nur Otan party ahead of parliamentary elections next month.

His plan also involves trying to protect both Kazakhstan’s $4b national pension pot by diversifying investments into other currencies and second tier banks by buying up their bonds, a form of financial aid.

With more data showing that low oil prices and a devalued currency have dragged down Kazakhstan’s economy, Mr Nazarbayev appears to have decided that now is the moment to be bold.

“Many countries have found themselves in a difficult situation and are forced to cut social spending, suspend projects, resulting in rising unemployment. Yet we continue building industrial facilities and open new markets,” he told a government meeting. “At the centre of all my orders are the needs of the common man, his well-being and stability.”

Three government financial insti- tutions — the Baiterek Holding company, the House Building Bank of Kazakhstan and the Samruk Kazyna sovereign wealth fund — will admin- ister funds for the house building spending spree, official media reported. The $1b will come from pushing cash earmarked for a social spending in 2017 forward by a year.

Mr Nazarbayev likes to act the father figure, looking after the Kazakh people during times of hardship. This showed through with his emphasis on looking after the common man. He said that his spending plans would create 18,000 jobs, build 42 new schools and extend and improve the electric grid system.

“Full and effective utilisation of funds allocated for the implementation of these measures will stimulate economic activity, support employment and add 1% into economic growth in 2016,” he said.

If Mr Nazarbayev needed a reminder of the battle he faces to turn around the economy, it came from the Central Bank. It said the country’s deficit measured $5.3b in 2015, a result of the currency depreciation. The tenge halved in value in 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

Kazakhstan posts current account deficit

FEB. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan posted a $5.3b current account deficit in 2015, the Central Bank said. The balance of payments in Kazakhstan has been in the red for six consecutive quarters now. The Central Bank said a sharp drop in the price of oil has cut the value of Kazakhstan’s main export. The new Central Bank figures show a 42.6% drop in the US dollar value of Kazakhstan’s exports in 2015, compared to the previous year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

TCO posts production record in Kazakhstan

FEB. 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tengizchevroil, the Chevron-operated oil project near Atyrau in western Kazakhstan, produced a record 27.16m tonnes of oil in 2015, up from 26.7m tonnes in 2014, media reported quoting the company. The data underlines Tengizchevroil’s status as Kazakhstan’s biggest oil exporter. It was supposed to have been overtaken by the giant Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea by now but faulty gas pipes have had to be repaired on this project, delaying production until either the end of this year or 2017.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)

Kazakh President tells people not to panic

JAN 29 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — At a televised conference for his Nur Otan political party, a stony faced Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev played down a 50% drop in the value of the tenge currency and told viewers to look at the economic positives.

Mr Nazarbayev likes to act the elder father figure during times of economic and political strife in Kazakhstan and with oil prices at a 12- year-low, government spending being cut and inflation rising, Mr Nazarbayev clearly thought it was time to calm the increasingly jittering nerves of his countrymen.

“We have been living with $30 per barrel oil for half a year now and nothing has happened. We will overcome (this) and maybe we should get used to this, I think it has come here to stay,” he told the 2,000 assembled delegates.

Kazakh officials know that they are treading a thin line and are eager to head off any sign of discontent.

In Azerbaijan, unease at the economic malaise triggered several clashes between protesters and police in regional towns last month but in Kazakhstan, the authorities have been able to dampen public frustration.

Judging the public mood — when to be firm and when to be conciliatory — is a key skill during this time of economic hardship and one that Mr Nazarbayev has previously shown that he is adept at.

Last month, Mr Nazarbayev called a parliamentary election for March, 18 months early. Analysts said that this had been arranged so that Mr Nazarbayev and his officials could hold an election now, before the economic situation worsened further.

At the Nur Otan conference, though, Mr Nazarbayev avoided mention of the election and instead told Kazakhs that the government was working hard to look after them.

“We support our working population through implementation of the Employment Roadmap-2020 Program. There is no place for unemployment in Kazakhstan. We have all resources in place to avoid it,” he said.

Official unemployment figures in Kazakhstan are considered unreliable. Correspondents in Kazakhstan, though, and reports from various regional towns suggest that people are losing their jobs.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 266, published on Feb. 5 2016)