Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

UAE and Kazakhstan agree to financial deals

MAY 11/12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) laid the groundwork for more collaboration in the financial sector with a couple of deals.

At a meeting in the UAE, the Dubai International Financial Centre and the Kazakh Central Bank agreed to exchange expertise and coordinate strategies, while Nasdaq Dubai and the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) inked an agreement to link their financial instruments.

Luca Anceschi, professor of Central Asian Studies at Glasgow University said: “These new financial links between Almaty and Dubai open another avenue besides construction and trade in non-state sectors.”

ENDS

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

Imports drop in Kazakhstan

MAY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan imported goods worth 6.3% less in March 2015 compared to March 2014, media reported quoting the Central Bank, further evidence, if it was needed, of the economic stagnation that has hit the region. Exports were down 19.5%.

ENDS

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

Kazakh President backs EEU

MAY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev said the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union had a strong future despite current trade problems. Mr Nazarbayev made the comments after meeting Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Kazakhstan and Russia have erected trade barriers over the past few months.

ENDS

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

Kazakhstan aims help for mortgages

APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Apparently worried about people defaulting on mortgage payments, the Kazakh Central Bank has set up a 130b tenge ($700m) fund. Kazakh media said the Central Bank will loan cash to commercial banks who will then help people who took out mortgages, possibly in dollars, between 2004 and 2009.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

Kazakhstan bans Russian poultry

APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan banned poultry products from Russia after the Russian ministry of agriculture identified an outbreak of Bird Flu on the Caspian Sea near the Kazakh border.

Some analysts and media pundits, though, said Kazakhstan’s speedy ban on poultry goods from Russia was an escalation of a trade war.

Although both Kazakhstan and Russia are members of the Eurasian Economic Union, a Kremlin-led club supposed to smooth trade in the region, the fall in the value of the Russian rouble has increased tension. Businesses in Kazakhstan have been lobbying the government to impose barriers against the now far-cheaper goods from Russia.

It has banned oil-product imports as well as butter, chocolate, sweets and mayonnaise to defend jobs and companies. In retaliation, Russia has banned flour and dairy products from Kazakhstan.

Both governments have denied they are involved in a trade war and have instead insisted that various bans have been triggered by health concerns.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

Chinese President to visit Kazakhstan

MAY 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – En route to Moscow for celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany, Chinese President Xi Jinping plans a stop in Astana to meet Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, media reported. His stopover highlights the close Kazakhstan-China relations.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

Kazakh PM keeps position

APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev reappointed Karim Massimov as his PM after officially being sworn in as Kazakhstan’s leader. As a formality, the PM and all the ministers have to resign after a presidential election.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

Kazakh energy company revenues drop

APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Revenue at Kazmunaigas EP, the London-listed unit of Kazakhstan’s state energy company, fell by 47% last year because of the collapse in oil prices, it said at its annual results. Importantly, too, salaries increased by 10% at Kazmunaigas after last year’s devaluation of the Kazakh tenge.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

Kazakhstan to resume pumping oil in Caspian Sea

APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Vladimir Shkolnik, Kazakhstan’s energy minister, said the Caspian Sea oil project Kashagan would resume pumping oil in December 2016. This estimation is a few weeks earlier than Western energy companies linked to the project have suggested. Oil from Kashagan was suspended in 2013.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)

Kazakh Kommertsbank director resigns

MAY 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Nurzhan Subkhanberdin resigned as director of Kazkommertsbank after selling a 7.2% stake in the bank, one of the largest in Kazakhstan, to Kenes Rakishev, the son-in-law of the Kazakh defence minister.

Although Mr Subkhanberdin still owns 37.8% of Kazkommertsbank his ousting from the board effectively completes the takeover of Kazkommertsbank by businessmen
loyal to President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Earlier this year Mr Subkhanberdin was replaced as chairman of Kazkommertsbank, a position he had held since setting it up in 1991.

The London-based Mr Subkhanberdin was viewed with suspicion. He had openly sup- ported opponents of Mr Nazarbayev in the early 2000s.

Last year, Kazkommertsbank had been cajoled into a merger with BTA Bank, which the government rescued from bankruptcy in 2009. The merger imposed BTA Bank’s large portfolio of bad loans onto Kazkommertsbank, hitting its profits. In 2014, Kazkommertsbank said on April 30, profit dropped by 55%.

The deal is another major boon for Mr Rakishev too. He now owns 23.34% of the bank.

Mr Rakishev, 35, is closely linked to the Kazakh elite. Analysts have said the Kazakh elite use Mr Rakishev to buy companies and to hold shares in businesses.

He is married to the daughter of the minister of defence Imangali Tasmagambetov, one of President Nazarbayev’s closest associates.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)