Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan’s Bek Air buys 7 Russian planes

JULY 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – So, is this the price of membership of the Russia-led Customs Union? Kazakhstan’s Bek Air has agreed to buy seven Sukhoi Superjet 100-95s for an undisclosed amount.

The Sukhoi Superjet 100-95s were unveiled to much fanfare in 2008 but sales have been sluggish and the reviews less than flattering.

In 2012, Armenian airline Armavia returned its Sukhoi Superjet after a year of flying it between Yerevan and Kiev because it was deemed to be sub-standard.

A few months earlier, in May 2012, a Superjet 100 had crashed into mountains in Indonesia during a demonstration flight killing all 45 people on board. Pilot error was declared the cause of the accident.

The Sukhoi Superjet-100 is the first passenger plane to be manufactured by Russia since the end of the Soviet Union. It is designed for medium and short-haul flights and has a capacity of between 86 and 108 passengers, depending on how the seating is arranged, and retails for around $35m per plane.

Bek Air is an almost perfect client for Sukhoi, which is a majority Russian state-owned company. Bek Air flies internal routes across Kazakhstan between Almaty, Astana, Uralsk and Atyrau.

Importantly Bek Air is also Kazakh. Kazakhstan is a junior member of the Customs Union, soon to morph into the Eurasian Economic Union, and will be under pressure to buy kit from Russia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)

Islamic radicals jailed in Kazakhstan

JULY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in the southern Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan sentenced four people to between six and 12 years in prison for trying to recruit young men to fight for Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq. Central Asian states are increasingly nervous about extremist recruitment drives.

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(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)

French president to visit Kazakhstan

JULY 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – French president Francois Hollande will visit Kazakhstan in the second half of 2014, the Kazakh government said. France has major investments in Kazakhstan and cooperation is growing between the two countries. There is also talk of setting up direct flights to Astana from Paris.

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(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)

Kazakhstan relaxes visa regime

JULY 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – As announced last month, Kazakhstan dropped visa requirements from 10 countries for people staying less than 15 days. The move is a trial but could be expanded if successful. The countries are the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, the UAE, Malaysia, the Netherlands, S.Korea, and Japan.

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(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)

Kazakhstan buys 10 planes

JULY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan finalised a deal with Canada’s Bombardier aircraft maker to buy 10 Q400 passenger aircraft for $230m for its new domestic airline.

The Q400 is a 70 person twin-propeller airplane, designed for short range flights.

The size of the deal underlines Kazakhstan’s spending power and also its drive to build an airline specifically to service its domestic air routes.

Domestic transport is one sector that the Kazakh government has ploughed cash into over the past few years, specifically upgrading its rail and flight network.

“Each aircraft cost $23m. In March and April 2015 five or six aircraft will be delivered to Kazakhstan. From then on, they will start to operate domestic flights,” media quoted Nurjan Shakirov, head of the newly incorporated Air Kazakhstan, as saying.

This is, of course, good news for Kazakh air travels as well as for business and industry. It’s unclear, though, what impact this new airline will have on Air Astana, the country’s current flag carrier. Officials have said that Air Astana will concentrate on international flights and major regional routes, such as Almaty to Astana, while Air

Kazakhstan will connect less frequent domestic routes.

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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

Kazakh city in race for 2022 Games

JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan, or Almaty to be precise, has made it into the final round of three to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

This in itself is an achievement. The other two finalists have long Olympic pedigree. Beijing hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 2008 and Oslo has already hosted the Winter Games in 1952. In 1994, Lillehammer, in central Norway, also hosted the Winter Olympic Games.

In the last Winter Olympic Games in Sochi earlier this year Norway won 11 gold medals and China won three. Kazakhstan, by comparison, won just one bronze medal in ice skating.

Almaty may be a rank outsider in terms of Olympic pedigree but it is still an attractive option for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC wants to break into new territories for its Winter Games. The options are slightly limited by the weather and the expensive, exclusive nature of winter sports.

Almaty ticks a good number of boxes. It is keen, can pay for the facilities and has plenty of snow.

Of course there are pitfalls too. Kazakhstan’s human rights record and commitment to democracy is patchy and many of the facilities needed to host the Winter Olympics are unbuilt. Also, with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the IOC may decide that having another one so soon in the former Soviet Union is just too much for everybody.

The IOC decides on its 2022 winter venue on July 31 2015. Almaty has just over a year to put together a bid that could finally bring the Olympics to Kazakhstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

House prices rise 21% in Kazakhstan

JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The cost of buying a home in Kazakhstan continues to rise. The latest figures from the national statistics agency showed house prices had increased by 21% in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2014. Policymakers worry that the Kazakh housing market is hitting a bubble.

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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

Prisoners riot in Western Kazakhstan

JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prisoners in a jail in western Kazakhstan rioted over conditions, media reported. Human rights groups regularly complain to Kazakhstan about conditions that it keeps prisoners in. An official told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the riot had been quashed by law enforcement officers.

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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

Anti-monopoly chief detained in Kazakhstan

JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Almaty detained the chief of the state anti-monopolies commission, Murat Ospanov, for allegedly taking a $200,000 bribe, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Kazakhstan appears to be pursuing an anti- corruption drive and has detained several high-ranking officials.

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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

Chinese firm boosts Tajik cement output

JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An official at the Tajik ministry for industry told the Asia Plus news agency that the country was a step closer to cement self-sufficiency thanks largely to the work of Huaksin Gayur Cement, a factory completed last year that can produce 1m tonnes of cement annually.

That figure dwarfs the productive capacity of national champion Tajik Cement, which produces four or five times less. Tajikistan consumes 1.5m tonnes of cement per year and imports from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and Russia.

The 75% Chinese-owned enterprise in the capital Dushanbe is one of several key Chinese investments to have popped up in Tajikistan over the last year. In addition to building heating plants for Dushanbe and Tajikistan’s second city, Khujand, China has begun construction of an oil refinery in Khatlon province that will almost meet Tajikistan’s domestic fuel needs.

Factory-by-factory, Beijing is also easing the employment crisis in the world’s most remittance-dependent country. Huaksin Gayur Cement has provided over 400 local jobs. The Khatlon refinery will provide a similar number.

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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)

China’s investment surge in impoverished Tajikistan is beginning to show results.