Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

‘Silk Road’ train links UK and China via Kazakhstan

APRIL 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A train carrying whisky, baby food and vitamins left a depot in southern England at the start of an 18-day journey through Central Asia to China.

This modern-day ‘Silk Road’ odyssey is part of China’s push to promote freight transport by rail between East Asia and Europe.

At its heart, the 11,000km route relies upon a stable Central Asia with modern infrastructure and it shows just how important the region has become as a transport hub. The ‘Silk Road’ train will travel through Europe into Russia and then dip down into Kazakhstan before crossing into western China and terminating in Yiwu on the eastern coast Xubin Feng, the head of Yiwu Timex Investment Company, underlined the importance of the train.

“Restoring the ancient Silk Road as a means by which China, North Europe and now the UK can exchange goods is an important and exciting initiative,” he said.

The project is part of China’s drive to promote its so-called ‘One Belt, One Road’ programme. Three months ago, the first freight train arrived from China to Britain and several other European capitals have already been linked up to China by rail.

And this ‘One Belt, One Road’ policy is important for Central Asia, and in particular Kazakhstan, as it plays a vital, and potentially lucrative, stagepost role.

Kazakhstan has started to leverage its position as a link between Europe and East Asia and, as well as promoting its rail infrastructure, it has also promoted itself as a refuelling pitstop for airlines crossing to Asia.

Also, this year, the first train from Kazakhstan headed through China to Vietnam, opening up another route.

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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)

GE buys into Kazakh train engine maker

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ALMATY, APRIL 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — GE Transportation, a division of US engineering giant GE, bought a 50% stake in Kazakh train maker Lokomotiv Kurastyru Zauyty for an undisclosed amount.

The deal could be one of the biggest investments by a Western company in a Kazakh engineering company outside the extractive industries this year.

In a press release Jamie Miller, the GE Transportation CEO, as saying: “Kazakhstan has a strategic plan for its railroad to support economic growth and increased regional trade, and today’s announcement underscores GE’s commitment to working with KTZ to ensure that Kazakhstan’s rail infrastructure remains modern and reliable.”

For Kazakhstan the deal will likely be a relief, although the amount that GE Transportation paid for its 50% stake has not been released. It has been trying to attract more Western investment into industries outside the oil, gas and mining sectors. Its railway sector is one area in which it has been investing heavily.

Lokomotiv Kurastyru Zauyty was set up in 2009 by Kazakh railway company Temir Zholy and Russia’s Transmashholding. It is Central Asia and the South Caucasus’ biggest manufacturer of locomotive trains and exports across the region.

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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)

Kazakhstan to strip IS fighters citizenship

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APRIL 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev said that people convicted of fighting for IS would be stripped of their Kazakh citizenship. The Kazinform news agency also quoted Mr Nazarbayev as saying that between 500 and 600 Kazakhs had headed off to join IS over the past few years.

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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)

New airport terminal and train station to open in Kazakhstan

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APRIL 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s investment minister Zhenis Kasymbek said that a new airport terminal and a new railway station will open in mid-May, less than a month before Astana opens its EXPO-2017 exhibition. Media quoted Mr Kasymbek as saying that after it has been complete, Astana airport will be able to process 7.5m passengers every year. The EXPO-2017 exhibition is being touted as the biggest international festival held by Kazakhstan since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has said that he wants to use it to showcase modern day Kazakhstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)f

Nazarbayev wants Kazakh language to adopt Latin

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APRIL 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered officials to start preparing to switch Kazakh to the Latin alphabet by 2025. Mr Nazarbayev has long wanted to make the switch in what he sees as a part of a modernisation drive. Kazakh and Russian are both official languages in Kazakhstan, although Kazakh is becoming increasingly widespread. The switch to the Latin alphabet will bring Kazakhstan in line with its Central Asian neighbours, other than Kyrgyzstan, who all use it.

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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)

People lose faith in Kazakhstan’s healthcare after two deaths

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ALMATY, APRIL 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two deaths in hospitals in Almaty this year have unnerved the normally phlegmatic residents of Kazakhstan’s most populous city.

Investigations have been launched into the death of 26-year- old Aleksey Gubenko who died in March at a private hospital while being treated for sinusitis and Yerzhan Kulbayev who died in a state-run hospital in January after having his kidney removed, apparently illegally to pay off a loan.

Trust in Kazakhstan’s healthcare system is waning, whether it is private or state. An opinion poll in January by the demos.kz website showed that 65% of people rated the healthcare at three out of five or lower and 61% of the respondents said that the healthcare staff were not competent.

For 24-year-old Leila, an accountant, news of the two deaths in hospital did not come as a surprise.

“I do not have any illusions regarding Kazakhstan’s healthcare system, so I am not surprised with these cases,” she said. “Obviously, I do not trust our doctors and state hospitals have big queues of people waiting too.”

Sergey, a taxi driver, said that it was better not to be sick in Kazakhstan and to avoid doctors.

“We are all mortal, you never know what will happen to you in half an hour,” he said.

“It is just better not to be sick and be less engaged with the healthcare system.”

Poor morale among staff and underfunding have characterised Kazakhstan’s healthcare system. In 2015, Almas Kurmanov, the then head of budget at the ministry of health told media that the healthcare budget needed to be doubled or tripled. He said that Kazakhstan was spending $254/person on health compared to an average in the OECD of $2,400/person.

Earlier this year too, five senior executives, including the CEO, at the state-run medicine distribution company SK-Pharmacy were sacked and arrested for bribe-taking.

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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)

Markets: Central Asia Metals

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APRIL 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Central Asia Metals, which is focused on Kazakhstan, posted turnover up 3% at $69.3m for 2016, helping to push up its share price to a five-week high of 242p by April 10.

This has since come off slightly but Central Asia Metals is still threatening to push past an all-time high of 246p set in mid-February. That’s certainly what analysts think. Most of them reiterated a ‘buy’ rating with Peel Hunt targeting 255p and FinnCap targeting 264p.

One of the main attractions for shareholders is the strong dividend that Central Asia Metals pays out. The Motley Fool, a stock analysis blog, explained.

“Shareholders will reap the benefit of this strong performance.

As much as 31% of last year’s revenue will be returned to shareholders by way of a total dividend of 15.5p. This gives a yield of 6.7% at the current share price of 229p,” the Motley Fool wrote before the share price started rising.

“This isn’t a one-off performance. The company’s dividend policy is to return at least 20% of revenue from Kounrad to shareholders each year.”

Kounrad is Central Asia Metal’s low-cost copper producing site in Balkhash, central Kazakhstan.

To underline the Motley Fool’s point, take a look at previous dividends. In 2015 and 2014, Central Asia Metals paid out 12.5p, in 2013 9p and in 2012 10.7p.

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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)f

Hungary’s Wizz Air to fly budget flights to Kazakhstan

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ALMATY, APRIL 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air said it would open a route from Budapest to Astana, making it the first European budget airline to fly to Kazakhstan.

The first flight will take off from Budapest on June 8, the Wizz Air website said, and the starting price of a one-way ticket will be 40 euros.

The accouchement of the new route, which has been the subject of negotiations since last year, was greeted with excitement by young Kazakhs who want easier access to Europe.

“I think it is a very good news because due to our geographical location it is not that easy to reach Europe and tickets are quite expensive, especially after devaluation (of the tenge in 2015),” said Sabina Serikova, 29, communication specialist. “And now, I think, every working person and even student can afford to go to Europe.”

In a statement, Wizz Air said it would fly twice a week to Astana. It also referenced Astana’s EXPO-2017 exhibition, also opening in June, as a reason to visit the Kazakh capital.

“Connecting the capitals of Hungary and Kazakhstan, we expect this service to significantly contribute to the development of economic and business relations between the two countries and we also believe that our low fares will attract a large number of visitors to both cities stimulating tourism and hospitality industries,” the statement quoted Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi.

Wizz Air, which sees itself as a pan-Central Europe airline, is fast establishing itself as the European airline that best serves the region. It already flies to Kutaisi and Baku.

By comparison, British Airways has cut all its routes to the region over the past few years although other European airlines, Lufthansa and KLM, have retained theirs.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Kazakhstan-focused oil producer posts 47% revenue fall

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APRIL 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tethys, the embattled London- listed oil producer with interests in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Georgia, said that its revenues from oil and gas sales had fallen by 47% in 2016 to $11.7m. It said that the drop was due to a fall in production and a devaluation of the tenge in the second half of 2015. Tethys sells most of its oil in Kazakhstan’s domestic market.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

First shipment from Kazakhstan arrives in Baku

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MARCH 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The first shipment of goods from Kazakhstan’s new Kuryk port on the Caspian Sea reached Baku on March 24, a specialist shipping website reported. The port was commissioned in 2014 when the Kazakh economy was looking stronger than it is now. Kuryk is significantly closer to Baku than Aktau, Kazakhstan’s main Caspian Sea port. The freight ship took 18 hours to reach Baku, rather than the normal 22 hours.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)