JAN. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh atomic agency, Kazatomprom, announced another new production high for uranium last year, underlining Kazakhstan’s importance to the global nuclear industry. In 2012, Kazatomprom, said that Kazakhstan produced 20,900 tonnes of uranium, up from 19,450 tonnes in 2010 and representing 37% of world supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 121, published on Jan. 25 2013)
JAN. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh atomic agency, Kazatomprom, announced another new production high for uranium last year, underlining Kazakhstan’s importance to the global nuclear industry. In 2012, Kazatomprom, said that Kazakhstan produced 20,900 tonnes of uranium, up from 19,450 tonnes in 2010 and representing 37% of world supplies.
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(News report from Issue No. 121, published on Jan. 25 2013)
DEC. 28 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan opened a faster rail link between Astana and the west of the country, media reported, highlighting the authorities’ drive to improve infrastructure. The train, running nearly 1,500km to Aktobe, will make the journey in 16 hours, knocking 11 hours off the previous time.
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(News report from Issue No. 119, published on Jan. 11 2013)
DEC. 28 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Swedish telecoms company TeliaSonera completed a deal worth $205m to buy WiMAX cables in six Kazakh cities from Alem Communications. WiMAX infrastructure is used to create 4G coverage. The deal, announced in August, also involved buying a stake in KazTransCom, another Kazakh company.
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(News report from Issue No. 119, published on Jan. 11 2013)
DEC. 25 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turganbek Stanbekov, the head of the Kazakh border guard security service, and 26 other military officials and crew died in a plane crash near Shymkent in southern Kazakhstan. Media reported that the plane had been trying to land at Shymkent airport in bad weather when it crashed.
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(News report from Issue No. 118, published on Dec. 28 2012)
DEC. 12 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp sacked three executives for their role in alleged bribe paying in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to win contracts, media reported. The news once again highlights a culture of corruption that still exists in Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 117, published on Dec. 14 2012)
DEC. 7 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – It is dry, that’s for sure, but Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index is also a decent benchmark of how countries are dealing with corruption in their systems — an issue that foreign investors, local businessmen, politicians and economists follow closely.
The 2012 edition makes for interesting reading on Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
Topping the table for the region is, again, Georgia at 51st place in the 176 country list. Armenia is next at 105th position, alongside the likes of the Philippines and Mexico.
Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan occupy 133 position with Russia and then follows Kyrgyzstan (154) and Tajikistan (157). Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan prop up the table in 170th position. Behind them lie only Somalia, North Korea, Sudan, Afghanistan and Myanmar.
And the big changes from last year? Well, Georgia continues to rise through the ranks, it was placed in 64th position last year, and Armenia has also jumped forward, from 129th in 2011. Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan have also improved their rankings, slightly.
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have remained fairly consistent.
By comparison, though, the biggest faller from the Central Asia and South Caucasus region was Kazakhstan which fell 13 places in the rankings from 120th position in 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 116, published on Dec. 7 2012)
DEC. 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Swedish telecoms company TeliaSonera earned $525m from the sale of its 25% stake in Kcell, Kazakhstan’s largest mobile operator, in an IPO in London. This is slightly lower than some analysts had anticipated when TeliaSonera announced the sale last month.
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(News report from Issue No. 117, published on Dec. 14 2012)
NOV. 26 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Touted as an emerging superpower, India has still appeared sluggish in exerting its influence over Central Asia.
India’s moves in the region had been either incremental, such as talks with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on military cooperation, or long term, such as the TAPI pipeline which will, if everything goes to plan, pump gas from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan and Pakistan to India.
This week, though, India took a giant leap forward in cementing real influence in the region. US energy company ConocoPhillips said it intended to sell its 8.4% stake in the Kashagan oil field development project not to Kazakh state energy company KazMunaiGas but to India’s state-run ONGC.
This is significant as KazMunaiGas would have had the first option to buy the stake. Instead, KazMunaiGas appears to have stood aside to allow ONGC in, although this could still change. It’s going to cost ONGC a reported $5b but with it comes significant influence. Kashagan is Kazakhstan’s most high-profile and prestigious energy project.
Websites have also reported that India wants to invest directly into Turkmenistan’s gas fields. If confirmed, this would be more evidence of India’s stirring ambition in the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 115, published on Nov. 30 2012)
NOV. 26-30 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy representative, completed a whirlwind tour of Georgia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. On her travels she met with opposition leaders as well as the heads of states. Her office said she discussed bilateral cooperation as well as human rights.
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(News report from Issue No. 115, published on Nov. 30 2012)
