Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

Currencies: Azerbaijan’s manat, Kazakhstan’s tenge

JAN. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In Azerbaijan, people took to the streets to protest against inflation and unemployment. The manat grew slightly to 1.58/$1, but what angers people most is the increase in prices, especially for imported goods.

In Kazakhstan, the tenge depreciated further to 366/$1, a 6% drop on the previous week. Many worry now that there could be no end to the downward spiral.

In Tajikistan, the somoni lost an additional 2% this week, trading at 7.38/$1. The currency slide in the country doesn’t seem to slow.

In Kyrgyzstan the Central Bank has kept the som stable at 75.9/$1 by intervening several times in the currency market. The Georgian Central Bank also protected the lari with a few interventions. In Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, the governments imposed further restrictions on the trade of foreign currencies, by limiting licenses to banks, airports and, in Azerbaijan’s case, hotels.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Stock market: Centerra Gold, Central Asia Metals

JAN. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Mining companies in Central Asia had different experiences this week.

In Toronto, Centerra Gold shares fell 6.6% to 7.01 Canadian dollars. The company’s optimistic results published on Jan. 11 gave its shares a short-lived boost at the beginning of the week, but the continuation of the row with the Kyrgyz government may be eroding investors’ confidence.

Kazakhstan-focused Central Asia Metals lost 8.2% in the week, but closed on an upward note at 128.75p on Thursday. Against this trend, KAZ Minerals gained 5% this week, closing at 94.5p.

Oil and gas companies continued to suffer through the lowest oil prices in a decade, now heading below $30/barrel. Tethys Petroleum, which had financial troubles in its operations in Tajikistan, lost 26% in London to close at 2.13p on Thursday. In the past week, Nostrum Oil & Gas shares lost 8.4% to 329.9p. Roxi Petroleum also lost 12.3% to close at 7.13p.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan border dispute arises

JAN. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz soldiers accused Uzbekistan of shelling their positions around the border in the south of the country, media reported. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan often trade barbed comments and accuse each other of infringing one another’s territory around their shared border areas. Analysts have said these disputes could destabilise the region.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s Kumtor beats forecast

JAN. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Canadian miner Centerra Gold said it had exceeded its 2015 production forecast and that output would be stable in 2016 at Kyrgyzstan’s largest gold mine, Kumtor. Kumtor produced 520,695 ounces of gold in 2015, or 97% of Centerra’s total production. The company said that in 2016 Kumtor will represent 100% of Centerra’s gold output. Kumtor is vital to the Kyrgyzstan economy, accounting for around 10% of its total GDP.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Austria’s ILF signs deal to update Tajik HPP

DUSHANBE, JAN. 10 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Austrian company ILF Consulting Engineers signed a contract with Tajik state-owned utilities company Barqi Tojik to provide consulting services to modernise the Kayrakkum hydropower project, a key part of Tajikistan’s plans to become a regional exporter of electricity.

The Soviet-era facilities at the Kayrakkum plant have now reached the end of their lifecycle and the total cost of the modernisation of the plant is estimated at $169m. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will finance around $50m.

Barqi Tojik also intends to increase capacity of the hydropower plant, from 126MW to 174MW, giving an annual total output of 900 GWh.

Tajikistan, which produces around 98% of its electricity from hydropower sources, is trying to improve its power capacity.

It is part of the CASA-1000 project, an ambitious export project to send electricity to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The project is due for completion in 2019 and to fulfil its role of supplier, Tajikistan needs to speed up its modernisation projects. Kyrgyzstan is also involved in the CASA-100 project. Last month, Kyrgyzstan’s biggest hydropower station, Toktogul, broke down.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)

Russia drops Kyrgyz projects

DEC. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said a recession in Russia had hit the Kremlin’s finances so hard that it had pulled out of financing two hydropower projects in Kyrgyzstan. Russia’s economic demise presents an opportunity for China or others to fund infrastructure projects in Central Asia in return for influence. The two projects had been expected to cost $3.2b.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Editorial: Horse-play in Kyrgyzstan

JAN. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Scottish welder Michael Mcfeat was seeing in the New Year at the canteen in the Kumtor gold mine high up in the Tien Shan mountains when he sent a message back home to friends in Scotland jokingly referring to the chuchuk, a horse-meat sausage, as a horse’s penis.

It was a joke that was intended to raise smiles back home, and it may well have done, but Mcfeat’s error was to make it on an open Facebook account. Locals workers read his joke. They were furious.

Mcfeat is back home now, lucky to have escaped a beating from angry locals, while the Toronto-listed Centerra Gold that runs the mine is dealing with the latest PR setback in its relations with Kyrgyzstan.

The Kyrgyz may be overly sensitive to foreigners laughing at their national identity but, 25 years after the fall of the USSR, it is still a young country. Instead, the onus should be on international companies working in Kyrgyzstan and the rest of Central Asia to educate their foreign staff and also to impose some all important social media rules and guidelines.

After all what the chuchuk is to the Kyrgyz, the haggis is to the Scots.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s Toktogul hydropower station breaks down

DEC. 23 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s largest hydropower station, Toktogul, broke down after a power surge knocked out three of its four generators, forcing the government to buy extra electricity from Kazakhstan.

The breakdown at Toktogul is embarrassing for Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atmabayev because three months ago, after the completion of a transmission line linking the power- generating south with the power consuming north, he proclaimed Kyrgyzstan was self sufficient in power. Kyrgyzstan also aims to export power to Pakistan from 2018.

Engineers working on Toktogul, which was built in 1976, said they expected the power plant to be back up and running from mid-January.

In the meantime, Kyrgyzstan announced a deal to buy electricity from neighbouring Kazakhstan to cover the shortfall.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Kyrgyz CBank sells US dollars

JAN. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz Central Bank sold $9.1m to prop up its ailing currency, media reported, its first intervention in 2016. Like the other countries of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan has sold millions of dollars of its reserves to support its som. In December, media reported that it had intervened 17 times to prop it up.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Kyrgyzstan-Kumtor talks collapse

DEC. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz government officials quit 2- year-long talks with Toronto-listed Centerra Gold, the company that owns the Kumtor gold mine, over a new ownership structure deal. Talks had focused on Kyrgyzstan swapping its 32.7% stake in Centerra Gold for a 50% stake in the subsidiary that directly owns the Kumtor mine. Relations between the two sides have been strained.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)