NOV. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) -The US-funded RFE/RL reported that a court sentenced an Uzbek man to jail for being a member of IS. IS has been stepping up its activities in Central Asia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip that also took in neighbouring Uzbekistan, Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif visited Dushanbe for a meeting with Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon that would have focused on the CASA-1000 energy project. CASA-1000 aims to turn Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan into power exporters, sending electricity to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzvinprom, an Uzbek state holding company, said that two investors from Germany and Bulgaria were interested in buying stakes in Uzbek wine producers. The two investors, which Uzbek media named as Bever and Vinogradez Vine House, have signed a memorandum of understanding. There were no more details on the deal.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan released Murod Juraev, a 63-year-old former MP, from prison after 21 years. He was jailed for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government, although human rights groups have said this is a fabrication. Observers linked Mr Juraev’s release to a visit this month to Uzbekistan by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz Central Bank intervened in the currency market, selling around $14m on Friday to halt the fall of the som. It still fell 3% over the week finishing at 72.1/$1.
In Kazakhstan, the tenge was stable at 307/$1, although it reached a record low of 312/$1 on Monday.
The Georgian lari was stable at 240/$1 throughout the week.
In Armenia and Uzbekistan, currencies fell faster than previously. The Armenian dram lost 1% to 480.9/$1 and the Uzbek sum fell by 0.5% to just above 2,700/$1 on the official market. On the Black Market, the US dollar is reportedly selling at 6,200sum.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkish construction company Dal Engineering signed a memorandum to start building a new $225m cement plant in Uzbekistan. Dal Engineering will partner with state- owned Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine to build a 1.5m tonnes/year plant in the southern region of Surkhandariya by 2017. Slow foreign investment has delayed the project. Once built, the new plant will increase cement production capacity in Uzbekistan by 20%.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Norwegian telecoms company Telenor said it had suspended four executives, including COO Richard Olva Aa, while an investigation into alleged bribe paying by VimpelCom in Uzbekistan continues. Telenor owns 33% of VimpelCom.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan wants to upgrade its railway system and it has turned to European companies for the technology and the know-how.
Temir Yollari, Uzbekistan’s state-owned railway company, signed a €38m ($41m) deal with Spanish train manufacturer Talgo to buy two high-speed electric trains.
The new AVE 250 trains will be delivered in 2017. Temir Yollari is already using two Talgo trains, purchased in 2009, for its Tashkent-Samarkand route, opened in 2011.
The Uzbek government is spending around $400m to complete the rail link by 2016 — a potential windfall for European and other western companies looking for deals in the region.
Once completed, the railway line will half the travel time from Tashkent to Bukhara to around 3-1/2 hours.
In another deal struck this week, Temir Yollari signed a memorandum with French company Alstom to establish a production line for asynchronous traction motors, an advanced electric train engine, which Uzbekistan intends to use on new locomotives.
The asynchronous traction technology has not yet been introduced in the former Soviet Union.
“We appreciate the opportunity to work in Uzbekistan’s attractive investment environment and see this project as mutually beneficial for the parties [and] as the first step in the
development of Alstom’s long partnership with the country,” said Martin Vaujour, VP for Alstom CIS.
On paper, Uzbekistan is improving its legislation. The latest World Bank “Doing Business” ranking praised Uzbekistan for its reforms in the past two years. But it is still regarded as a difficult place. Corruption, bureaucracy and asset grabs by the state have all scarred investors.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sales of cars by US-Uzbek joint venture GM Uzbekistan to Russia fell by almost 50% in the first 10 months of 2015, to just over 17,000, local media reported. GM Uzbekistan’s share in the Russian market, its most important market, has also fallen to 1.3% from 1.7% in 2014.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — South Korean Samsung Engineering signed an agreement with Uzbekneftegaz to build a petrochemical plant in Uzbekistan. Samsung said the new aromatics plant is still at its conceptual design phase and did not say when it would be built. Uzbekneftegaz, Uzbekistan’s state-owned oil and gas company, has already collaborated with Samsung on a $700m polymer plan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
