Author Archives: admin

Taliban attack Uzbek-Afghan power line

JAN. 26 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Taliban militants attacked and badly damaged a power line sending electricity to Afghanistan from Uzbekistan, a warning sign for Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan who are hoping to develop a power-supply network to Pakistan across Afghan territory.

The attack in the northern Baghlan district cut power to Kabul and underlined the Taliban’s ability to attack targets, seemingly at will, in the north of the country. Last year it captured the town of Kunduz near the border with Tajikistan. Russia and Central Asian governments have warned that a powerful Taliban threatens to destabilise the region.

Afghanistan has become an increasingly important trade and diplomatic partner for Central Asia. It has developed a series of power supply deals with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Most ambitiously Afghanistan will also host an electricity power line running from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Pakistan, dubbed CASA-1000, and a gas pipeline running from Turkmenistan to India, called TAPI.

Both projects need a stable Afghanistan to be successful. The attack on the power line running from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan has severely reduced electricity to Kabul in the short-run and will make policy makers in Central Asia the West nervous in the long-run.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

LG Group scraps project in Kazakh city

JAN. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – South Korea’s LG Group dropped a $4.2b project to build a petrochemical plant near Atyrau in western Kazakhstan because of continued low oil prices. The cancellation is perhaps the biggest project to be ditched during the current economic slowdown.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Turkmen President holds currency control talks

JAN. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said he wants the government to keep a stricter control on the currency market, hinting that the country might soon revise its monetary policy. Mr Berdymukhamedov has also voiced his dissatisfaction of a number of government officials in the past few weeks, a sign of a possible government reshuffle.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

EU sends 15m euro to Kyrgyzstan

JAN. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Union said it had released the second tranche of a 30m euro loan and grant to Kyrgyzstan designed to support and promote stability and democracy. Of the final 15m euro payment, 5m euro was a grant and 10m euro was a loan. The EU said the payment was “to support the restoration of a sustainable external financial situation for the Kyrgyz Republic.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Kazakh bank unveils strategy

JAN. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazkommertsbank, one of Kazakhstan’s largest lenders, said in a statement that it is working with international consultants on developing a new business strategy to improve the quality of its assets after a merger last year with the debt-ridden BTA Bank. Earlier this month, ratings agency Fitch downgraded Kazkommertsbank’s long-term credit to CCC from B- because of the fall in the value of the tenge.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Editorial: Emergency loan for Azerbaijan

JAN. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The IMF’s arrival in Baku is a game-changer. For the Azerbaijani government to invite the IMF to Baku means that their economy is in a more perilous position then they had been letting on.

The manat has lost 35% of its value over the past month; demonstrations have stirred in regional cities; inflation is rising; jobs are disappearing.

We know all this but we’ve also been told that the Azerbaijani government has, officially at least, saved up around $35b in its sovereign wealth fund for exactly this sort of scenario.

Why then, would Azerbaijan invite the IMF to Baku to discuss a loan? The impression that the IMF’s arrival in Baku had created is that things in Azerbaijan are worse than they have been letting on. Perhaps the authorities haven’t really saved up $35b. Perhaps they don’t have access to all the $35b.

What is known is that IMF are in town until the end of next week and that Azerbaijan’s finances, and the extent of their dire financial scenario is currently shrouded in mystery.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Azerbaijan introduces tax exemption for investors

JAN. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s finance minister Samir Sharifov said a new 20% tax on capital exports will not be imposed on foreign investors. The manat has lost around a third of its value since the Central Bank ditched a peg to the US dollar on Dec. 21. In response the government imposed various capital control requirements.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Azerbaijan’s Central Bank to compensate savers

JAN. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Central Bank said it would compensate customers of banks who lost savings in banks which have been stripped of their licences over the past couple of weeks. Legally, the Central Bank is only obliged to compensate up to 30,000 manat ($18,400). Around 6,600 customers will be eligible for the refund.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Mine worker dies in Kyrgyzstan

JAN. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A man working at the Centerra Gold-owned Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan died in an accident. Neither Centerra Gold nor the Kyrgyz government, which owns a stake in the company, have commented on the accident. The Kumtor gold mine is the single biggest economic asset in Kyrgyzstan and is the focus of an ownership row.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Hexagon Mining to increase its presence in Kazakhstan

JAN. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Arizona-based Hexagon Mining wants to increase its presence in Kazakhstan after it signed a deal with local miner KAZ Minerals to develop two open pit copper fields. Hexagon will work with KAZ Minerals at Bozshakol and Aktogay, two of the company’s most promising greenfield sites.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)