Author Archives: admin

NATO deal to scrap unused vehicles in Armenia

MAY 29 2017 (The Bulletin) — NATO has struck a deal with Armenia to pay for 130 unusable military vehicles to be decommissioned, media reported. The cost of decommissioning the vehicles is estimated at 1.3m euros. NATO deals with Armenia are important as they show that Armenia, one of Russia’s closest allies, is prepared to work closely with the West’s main military structure.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)

CoE investigates Azerbaijan bribe incident

Leave a Reply

MAY 31 2017 (The Bulletin) — The Council of Europe launched an investigation into allegations that Azerbaijan bribed some members of the Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) into rejecting a report that was critical of it. Pressure has been building on the Council of Europe to launch an investigation after allegations surfaced that Italian Luca Volonte had taken a 2.5m euro bribe. Mr Volonta has denied the allegations.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)

Kazakhstan makes extradition deal

Leave a Reply

MAY 30 2017 (The Bulletin) — An extradition treaty between Kazakhstan and India has come into effect, Indian media reported. Kazakhstan and India signed the deal in 2015 and it was ratified by their parliaments a year later. The prisoner extradition agreement is significant because it again shows the improvement in relations between Kazakhstan and India. India has pushed to improve links with Central Asia over the past few years.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)

Stock Market: KAZ Minerals

Leave a Reply

JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — KAZ Minerals, the Kazakhstan- focused copper producer, has had a bumper year and it looks like it is going to get better. A Credit Suisse stock upgrade to ‘outperform’ from ‘neutral’, helped fuel more excitement around its share price.

The London-listed stock may have ended the week down just over 2% but analysts reckon that it will hit 630p this year. That’s an increase of more than 25% from its current share price of 495p.

Credit Suisse said in its note that over the past few years the share price has been held back on concerns over its profitability, worries that have now evaporated with the Bozshakol mine coming on-stream and the Aktogal mine increasing production at a faster rate than expected.

“The funding risk is now limited even under bearish copper price assumptions,” Credit Suisse wrote in its note. “We think this justifies KAZ moving to a more de-risked valuation and thus upgrade.”

In mid-Feb, KAZ Minerals looked to be set to breakthrough the 600p barrier, hitting 589p before falling back. That was the end of a bull run that had started in mid-2016 when its share price was around 126p, partly pushed up by an increase in copper prices.

Still, there is still some way to go before it can hit the heights to 2012 and 2013 when its shares were valued at over 800p.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)

IMF says Tajikistan needs reforms before lending begins

Leave a Reply

DUSHANBE, MAY 30 2017 (The Bulletin) — The IMF completed a mission to Tajikistan saying there had been progress over essential economic reform but more was needed before it could officially agree to a formal lending programme.

Tajikistan’s economy, and especially its banking sector, has been under increased pressure this year and it has asked for international help. The IMF has said that it will lend to Tajikistan but only if it implement various reforms first.

“The authorities indicated they wish to resume discussions on a possible IMF-supported program,” the IMF said in a statement.

“Concrete steps in key reform areas will need to be taken, building on the efforts already made by the Tajikistan authorities, to resume program negotiations.”

The IMF also said that Tajikistan needs to reform its creaking banking sector and create more jobs for its youthful population.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)

Lonely Planet praises Turkmenistan

Leave a Reply

MAY 31 2017 (The Bulletin) — Lonely Planet, the travel guidebook publisher, listed the Darvaza Crater in Turkmenistan as one of its top 50 natural wonders of the world. Although the guidebook market has collapsed over the past decade as the internet has become all- powerful, Lonely Planet is still a strong brand and the inclusion of the flaming Darvaza Crater in the Kyzylkum desert on its top 50 list will boost its profile.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)

Uzbekistan’s senate ratifies cotton deal with the European Union

Leave a Reply

TASHKENT, MAY 30 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Senate ratified a deal with the European Union over textile exports, paving the way for an expected boost in one of the country’s most important revenue earning products.

The senate’s processing of the protocol was routine but it came only a week after an EU delegation visited Uzbekistan to discuss progress it had made on human rights. At the end of last year, the European Parliament voted to renew a 1999 deal to drop tariffs on cotton imports from Uzbekistan.

It had been suspended in 2011 over concerns about Uzbekistan’s use of child labour to pick the cotton.

During its visit the European Parliament’s human rights subcommittee had said that it was impressed with Uzbekistan’s openness.

“Our impression now, after a three-day visit, is of a country where change is in the air, the road to openness and modernisation lies open if the political resolve to choose the path is strong and consistent,” the group said in a statement.

Human rights groups have said that normalising trade deals over Uzbek cotton has come too early but for Uzbekistan it will be a boost.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)

Poor economic conditions forces Carrefour to close in Kazakhstan

Leave a Reply

ALMATY, MAY 30 2017 (The Bulletin) — French hypermarket chain Carrefour will close its only store in Kazakhstan barely 15 months after opening, because the economy simply couldn’t support it.

The decision will be a personal embarrassment to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev who toured the hypermarket based in a shopping mall on the outskirts of Almaty when it opened in February 2016.

Seung Dae-Ryu, director of Carre- four in Kazakhstan, said the main reason for closing was the devaluation of the tenge and competition.

“The closure of the store does not mean that Majid Al Futtaim Hypermarkets Kazakhstan company is moving out of the country. The company will keep monitoring the economic situation in the republic and does not exclude the possibility of coming back into the market in future,” he was quoted by media as saying.

Carrefour is operated as a franchise in Kazakhstan by Dubai-based Majid Al Futtaim. It said in 2016 that it would open up to nine Carrefour hypermarkets in Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan’s economy is recovering, slowly. A collapse in oil prices in 2014 and a recession in Russia stalled economic growth and halved the value of the tenge. Inflation has risen and people’s real incomes have fallen.

Over the past three years Western brands delayed plans to invest in Kazakhstan and the wider region, making the Carrefour entrance in 2016 a rarity. US coffee chain Starbucks opened its first store, as did the Swedish fashion house H+M, but there was little other cheer.

Mr Nazarbayev seized on the Carrefour opening as a PR opportunity, touring the shop, talking to staff and customers. He was upbeat.

It was a far more downbeat scene at the Grand Park Mall, when The Bulletin visited this week. Workers’ wearing the Carrefour blue uniform cut a despondent sight.

“Carrefour is closing and another supermarket is coming here. We will all be fired, I do not know if the new supermarket will give us a job,” one said, declining to be named. Unemployment is difficult to measure but it is clear that there has been a significant increase since 2014.

And customers were frustrated too. Natalya, 35, said that she regularly shopped at Carrefour as she enjoyed its wide choice of products.

“It is sad that it’s closing. It was very comfortable for me,” she said.

Turkish chain Ramstor dominates the supermarket sector in Kazakhstan. European firms have said Kazakhstan’s size and its relative isolation make operating there expensive.

For Mr Nazarbayev, the closure of the Carrefour hypermarket also makes for painful comparisons with Kazakhstan’s neighbours. Last year, Majid Al Futtaim said it would open its third Carrefour hypermarket in Georgia. It also operates one in both Armenia and Tajikistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)

Cerrencies: Kazakhstan’s tenge, Kyrgyzstan’s som

Leave a Reply

JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — In a week of little movement, it fell to the Kazakh tenge to, quite literally, fall – but only slightly. It fell 1.1% to trade at a shade above 314/$1, its lowest since mid-May.

The move was, probably, triggered by a downward shift in Brent oil prices. The price of Brent dropped to just above $50/barrel. This is still within the generally accepted trade corridor and the impact on oil-sensitive currencies around the world was limit. The surprise was that the Azerbaijani manat, already smashed by the near- collapse of its biggest bank, didn’t shift downwards.

Elsewhere, the Uzbek soum continued its slow and controlled depreciation, down 0.6%, and the Kyrgyz som fell 1.1% to 68.1/$1 – its lowest since the end of April.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)

NASDAQ signs deal with Kazakhstan

Leave a Reply

MAY 30 2017 (The Bulletin) — NASDAQ, the US stock exchange, has signed a deal with the Astana International Finance Center to provide technology for a new stock exchange planned for later this year. Kazakhstan plans to build a new financial centre in the capital to develop its capital markets. At the centre of this financial centre will be the stock exchange.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)