JAN. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) -Swedish telecoms company Teliasonera said that it would write $622m off the value of its Uzbek unit that it wants to sell. A corruption scandal has enveloped the Uzbek unit of Teliasonera and it has said that it wants to sell its entire Eurasian operations.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
JAN. 12 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Around 100 people demonstrated in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s financial capital, over the rising cost of servicing US dollar mortgages, an indicator of growing discontent over the worsening state of the Kazakh economy.
The protesters targeted two banks — ATF and Forte Bank — which they said were refusing to help homeowners with US dollar mortgages despite a 50% drop in the value of the Kazakh tenge. They carried a symbolic coffin filled with underwear and ripped up mortgage statements.
Sulubike Zhaksylykova was on the march. She is head of an NGO which is lobbying for banks to help mortgage owners.
“One of the main goals of the protest is to refinance mortgages in dollars according to people’s ability to pay,” she told The Conway Bulletin.
“There are many disabled people of first and second category who receive 26,000 tenge per ($71) month [of government benefits] and these banks require them to pay 100,000 tenge a month [in mortgage repayments].”
The Kazakh government last year released a 130b tenge ($355m) cash-pot which it handed to commercial banks to help them refinance homeowners’ mortgages. Ms Zhaksylykova, though, accused the banks of not doing enough to help people.
After the protest both ATF Bank and Forte Bank said they would work to improve individual mortgage repayments.
Public protests in Almaty are rare but as the economy worsens, emotions are running high.
The Kazakh economy has always had relatively high levels of household debt and after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008/9, Kazakhstan had one of the highest proportions of non-performing loans.
Analysts have now warned that bad mortgages may be the source of another debt crisis.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
JAN. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), a pipeline designed to transport oil from the Tengiz oil field in western Kazakhstan to the Russian Black Sea coast, said it had increased its output by 7% in 2015, in line with its expansion plans. CPC has now reached a throughput of 42.8m tonnes, up from just below 40m tonnes in 2014. Chevron, Lukoil, Shell, BG and ENI own stakes in CPC. The Tengiz oil field if one of Kazakhstan’s most important oil projects.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
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.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
TBILISI, JAN. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a push to build the Silicon Valley of the South Caucasus, Georgia opened its new Tech Park in Tbilisi.
The project, backed by the government, aims to support young innovative entrepreneurs by offering free office and workshop space for three months and access to what has been dubbed the “Fab Lab” with the latest cutting-edge tech tools such as 3D printers and a laser cutter.
Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili said that developing the country’s entrepreneurial base was key to helping Georgia through its current economic slump.
“This is a direct investment in the future of Georgia,” media quoted Mr Kvirikashvili as saying at the opening of the site.
Tech Park, which covers roughly the area of two football pitches, took one year to build and cost 5m lari ($2m).
The concept behind Tech Park Georgia is that well-worn idea of casual interaction where employees from different companies, back- grounds and disciplines can mingle easily in learning centres, company offices, shared spaces and recreational areas.
Mariam Lashkhi of the Georgian government’s Innovation and Technology Agency explained.
“We first had to build the community, so we held hackathons, to see who is out there and to bring people together. We were amazed with the projects the young people came up with. Several startups were created after the hackathons, which are now joining the Tech Park,” she said.
Boris Kiknadze has just moved his two companies, the charity crowd- funding platform WeHelp and the online advertising firm and Wifisher, to the Tech Park.
“I really like that it brings together a collective of people, programmers, developers, business managers,” he said.
“And it’s a really nice place to hang out, where you can create new things, and build a better future.”
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
JAN. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Samruk-Kazyna, the company that manages Kazakhstan’s state assets, said that it had made nine out of 16 of its directors redundant to save money. Like other state institutions, Samruk-Kazyna has been ordered to save costs to combat a drastic economic slow- down triggered by a slump in oil prices and a recession in Russia. Samruk-Kazyna’s chairman Umirzak Shukeyev announced the planned changes just before Christmas.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
JAN. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Berik Otemurat left the Kazakh National Investment Corporation, the unit within the Central Bank that invests money from the Oil Fund, after he gave a series of interviews to major Western publications criticising its strategy. It’s unclear if Mr Otemurat was sacked or he resigned. Eszhan Birtanov, former head of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, was named as the new head of the National Investment Corporation.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
JAN. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gazprom and the Georgian government are still in talks over supplying more gas to Georgia, media reported quoting energy minister Kakha Kaladze. Georgia wants to increase gas supplies from Russia, a sensitive issue as the two countries had been enemies until recently. Georgia has risked irritating its neighbour and main gas supplier Azerbaijan by holding negotiations to buy more gas from Russia and Iran.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
JAN. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik government has cancelled a planned pay rise for state workers, media reported. With inflation rising and the value of its somoni currency falling, the Tajik government had planned the pay rise to boost morale, and loyalty, amongst its staff just before an election last year. With the election fading into memory and an economic slowdown taking a stronger and firmer grip, it appears to have been decided that the pay rise was no longer needed.
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(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)
JAN. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Anuar Saidenov, former Kazakh Central Bank chief and ex-board member at BTA Bank and Bank RBK, was appointed chairman of the company managing Almaty airport. Since 2011, Netherlands based Venus Airport Investments has owned Almaty International Airport.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)