Author Archives: Editor

Kazakh DJ wins Grammy award

ALMATY/MARCH 14 2021 (The Bulletin) — A 20-year-old DJ from Aksu, near Pavlodar in Kazakhstan, won the country’s first Grammy award, considered to be perhaps the top accolade in music (March 14).

Imanbek Zeikenov won the Best Remixed Recording category for his remix of Saint Jhn’s 2016 song ‘Roses’.

“The best thing for a musician is to get a Grammy, we made it!” Imanbek, as he is known, said.

Kazakh President Kassym Jomart Tokayev sent his congratulations, highlighting the pride that Kazakhs, more used to winning boxing, wrestling and horse riding tournaments than music awards, have taken in the win.

“His work has demonstrated that gifted young people from Kazakhstan can reach great heights,” Mr Tokayev’s spokesman said.

Imanbek released his remix of ‘Roses’ onto Russian social media channels and then watched as it went viral. In March 2020 it rose to the top of the British singles charts.

Spotify, the music streaming app, said that it had been played 1.2b times.

He has since left his job working for Kazakh Railways to concentrate on making music.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Kazakh military plane crashes, four people are killed

Leave a Reply

ALMATY/MARCH 13 (The Bulletin) — A Kazakh military plane crashed at Almaty airport, killing four people, the second deadly plane crash in Kazakhstan in the past 15 months.

Kazakhstan’s emergencies ministry said the plane, a Soviet-designed AN-26, was travelling to Almaty from Nur Sultan, the capital, and crashed in foggy conditions.

“On March 13 at 1725, information was received from the dispatch service of the Almaty airport that at 1722 a military plane AN-26 disappeared from the radars by the Nur-Sultan – Almaty route and made an emergency landing at the airport in Almaty,” the emergencies ministry said in its statement. “According to preliminary data, four people died, two injured were sent to the city clinical hospital No. 4 in Almaty.”

Russian media said that the plane had been operated by the Kazakh border guards and there there were six crew members on board but no passengers.

Kazakhstan has a dubious aviation safety record. On Dec. 26 2019, a Bek Air passenger plane crashed shortly after taking off from Almaty airport, killing 12 people. Seven years earlier, in December 2012, another plane operated by the Kazakh border guards service crashed near Shymkent, killing all 27 people on board.

The AN-26, first manufactured in 1969, is the workhorse of many former Soviet military plane fleets. Until 10 years ago, or so, commercial airlines also flew AN-26s, although most have withdrawn them on safety and reliability concerns.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Armenia plans major military exercise

Leave a Reply

MARCH 12 (The Bulletin) — Risking a rise in tension with its neighbour and enemy Azerbaijan, Armenia said that it would hold a major military exercise on March 16-20. The military exercise will involve 7,500 soldiers, reports said. Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a six week war last year for control of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenian army was defeated and has been accused of being underprepared.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Georgia suspends controversial hydro-dam project

Leave a Reply

TBILISI/MARCH 12 (The Bulletin) — Apparently bowing to pressure from environmentalists and local residents, the Georgian government suspended work on the construction of its Namakhvani Hydro Power Project.

Natia Turneva, the Georgian economy minister, said that the project had been suspended to allow for extra studies on the “reliability and safety” of the project.

“This is a very important large hydropower plant with an installed capacity of 430 MW. It will bring in $800 million in foreign direct investments,” she said.

This is the line that the government has consistently taken with the project, one of the most controversial energy projects in Georgia.

Police and demonstrators have clashed near the construction site of the Namakhvani HPP on the Rioni River in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains. It is slated to be the largest power plant in Georgia when it is complete, generating 15% of Georgia’s energy.

Ms Turneva said that Georgian experts and institutions would be hired to carry out independent surveys of the impact of the dam on the environment and on local communities and that a $1.5m Rioni Gorge Development Fund would be set up to help people relocate.

The hydropower project, which is being developed in two parts — a Lower Namakhvani HPP (333 MW) and the Upper Namakhvani HPP (100 MW) — is being financed by international donors, including the Norway-based Clean Energy Group, and is being constructed by Enka, Turkey’s largest construction company.

Protesters, who complain about the environmental damage and the forced resettling of people from the area, have blocked access to the site for more than four months. They said that the government couldn’t suspend the project as construction work had not started yet.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Halyk Bank’s net profit rises

Leave a Reply

MARCH 12 (The Bulletin) — Net profit at Kazakhstan’s Halyk bank rose by 5.4% in 2020 to 352.7b tenge ($842m) because of higher income from insurance premiums and earnings on derivatives and securities. Halyk Bank is the largest bank in Kazakhstan and is majority-owned by Dinara Nazarbayeva, the daughter of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev and her husband, Timur Kulibayev. The bank’s performance is considered an important indicator of the state of the Kazakh economy.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Azerbaijan cancels licence of another insurance company

Leave a Reply

MARCH 12 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s Central Bank, the country’s financial regulator, cancelled the trading licence of Ravan Sigorta, an insurance company. This is the third licence of an insurance company that the Azerbaijani Central Bank has cancelled this year. The authorities in Azerbaijan have been pruning its financial sector of banks and other institutions that it considers to be too weak to survive another financial jolt.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Remittance flow into Uzbekistan rises

Leave a Reply

MARCH 12 (The Bulletin) — Remittances in Uzbekistan were 14% higher in January and February this year, at $892m, compared to the same period in 2020, the Uzbek Central Bank said. Remittances, mainly from Russia, are a vital part of Central Asia’s economy. The various movement and work restrictions imposed to deal with the coronavirus pandemic last year dented remittances flows from the region’s migrant workers.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Azerbaijan orders AstraZeneca and Sputnik-V vaccines

Leave a Reply

MARCH 11 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan, which has begun a mass vaccination scheme against the coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 disease, said that it had now ordered batches of Sputnik-V, the Russia-made vaccine, and the AstraZeneca vaccine. Sputnik-V was the first recognised vaccine for the disease. Some European countries have stopped using the AstraZeneca vaccine because of worries that it triggers blood clots.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

BP walks away from three oil projects in Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea

Leave a Reply

ALMATY/MARCH 11 (The Bulletin) — Britain’s BP has walked away from three oil and gas projects in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea, saying that it wanted to focus on developing its renewable energy portfolio instead, Kazakhstan’s state-owned Kazmunaigas said (March 11).

BP’s decision to ditch potential projects in the Caspian Sea with Kazmunaigas, which it explained in a letter in October last year, will concern Kazakh officials who still see exploiting oil and gas potential as the quickest and most certain way of pushing economic development forward.

Kazmunaigas said that it was publishing BP’s letter on its website in response to media speculation on why progress on the three hydrocarbon blocks has stalled.

“The decision is related to a revision of the company’s strategy — BP intends to focus its activities on renewable energy sources,” Kazmunaigas wrote.

For the 18 months up to October 2020, BP had been evaluating the potential for developing the Bolshoy Zhambyl, Zhemchuzhnaya and Kalamkas Sea offshore blocks, located near the Karachaganak oil field. Karachaganak is Kazakhstan’s largest post-Soviet oil discovery but it has been beset by cost overruns and production problems.

BP’s exit from the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea follows a decision by Royal Dutch Shell in 2019 to also quit two oil projects because the costs were too high.

During the coronavirus pandemic, oil prices plunged and last year BP said that it wanted to restructure its portfolio and cuts its hydrocarbon base by 40% over the next decade.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Uzbekistan keeps interest rates steady, says inflation is too high

Leave a Reply

MARCH 11 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Central Bank declined to cut its key interest rate from 14% because it said that inflation was still too high. Inflation in Uzbekistan is currently at 11.4%, pushed up by rising domestic demand, an increase in global food prices and a rise in fuel prices. Uzbekistan’s interest rate has measured 14% since mid-2020.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021