Author Archives: Editor

Armenia approves Team’s takeover of Veon Armenia

JULY 30 (The Bulletin) — Armenia’s Commission for the Regulation of Public Services has approved the takeover of Veon’s Armenian subsidiary by Team, a new telecoms operator, media reported. Team, which was only set up in April, said earlier in July that it had been given permission to buy Veon Armenia, which operates the valuable Beeline brand in the country. Ucom, another telecoms operator, has said that it will challenge the deal.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

KAZ Minerals says that H1 copper output was higher than expected

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JULY 30 (The Bulletin) — KAZ Minerals, the Kazakhstan-focused and London-listed, copper producer said that output for the first half of the year was higher than expected. It said that copper production was up by 4% and that gold production was up by 25%. Importantly, it said that while the coronavirus pandemic had not disrupted its operations so far a second lockdown in Kazakhstan had “heightened risk”. Kazakhstan went into a second lockdown in early July.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Azerbaijan cuts interest rates

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JULY 30 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s Central Bank cut its core interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 6.75%, its lowest rate for more than four years, to try to stimulate lending and its economy. Like the rest of the region, analysts have said that the coronavirus pandemic may tip Azerbaijan’s economy into a recession, although it is protected by cash earned from oil and gas sales.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Georgia Capital issues green bond on Irish Stock Exchange

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JULY 30 (The Bulletin) — Georgia Capital, the London listed conglomerate which owns subsidiaries that produce beer, build hotels and run pharmacies, said that it had issued a so-called £250m green bond on the Irish Stock Exchange. CEO Irakli Gilauri said that the bond issue had been well-received by investors. They were issued with a 7.75% interest rate and a 5-year maturity.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Turkey sends soldiers to Azerbaijan for war games

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JULY 30 (The Bulletin) — Turkey sent soldiers to Azerbaijan for a high-profile joint military exercise with the Azerbaijani military. The military exercise was deliberately high-profile as Turkey wanted to send a message to Armenia that it was supporting Azerbaijan, one of its closest allies, in the neighbours’ dispute over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Earlier in July at least 15 soldiers were killed when fighting broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the worst in four years.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Pashinyan says coronavirus has passed its peak in Armenia

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JULY 30 (The Bulletin) — Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan said that the peak of the coronavirus infection rate had passed in Armenia. Armenia’s daily new infection rate is now down to around 250, compared to 550 – 600 in mid-July. Government officials said that they expected a rate of 140 new infections daily by September and to be able to reopen schools which have been shut since March. Armenia has recorded 39,050 coronavirus infections and 754 deaths.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Oil companies close Ashgabat offices on coronavirus fears

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JULY 29 (The Bulletin) — Petronas, the Malaysian oil and gas company, closed its office in Ashgabat after 10 of its employees tested positive for the coronavirus.

The closure is perhaps the strongest indication yet that despite the insistence of Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov that Turkmenistan had escaped the pandemic, coronavirus has infiltrated the country.

Turkmen media has also reported that Chinese state-owned China National Petroleum Company has also closed its office Ashgabat. Since a visit by the World Health Organisation (WHO) this month, masks have become commonplace in Turkmenistan and some shopping centres and bazaars have been closed.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Armenian opposition leader continues to do business despite arrest threat

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JULY 29 (The Bulletin) — Gagik Tsarukyan, the leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), has been meeting with business leaders and promising to support their efforts to stave off a recession linked to the spread of the coronavirus, media reported. This is important because at the end of last month it had appeared that prosecutors were building a case to arrest Mr Tsarukyan, one of Armenia’s richest men, on various corruption allegations.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

EBRD starts cleaning up toxic Soviet mines in Kyrgyzstan

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JULY 29 (The Bulletin) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said that work to clean up a toxic Soviet uranium mine in south Kyrgyzstan had begun. Poisonous legacy pits and disused mines dot the region and the EBRD is funding work to clean them up. This project is focused on Shekaftar, near Jalal-Abad, where the USSR worked a uranium mine until 1968. The disused mine is still radioactive.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Kazakhstan to extend second coronavirus lockdown

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JULY 29 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that a second lockdown imposed at the start of July to control the coronavirus will be extended by another two weeks into mid-August. The second lockdown was supposed to have been imposed only for a fortnight to mid-July. PM Askar Mamin has said that the number of new infections per day had dropped by 30% but that they were still measuring around 1,500. Kazakhstan has recorded 92,662 coronavirus cases and 793 deaths.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.