Category Archives: Uncategorised

With one eye on EU regulations, Georgia reintroduces tests for cars

TBILISI, NOV. 15 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian economy minister Dimitry Kumsishvili said compulsory vehicle maintenance and emissions inspections will resume from Jan. 1 2018, after a gap of 14 years, a move aimed at improving the safety of Georgian roads and meeting EU standards.

Mandatory vehicle inspection was abolished in 2004 due to its ineffectiveness and vulnerability to corruption, a reflection, perhaps, of Georgia’s chaotic business and social scene in the years after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

Mr Kumsishvili said he wanted to attract foreign companies with experience to take on the challenge of running and monitoring an annual vehicle safety scheme and has invited companies with at least 15 years experience in Europe to apply by Dec. 8 to run the scheme.

Mikheil Khmaladze, the director of the Land Transport Agency, which sits within the economy ministry, told The Conway Bulletin that Georgia needed a company with experience if it was going to make a success of the project.

“We might know how to do this in theory but we lack the practical experience. The international company will be a consultant and will advise us on what to do. There is a lot of risk of corruption in this field,” he said in an interview.

The winner of the tender will be given a two-year contract starting on Jan. 1 2017.

Inspections will be conducted throughout the country by local businesses. A maximum price per inspection will be set and a national database, where all the data regarding will be entered, raked over and inspected for transparency.

The reintroduction of a vehicle inspection scheme was a requirement stipulated by the Georgia-EU

Association Agreement requirement. Georgia wants to join the EU.

Environmentalists have also said that the scheme is needed to cut pollutants.

Nino Shavgulidze, Chief of Party of Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN), said that cars were the biggest pollutants in Tbilisi.

“Statistics shows that of the more than 1m cars running in Georgia, a majority are more than 10 years old. Most of these vehicles do not have catalytic converters, are very poorly maintained, and emit pollutants that are dangerous for human health,” she said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Qazkom and Halyk Bank eye merger to create Kazakh bank giant

ALMATY, NOV. 15 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s largest lenders, Halyk Bank and Qazkom, are in talks to merge and create a super- sized bank with strong links to the Kazakh elite that would dwarf its rivals, according to sources quoted by Reuters.

Reuters quoted two anonymous sources, who both confirmed that talks were under way and that the merger could be agreed after Halyk redeems a $638m Eurobond in May 2017.

Importantly, one of the sources said that the idea behind the merger traces all the way up to the presidential family.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s daughter Dinara and her husband Timur Kulibayev coown Halyk Bank. Kenes Rakishev, son-in-law of Mr Nazarbayev’s close ally Imangali Tasmagambetov, owns Qazkom. Mr Tasmagambetov is minister of defence.

Qazkom which rebranded last month from Kazkommertsbank, gave a guarded denial that a merger was about to happen. Halyk Bank did not comment.

“Responding to recent rumours, I can say that Qazkom has neither made nor received offers regarding a merger with Halyk Bank,” Qazkom’s press officer, Sergei Chikin, told media

A merger would form a banking superpower in Kazakhstan, four times larger than its biggest competitor, Tsesnabank, owned by Adilbek Dzhaksybekov, head of the Presidential Administration. Analysts, though, are skeptical at the prospects of a merger, which would create a bank with a 40% of the loans market.

“Even if the talks are proved true, the Central Bank is unlikely to allow a merger that would monopolise the market,” Rasul Rysmambetov, director of the Public Fund Financial Freedom, told the Inform-Kazakhstan news agency.

In the past two years, both Qazkom and Halyk have cleaned up their toxic assets, which built up during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008/9. Qazkom had also bought Kazakhstan’s once-largest lender BTA Bank, now riddled with non- performing loans. It also changed ownership, with Mr Rakishev sidelining founder Nurzhan Subkhanberdin.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Georgia begins East-West pipeline construction

NOV. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation said it started construction on a section of the East-West gas pipeline, from Tsiteli Khidi on the border with Azerbaijan to Gardabani. The company said it will invest 4.5m lari ($1.4m) to complete the 20km section. Georgia ordered a general overhaul of the 450km Soviet-era pipeline from the border with Azerbaijan to the Black Sea port of Poti. State-owned Partnership Fund is the only shareholder.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Kyrgyzstan announces amnesty

NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan released 1,277 inmates from its prisons in an amnesty designated to celebrate both the 25th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union and also the 100th anniversary of an uprising against imperial tsarist forces. The pan-Central Asia rebellion of 1916 was triggered by a decree from the Tsar to mobilise men to fight for Russian forces in the First World War. Russian soldiers repressed the rebellion within a year, killing thousands of people. Different governments have interpreted the uprisings through different lenses. The Soviet Union saw the uprisings as a class struggle. The newly independent countries of Central Asia frame them as national-liberation movements.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

EBRD and EU expand loan for Kyrgyzstan

NOV. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EBRD and the EU will expand their programme to support improvements in Kyrgyzstan’s energy efficiency with a $45m loan. The new credit line seeks to boost energy efficiency, particularly for water usage, for Kyrgyz businesses and households.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

EU wants new deal with Azerbaijan

NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Council, the EU’s political core, has said it wants to renegotiate a new bilateral deal with Azerbaijan. This is important because it sets the tone of subsequent talks between the EU and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan and the EU have rowed over human rights.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Uzbek and Kyrgyz officials meet

NOV. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek and Kyrgyz officials met in Ferghana City, Uzbekistan, to agree resolutions to seven more border dispute areas, the 24.kg news website reported. The border resolution process is part of a drive by Uzbekistan since the death of Islam Karimov in September to repair damaged relations with its neighbours. 24.kg reported that the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border was 1,378km long and that nearly a third of this has been disputed.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Georgian Mining raises $3.2m to develop Kvemo Bolnisi

TBILISI, NOV. 16 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — London-listed Georgian Mining Corporation said it raised £2.6m ($3.2m) in a new share offering designed to finance the development of its Kvemo Bolnisi copper and gold mine in the south of Georgia.

Last month, Georgian Mining changed its name from Noricum Gold to reflect the geographic focus of its operations.

After the restructuring and consolidation of ordinary shares, the fresh share issue represents 40% of the total issued shares and will dilute ownership in the company.

Before the placing, businessmen Michael Johnson (6.1%), Martyn Churchouse (5.4%) and Fahad Al- Tamimi (4.9%) were the three largest shareholders.

The company said the new cash will fund development of the Kvemo Bolnisi mine, in which it owns a 50% stake.

“This raise is a significant endorsement of our approach to commence production at low cost and for a minimum capex requirement,” director Greg Kuenzel said in a statement.

Georgia’s Caucasian Mining Group, owned by Russian entrepreneur Dmitri Troitsky, is Georgian Mining’s partner at Kvemo Bolnisi.

Georgian Mining bought its 50% share in Kvemo Bolnisi in July 2015 from GMC Investment for £2.6m ($3.2m). The company started drilling in June, in line with its forecasts. Reserves at the Bolnisi project include 980,000 tonnes of copper, 6.6m ounces of gold and 22m ounces of silver.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Western banks agree $500m loan for Lukoil subsidiary working in Uzbekistan

NOV. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An Uzbek subsidiary of Russian energy company Lukoil received a loan of $500m from various European and Japanese financial institutions to develop the Gissar gas and condensate field in Uzbekistan.

A consortium of banks — Italy’s Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, Russia’s VTB, Dutch lender ING, Japan’s Mizuho Bank, France’s Natixis and Austria’s Raiffeisenbank — has agreed to give the loan to Soyuzneftegaz Vostok, Lukoil’s subsidiary in Uzbekistan.

This is important because, by providing Soyuzneftegaz Vostok with a loan, Western banks are indirectly investing in Uzbekistan and, also, lending Lukoil funds. Lukoil is under US sanctions but not European sanctions.

The five-year loan will help Lukoil expand the Gissar project, which has produced around 1.3b cubic metres/year since 2011. The company plans to grow production to 4.8b cubic metres/year by 2017 and build a gas treatment complex near the field. Earlier this year, Lukoil said it was looking to obtain a loan from South Korean lenders and that it needed a $1b cash injection to com- plete the upgrade.

Sanctions were imposed on Russian companies after Russia’s annexation of the Crimea in 2014.

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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Kazakh police detains Aktobe FC chief

NOV. 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Anti-corruption police in Kazakhstan detained Dmitriy Vasilyev, director at Aktobe Football Club, for embezzling 300m ($882,000) of public funds, official media reported. Mr Vasiliyev allegedly paid illegal premiums for Aktobe’s performance in Kazakhstan’s Premier League. FC Aktobe is owned by the finance department of the local government.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)