Category Archives: Uncategorised

Kyrgyz Central Bank keeps rate unchanged

SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Citing falling prices and signs that the economy is beginning to grow again, Kyrgyzstan’s Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged at 6%. The Central Bank said that only by keeping rates at 6% will it be able to let prices increase gently, within a 5-7% corridor. This year, the Central Bank has reduced interest rates twice from a level of 10% in January.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Cartu Foundation to invest in Georgia

SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Cartu Foundation and the Georgian Co-Investment Fund, both supported by Georgia’s richest man Bidzina Ivanishvili, have invested $80m in the construction of a new hotel and a botanical garden in the town of Ganmukhuri, on the unofficial border with Abkhazia. Abkhazia is a breakaway region that declared its independence from Georgia after a brief war in 2008.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

US-based company makes progress in Georgia

SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – US-based Frontera Resources said it has made progress at the South Kakheti gas complex it operates in Georgia, announcing a new drilling campaign for October. Frontera also said it will go forward with a financing deal it reached with YA II PN, part of the Yorkville Advisors financial group. Frontera will raise around $686,000 through a share issue in London.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Azerbaijanis vote to extend presidential terms in referendum

BAKU, SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijanis voted in a referendum to make 29 amendments to the country’s constitution which opposition leaders have said are designed to strengthen President Ilham Aliyev’s grip on power.

The Azerbaijani Central Election Commission (CEC) said that around 90% of the votes were in favour of the amendments, the most controversial being an extension to the presidential term from five to seven years. Other changes included scrapping the age limit for parliamentarians and presidential candidates and the establishment of the role of vice-president.

The turnout, recorded as 69.7%, was much higher than the 25% needed to validate the results although some election observers complained of irregularities such as ballot stuffing which the CEC said it would investigate.

Brushing aside allegations of an unfair voting system and whether the reforms were actually needed, members of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party said the result proved the high regard that ordinary people have for President Aliyev.

“This was a test of people’s trust in the country’s President, and it was held successfully,” said Ali Ahmadov, deputy prime minister and deputy chairman of Yeni Azerbaijan.

This is the second time that Azerbaijan has held a referendum to change its constitution under President Aliyev, who came to power in 2003.

In a 2009 referendum, Azerbaijan controversially voted to end a limit on the number of terms that a president can stay in office.

These tweaks to constitutions drawn up in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 have been fairly standard across Central Asia and the South Caucasus. They allow the incumbent president to remain in power for as long as he wants, reduce the number of irksome elections that need to be handled and also widen options for a handover of power to a son or daughter or favoured associate.

The Venice Commission, the European Commission’s watchdog for constitutional issues, criticised Azerbaijan’s referendum saying the the amendments would “severely upset the balance of power by giving ‘unprecedented’ powers to the President.”

And many Azerbaijanis held a similar view.

A 22-year old Fidan, a student in Baku said that she had voted against the constitutional changes. “These changes will turn the country into a monarchy,” she said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Political fighting takes place in Georgian TV debate

SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Zaza Agladze of the Union of Industrialists and Irakli Glonti of State For The People, two candidates for the upcoming parliamentary election in Georgia, exchanged punches on live television after a heated debate. Just last week, two other candidates also fought during a televised debate.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Kyrgyzstan-gold miner raises cash

SEPT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan-focused miner Chaarat Gold said it raised £4.1m ($5.3m) by issuing 78.8m new shares in London. Labro Investments, which previously held a 25.6% stake in the company, will raise its ownership to 31.7%. Last week, Martin Andersson, owner of Labro Investments, was named non-executive chairman of the British Virgin Islands-registered company.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

ADB funds road in Kyrgyzstan

SEPT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to issue $95m in loans and grants to Kyrgyzstan for the reconstruction of the North-South Corridor, a vital road link. The Eurasian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the Saudi Fund for Development and China’s Export-Import Bank are also participating in the reconstruction of the road.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Armenia’s PM appoints new adviser

SEPT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s new PM Karen Karapetyan named Shushan Sardaryan, ex- press secretary of Gazprom Armenia, as an advisor. Previously, Mr Karapetyan served as the director of Gazprom Armenia, the Russian gas giant’s Armenian subsidiary.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Oil rig catches fire in Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea

SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A gas leak caused an explosion at an oil platform in the Guneshli oil field, off the coast of Baku.

Although nobody was injured or killed, the fire at Platform 19, will once again raise concerns about safety at oil platforms in Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea, less than a year after at least 31 rig workers were killed at two other rigs in a storm.

SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company operated the platform.

It said that the fire had burned for a full day before it was brought under control by fire-fighters.

SOCAR said that all 49 workers were evacuated during the fire.

Azerbaijan’s oil industry is still trying to recover its credibility after the rig fire in December, the deadliest since the Piper Alpha fire in the North Sea killed at least 167 people in 1988.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)

Tajikistan’s TALCO told to cut production

SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – TALCO, Tajikistan’s aluminium smelter and the country’s biggest industrial asset, should cut output to survive because aluminium prices have fallen below production costs, the company auditors said.

Tajikistan’s government has repeatedly intervened to give TALCO incentives and preferential loans but has not been able to prevent thousands of job losses.

Now production cuts are likely.

“This year, a significant decrease in the level of world prices for aluminium has impacted TALCO’s earnings. The company auditors have suggested that the management orders a cut in production in order to keep financial losses at a minimum,” TALCO said in a statement.

TALCO produced over 73,000 tonnes of aluminium in the first half of 2016, a 13.5% increase compared to the same period last year. It exports to clients in Turkey, Taiwan, Iran, British Virgin Islands, Uzbekistan and Pakistan.

Low commodity prices, though, meant it sold aluminium at a price range of $1,400-$1,600/tonne. Production costs have reached $2,000/tonne. In April, it laid off around 600 workers to cut costs.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)