Category Archives: Uncategorised

Police in Azerbaijan question another businessman

MAY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Azerbaijan questioned businessman Ibrahim Ibrahimov over an outstanding loan from the state-linked International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), media reported, the second high-profile Azerbaijani company owner to be hauled into a police station in a week.

Turan news agency reported that Mr Ibrahimov took a loans $57m, but sources in IBA told the news agency that the sum was actually $850m.

Last week police detained Nizami Piriyev, head of Azerbaijani Methanol Company. He was charged with financial fraud. Mr Piriyev is also charged with not repaying bank loans.

Natiq Cafarli, economist and executive director of ReAL opposition movement said in an interview with faktxeber.com that he does not expect the oligarchs to stay in jail for a long time. He said that the government just wants to recover its money.

“The ruling party does not need a lot of news around famous people,” he said. “They will be released soon.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Kazakhstan to join WTO in 2015

MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan aims to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by the end of the year, PM Karim Massimov said at a meeting with Lithuanian government officials in Astana. Kazakhstan has been negotiating to join the WTO since the early 1990s.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

SOCAR becomes biggest company in Georgia

MAY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Outside the financial sector, SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state energy company, is the largest company in Georgia, media reported quoting research from Ilia University in Tbilisi. SOCAR Petroleum Georgia is a SOCAR subsidiary. Its main business in Georgia is a network of petrol stations.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Georgian Bank’s profits rise

MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – London-listed Bank of Georgia reported Q1 profit up 16% because revenue from its banking and healthcare units offset weaker contributions from insurance and real estate sectors. The results are much needed positive news after a bleak economic Q1 dominated by the falling value of the lari currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Double-decker trains operate in Azerbaijan

MAY 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Swiss railway rolling stock manufacturer Stadler has won a 70m euro contract to deliver five double decker carriages to Azerbaijan’s railway company, media reported. The first two carriages will be put into operation ahead of the European Games in Baku next month.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

EU wants deal with Armenia

MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Less than two years after Armenia appeared to turn its back on the EU by agreeing to sign up to the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union, the EU wants to start negotiating a new treaty to deepen political and economic ties with Yerevan, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted an unnamed official in Brussels as saying.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

IMF says Kazakh CBank can defend tenge

MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The IMF weighed into the debate surrounding the tenge when it said the Kazakh Central Bank had enough cash to defend the currency against a sudden devaluation. The Central Bank has been under increased pressure to follow neighbours and devalue its currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Azerbaijani court ruled loans to be paid in full

MAY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Constitutional Court ruled that loans taken out in US dollars before the 30% devaluation of the Azerbaijani manat in February have to be repaid in full. Borrowers had hoped the Court would agree for debt to be repaid in manat at the lower rate.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Azerbaijan distributes oil and gas wealth unevenly

SUMQAYIT/Azerbaijan, MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Absheron, the narrow peninsula surrounding Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, gives a remarkable insight into the country’s patchy oil-funded growth.

Dystopian industrial decay, dirty villages of crumbling homes and bleak oil fields of rusty drills share the same few dusty square miles with newly built sumptuous seaside resorts, whitewashed villas and long stretches of crowded beaches dotted with flashy restaurants and garish wedding palaces.

The coexistence of opposites is arguably not a harmonic one. Embarrassed by the deteriorating state of Absheron’s infrastructure and the dire living conditions of much of its population Azerbaijan’s political elite seems to have opted for the creation of a Potemkin-façade of disproportionate lavishness.

Along the modern highway connecting Heydar Aliyev International Airport to the resort town of Buzovna high marble walls veil the view of surrounding shantytowns and oil spills.

Azerbaijan’s government indulges in creating unrepresentative showcases of the country, while the huge revenues of the oil and gas industry centred in and around Absheron, fail to filter down to the local inhabitants.

The uneven distribution of both profits and investments is epitomised by the fate of Sumqayit, Absheron’s biggest town. A thriving industrial centre during Soviet times, this northern shore town of concrete blocks and wide alleys now feels abandoned.

Resentment towards the government is high in Sumqayit and the town has become a breeding ground for religious extremism. Last year there were reports that Sumqayit had become a hotbed for Syria-bound would-be jihadists and a string of arrests and search operations were carried around town.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)

Uzbek mobile operator revenue increases

MAY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Beeline, mobile operator VimpelCom’s brand in the former Soviet Union, said its revenue in Q1 had increased by 13% in Uzbekistan. It said that while its customer base had fallen by 1%, mobile data revenues had grown by 24%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)