MARCH 18 2015 (The Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s statistics agency said that it had received a donation of $2.5m which it said will help strengthen is systems, vital for measuring the economic and social health of the country, the 24.kg website reported. Akylbek Osmonoliyev, head of the statistics agency, did not say where the funds originated.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 17 2015 (The Bulletin) – A court in Azerbaijan sentenced opposition activist Siraj Kerimli to 6 years in prison for drug trafficking. Kerimli’s supporters say the charges have been fabricated as part of a government crackdown on dissidents. The EU and the US have both criticised Azerbaijan for its free speech and human rights’ records.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 18 2015 (The Bulletin) – Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a treaty with the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia that underlined the Kremlin’s alliance with the rebel state. Georgia has previously said Russian moves to solidify its hold on South Ossetia and Abkhazia are a breach of international law.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 18 2015 (The Bulletin) – The Georgian government sold the 35-storey Batumi Tower for $25.4m to a development company, generating much needed cash and ridding itself of one of former President Mikheil Saakashvili’s pet projects.
The blue and white tower with a golden ferris wheel set halfway up one of its sides has always generated wonder and ridicule.
Mr Saaskhvili, who was Georgian president from 2003 until 2013, had wanted the tower to serve as a Georgian-American technical university. His detractors said that it was a wasteful white elephant.
It has been unoccupied since it was finished in 2012.
Lika Glonti, an educational expert based in Tbilisi said: “I do think that this kind of building was not optimal for a university, but this is rather an issue of a taste. Selling Batumi Tower is a consequence of cancelling the idea of Batumi Technological University.”
The building was auctioned a day before the finance and economy ministries announced their plans to tackle the economic crisis. The local currency, the Lari, has fallen sharply against the dollar in the past few months and economists have revised down their economic growth predictions for this year.
A global collapse in oil prices and economic turmoil in Russia have impacted the wider former Soviet region.
On March 12, the economy ministry announced the privatisation of more assets, part of a larger three year plan to see it through the financial crisis that has swamped the region over the past few months.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 15 2015 (The Bulletin) – Preliminary data from Georgia’s statistics agency, Geostat, showed that foreign direct investment (FDI) jumped by 39% to 1.3b last year.
This is the highest level of FDI since 2008 when Georgia experienced an economic boom before a short war against Russia curtailed investor confidence in the country.
Geostat wasn’t able to give specific reasons for the sharp increase in FDI in 2014. FDI is vitally important in Georgia and the statistics showed how Georgia’s economic conditions had improved this year.
The data, though, doesn’t reflect the worsening economic conditions over the past months.
Economic turmoil in Russia and a drop in the price of oil have hit the region, knocking growth rates and denting currencies. This has trickled through to Georgia. FDI levels are expected to fall again this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 13 2015 (The Bulletin) – Kashagan, the giant oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea which was supposed to lift Kazakhstan into the top tier of global energy producers, may not resume output until 2017, the Shell energy company said.
This is, effectively, a six month delay to the schedule Kazakh officials have been promoting. Kazakh officials had talked up 2016 as the re-start date.
“Replacement activities are ongoing, with production expected to restart in 2017,” Shell said in its annual report.
Shell owns a 16.8% stake in Kashagan.
It has reliable information on how essential maintenance is progressing.
Kashagan has turned into one of the biggest white elephants in global energy history. It was supposed to be operational by 2013 but leaky pipes were discovered shortly after output started at the multi-billion-dollar project.
Other Kashagan shareholders include Italy’s ENI, the US’ Exxon, France’s Total, China’s CNPC, and Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGaz.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 16 2015 (The Bulletin) – Several people were injured during a fight between activists of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition and activists of the opposition United National Movement party in the city of Zugdidi, media reported. The fight highlights worsening political climate in Georgia. A large opposition march is planned for Tbilisi on March 21.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 13 2015 (The Bulletin) – Kazakhstan may delay modernisation work at its three refineries until 2016 because a cut in the price of rival Russian oil products has knocked their profitability, Yerlan Koibagarov, down-stream director at Kazakh state energy company KazMunaiGaz, was quoted by media as saying.
Upgrade work to the refineries is considered essential in the long run to boost output and guarantee the quality of Kazakhstan’s domestically produced oil products. Demand for oil has soared over the last few years, while output hasn’t been able to keep up.
“If this trend continues I really don’t know if we will have enough monetary funds for the modernisation or not,” the government-owned Astana Times newspaper quoted Mr Koibagarov as saying. “Maybe we will have to prolong the term.”
At the beginning of this month, Kazakhstan slapped a 45 day ban on the import of oil products from Russia. The problem is that the value of the rouble has dropped by around half over the past six months, while the Kazakh Central Bank has tried to maintain the value of the tenge. Global oil prices have also plunged.
Refineries and oil products are an important issue in Kazakhstan.
To head off general discontent about the lack of petrol, the Kazakh government has made self-sufficiency for oil products a major plank of their policies.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 17 2015 (The Bulletin) – Halyk Bank, one of Kazakhstan’s largest banks, posted a 58% increase in net profit in 2014 mainly due to a reduction in bad debt. This is good news for Kazakhstan’s banking sector which has been battling to reduce its proportion of bad debt.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
MARCH 17 2015 (The Bulletin) – London-listed Kazakh packaging company Kazgazy issued a profit warning and said sales in Q1 were down 18% on Q1 2014. Kazagy blamed the fall in the value of the Russian rouble and said it will be forced to cut jobs and implement other cost savings.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)