MAY 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan expects direct foreign investment of $3b this year from energy companies looking to develop its Caspian Sea oil reserves, Reuters quoted Yagshigeldy Kakayev, head of the Turkmen state agency on the use of hydrocarbon resources, as saying. In 2013, the figure was $2.5b.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian gold mining company Polymetal paid the equivalent of $619m for two gold mines in Kazakhstan belonging to Timur Kulibayev, the son-in-law of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Reuters reported.
Half the fee will be paid in shares in the new gold mine company called Kyzyl Project.
Mr Kulibayev is one of the most influential and high- profile businessmen in Kazakhstan. He has also been touted, by some, as a potential successor for his father- in-law. His main asset is Halyk Bank, one of the biggest banks in Kazakhstan. He owns a majority stake alongside his wife, Dinara Nazarbayeva, Mr Nazarbayev’s second daughter.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Almaty sentenced a 29-year-old man to seven years in jail for calling on Kazakhs to support militant Islamists fighting in Syria. Kamil Abdulin was found guilty of spreading terrorist propaganda and citing religious discord. Kazakhstan has increased penalties on people found guilty of terrorism-linked crimes.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan aims to keep economic growth at between 7% and 8% per year for the next four years, media reported quoting material from a business forum in Tashkent. Economic data from Uzbekistan should be treated with scepticism. Uzbekistan has been looking to develop its hi-tech sector.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Astana detained 20 people demonstrating against the proposed Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), two days before Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan planned to sign it into existence. The EEU is designed to replace the Customs Union. Some analysts have said that it will morph from an economic club into a political group.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia views Central Asia as an imminent conflict zone and has bolstered operations at its military bases in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said at the third Moscow Conference on International Security.
The Kant air base outside Bishkek, he said, in particular had seen a significant increase in manpower and airpower in the past couple of years.
This coincides with the US drawdown from its own airbase outside Bishkek as operations to Afghanistan have slowed.
But neither Moscow’s airbase at Kant nor its military installation outside Dushanbe, Tajikistan, both operating under the auspices of the Russia-led regional security group the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), have played any major role in ensuring Central Asian stability. During revolution and ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan in 2010, as well as clashes between pro and anti-government forces in Tajikistan’s east in 2012, the Russians were nowhere to be seen.
Mr Shoigu’s comments could be interpreted as a sign that Moscow is readying to become a regional security guarantor now that Washington is exiting the region.
That said, the comments may also just be another round of posturing by Russia in its so-called near abroad.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon flew to Bahrain for the start of an official thee day visit. It is his first trip to Bahrain and comes shortly after he signed a deal with Kuwait to improve relations. Mr Rakhmon is likely to sign a similar deal in Bahrain.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The shadow economy in Kyrgyzstan is worth around 40% of the country’s economy, media quoted PM Djoomart Otorbayev as saying. He said agriculture was particularly affected and that he wanted to change this to bolster tax receipts. The figure highlights the complexity of managing the Kyrgyz economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan Airlines may pull out of a deal to buy two Boeing Dreamliners, media reported. Reports said Azerbaijan Airlines had been due to take the first Dreamliner in June or July this year but that it was having second thoughts. Boeing has not commented.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Central Bank dropped growth rate predictions for 2014 by around a fifth mainly because of a slowdown in Russia’s economy.
All the Central Asian and South Caucasus countries are vulnerable to a slowdown in Russia’s economy but Armenia has perhaps been the first to warn publicly of the impact.
It said economic growth this year would now be between 4.1% and 4.8%, down from an earlier prediction of between 5.4% and 6.1%. Russia is by far Armenia’s biggest trading partner and Yerevan has been looking to join the Russia- led Customs Union to cement this relationship.
But sanctions imposed by the EU and US because of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine earlier this year have impacted its economic growth and the domino effect means that this has weighed on economies across the former Soviet Union.
Russia owns much of Armenia’s businesses, supplies its gas and is a magnet for seasonal labourers from Armenia who generate an important remittance flow.
Armenia’s Central Bank also said a delayed copper mine and a weak tax regime also hindered economic growth rates.
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(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)