MARCH 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s not just Western mining companies in Kyrgyzstan that have come under pressure to pay extra fines. Kyrgyz media reported that the local authorities in northern Kyrgyzstan want the Chinese-run Taldy Bulak Levoberezhni gold mine to pay $143m every year for environmental damage. Chinese firms are generally unpopular in Kyrgyzstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ukrainian industrial magnate Dmitri Firtash, one of Ukraine’s richest people, is having a rough time.
Four days after Austrian police arrested Mr Firtash on various criminal charges, Tajikistan’s anti-corruption agency launched an investigation into a 2002 deal involving his Cyprus-based Khairok Holdings Company.
The deal saw Khairok Holdings buy a 75% stake in Tajik Azot, a factory that produces carbamide as a fertiliser.
The timing of the Tajik investigation is suspect. Languishing in an Austrian jail makes it difficult for Mr Firtash to defend his Tajik business.
And the outlook for Mr Firtash’s control of Tajik Azot does not look good. Officials at the anti-corruption agency noted that Zayd Saydov was minister of industry when the deal was signed. Saydov is not a favourite of the authorities. He is a rival to Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon and was jailed in December for 26 years for corruption, polygamy and sex with a minor.
At full capacity Tajik Azot, based 117km from Dushanbe, exported international standard Carbamide to countries across the former Soviet Union, employing over 800 people.
Since 2008, production at the plant has plummeted due to high prices of natural gas from Uzbekistan. Nevertheless as Tajikistan seeks to develop its own hydrocarbons sector the facility may assume a strategic role in the national economy once more. A nice asset to grab while you can.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s transport minister, Maxim Sokolov, visited Yerevan and pledged an extra $50m investment in various joint-ventures, a sort of pre-Customs Union entry sweetener for Armenia. Pushing aside the EU’s advances, Armenia has agreed to join the Russia-led Customs Union later this year.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to boost tourism, and with its own political agenda in mind, Armenia has hired New York-based GK Brand and Toronto-based Cundari Group to re-brand its sovereign image.
The Armenian government wants to launch a new logo and business plan next year that will help draw in both businesses and tourists.
For Armenia, 2015 is an historically important year as it marks the 100th anniversary of what it has described as a genocide perpetrated against it by Turkish forces.
It says that 1.5m Armenians died when Ottoman Turks attacked them and drove them out of their homes in eastern Turkey in 1915. Turkey denies a genocide but has said that many were killed in partisan fighting.
Armenia is placing an emphasis on its culture, its churches and monasteries for its re-brand but there will also be plenty of political intent.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s non-oil sector, a key benchmark of economic development, grew by 8.8% in January and February of this year compared to the same period in 2013, the state statistics agency reported. International economists have said that Azerbaijan needs to reduce its economic dependence on energy.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kenes Rakishev, the high-profile son-in-law of Astana mayor Imangali Tasmagambetov, has been appointed director at Kazakhstan Engineering . Kazakhstan Engineering is owned by Kazakh sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna. It mainly works with the ministry of defence to maintain military equipment
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has approved plans to build a new airport outside Almaty to serve as an international hub, media reported. The current airport at Almaty is too small to handle Kazakhstan’s ambitions of becoming a transit point for people flying between Europe and Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Food prices in Uzbekistan may have risen by as much as 30-70% over the last few weeks, an anecdotal survey by the Uzmetronom.uz website said. While Uzmetronom.uz’s figures may be out, there is little doubt that rising energy prices and falling business activity is pushing up inflation in Uzbekistan.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
MARCH 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s parliament, unsurprisingly, passed a motion calling on the West to take all necessary trade and diplomatic action “to help Ukraine amid Russian aggression”. The motion was a strong statement of where Georgia lies on the Ukraine-Crimea-Russia tug of war.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
MARCH 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to reduce bad loans, Kazakhstan’s Central Bank imposed tighter regulations on its banks’ lending. In a statement, the Central Bank said banks would be banned from lending to people whose repayments would equal half their monthly income. Nearly a third of all 90-day loans in Kazakhstan are overdue.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)