OCT. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EBRD lent $850,000 to Gul Zaman, Turkmenistan’s largest events and catering company, to expand its business and create a premium industrial-scale bakery. The EBRD said that the EU will also provide grants and training for the project. Last month, the EBRD gave a $2.8m loan to a Turkmen brewer to build a potato crisp plant.
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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)
SEPT. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The International Labor Rights Forum published a report corroborating claims that the World Bank could be inadvertently financing a textile factory involved in forced labour practices. The report, which follows a petition in July sent by human rights activists directly to the World Bank, targets specifically an Uzbek-Indonesian joint venture, Indorama Kokand Textile. The World Bank had previously denied the allegations, saying it only deals with forced labour-free companies.
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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)
JULY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev said that Uzbekistan aims to double production of fruits and vegetables by the end of 2020. Mr Mirziyoyev said that the country currently produces around 16m tonnes of produce and the government aims to boost output to at least 32m tonnes in the next three years. A word of caution, however. Statistics in Uzbekistan can be easily manipulated for political reasons.
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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)
JULY 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The World Bank denied allegations that it was fuelling forced labour in Uzbekistan after local human rights campaigners complained about the indirect consequences of a loan from the World Bank’s financial arm to an Uzbek-Indonesian textile joint venture.
The complaint targets a $40m loan approved in December 2015 by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to Indorama Kokand Textile (IKT), the Uzbek subsidiary of Indorama TBK, a Jakarta-based textile company.
The IFC said that it gave the loan to IKT because it has verified the company’s labour practices.
“[IKT] can trace its cotton supply to ensure it sources only from areas covered by third-party monitoring against child and forced labor,” IFC spokeswoman Elizabeth Price told Reuters.
IKT also refuted the allegations.
“Indorama Corporation has a strict policy of zero tolerance on use of any form of forced labor,” IKT spokesman Prakash Kejriwal said.
The claimants are three local human rights campaigners and one Uzbek alleged victim of forced labour. They said that this loan would reinforce the system of forced labour in the country.
“The IFC loan to IKT and support to commercial banks in Uzbekistan risks perpetuating the forced labor system,” the claimants said in their statement filed with the IFC.
The loan was issued to finance the expansion of the company’s textile plant in Kokand, east Uzbekistan.
The claim highlights the reputational problems of doing business in Uzbekistan for foreign countries. It will likely direct international attention to the issue of forced labour in the country’s cotton picking industry. Uzpahtasanoateksport, the state owned company responsible for the collection and the sale of cotton, is IKT’s sole supplier.
Since 2009, the United States has banned imports of Uzbek cotton and in 2013 it blocked a shipment of IKT cotton at the port of Los Angeles.
Indorama TBK owns 89.26% of IKT, while Uzbekistan’s Central Bank owns the rest.
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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)
JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EBRD said it is about to unlock a $155m loan to Georgia’s fertiliser producer Rustavi Azot. The loan will be part of a $175m funding programme to modernise its production line and reduce the factory’s emissions. RustaviAzot, located 25km south of Tbilisi, employs around 2,000 workers and has an output capacity of up to 220,000 tonnes of ammonia per year. In March, the plant faced closure for failing to pay its gas bill.
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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)
MAY 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Chinese companies said they will invest around $1.9b in Kazakhstan’s agriculture sector over the next few years, in an effort to boost trade and cooperation through its Silk Road Initiative. Gulmira Isayeva, Kazakhstan’s deputy minister of agriculture, told the FT that Chinese investment will help increase domestic production.
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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)
MAY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s ministry of agriculture said it has banned imports of potatoes from Kyrgyzstan following an outbreak of Globodera rostochiensis, a pest that the Kazakh authorities found in several imported shipments. The Kazakh government sent back around 1,000 tonnes of potatoes to Kyrgyzstan citing international trade agreements between the two countries.
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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)
APRIL 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Verny Capital, a Kazakh private equity firm, said it will invest around $100m in the grain processing sector. Yerlan Ospanov, the company’s CEO, said the investment is aimed at seizing market share. “We will produce gluten, sugar; glucose syrup, molasses,” Mr Ospanov said. The company did not specify the details of the investment.
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(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)
MARCH 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry denied that the country was helping Turkey to dodge sanctions imposed by Russia by exporting its tomatoes to Russian cities. Russia had previously said that it was suspicious that the amount of tomatoes heading to Russian had increased by 350% this year. It threatened to retaliate if it proved the tomatoes had originated in Turkey.
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(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)
FEB. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s agricultural watchdog accused Azerbaijan of re-exporting potatoes from Turkey to Russia to help their Turkish allies beat Russian sanctions.
This is the first time that Russia has accused a country from Central Asia and the South Caucasus, which have loyalties to both the Kremlin and Ankara, of helping Turkey dodge sanctions imposed last year after a Turkish fighter-jet shot down a Russian fighter-jet over Syria.
“After inspecting the food shipments coming from Azerbaijan and Iran to ensure their commitment to Russia’s decision to prevent the import of agricultural products from Turkey, we have noted that Azerbaijan has doubled its potato shipments to our country by five times since last January,” Sergei Dankvet, head of the agricultural watchdog, told media.
He also said Russia had complained to Azerbaijan and warned it of potential consequences. Companies in the Baltics have previously used Central Asia to skip EU sanctions to send their dairy goods to Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Jan. 26 2016)