MARCH 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Orange Armenia, one of the players in the country’s telecoms market, is preparing to rebrand to adjust its identity to Ucom, the fibre optic cable company that bought it last September. Ucom’s green colours will soon replace Orange’s trademark tone. France’s Orange previously owned Orange Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan travelled to Athens for a high-profile meeting with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras where both sides pledged to increase bilateral support and trade. Greece is, potentially, a natural ally for Armenia in Europe. Both countries have strong Christian roots and are both able to grumble about past grievances with their larger shared neighbour, Turkey.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) -The economic downturn continues to hit Central Asia and the South Caucasus with British Airways now cancelling its London-Baku service.
But whether BA needs to quit the route altogether is questionable. Airlines keep a diversified portfolio of route because it is near impossible to second guess which routes will be profitable in a few year’s time.
The decision took many by surprise because of the strong presence of British business in Azerbaijan, most notably BP.
As oil prices fell dramatically in the past 20 months, airline companies have rallied on cheap fuel, but have also struggled to maintain links to countries negatively affected by the crisis.
In 2012, British Airways cut its route to Yerevan, the following year it cancelled regular flights to Bishkek and Tbilisi. Last October, the company quit its London-Almaty route.
The crisis, aside from hitting government budgets and people’s wallets, has contributed to cutting off further the region from the West.
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Editorial from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), one of the biggest investors in the former Soviet region, signed a deal with Armenia’s Central Bank to help it develop dram-listed capital markets, to improve Armenia’s image as a reliable financial market.
The agreement is part of EBRD’s Local Currency Programme (LCP), which is also aimed at Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
“The EBRD provides local currency loans through procuring local currency funding or hedging, by entering into currency swaps with third party providers, such as the Currency Exchange Fund,” the EBRD said in a statement.
It’s been one of the EBRD’s stated aims to develop markets and financial tools which support local tools and reduce the dollarisation of economies.
“Expanding the availability of local currency financing is crucial for the growth of local businesses by providing them with fund at affordable rates and manageable risk,” Andre Kuusvek, EBRD director at the LCP said in a statement.
Strengthening and protecting local currencies has become especially important after the drop in oil prices globally exposed their vulnerabilities.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The World Bank predicted that Armenia’s economy would grow at 2.5% this year, it’s lowest rate for five years. Last year, the World Bank said that Armenia’s economy grew by 3%. It said that the main problems facing Armenia were a recession in Russia and structural weaknesses in its own economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)
MARCH 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia, a new low-cost airline, will make its maiden flight from Yerevan to Tel Aviv on April 21, media reported quoting Robert Hovhannisyan, one of the airlines shareholders. Speculation has been growing in Armenia about whether the low-cost airline will get off the ground. It biggest shareholder is Tamaz Gaiashvili, the founder of the Georgian Airzena airline.
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(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)
MARCH 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s overall electricity production was 5.2% higher in January compared to January 2015, mostly due to the sharp increase in hydropower generation.
While traditional sources of power such as thermal and nuclear increased only marginally, production from hydropower and small hydropower stations grew by 23.7%, according to Armenia’s Statistics Committee.
Small hydroelectric plants, in particular, have heavily increased their contribution to Armenia’s total power output.
Small hydropower plants are defined in Armenia as power plants that generate up to 30 MW. In Armenia there are now 173 small hydropower plants, more than twice as many as there were in 2010 and six times more than in 1991. Today, they account for around 9% of the country’s power generation.
Individual entrepreneurs, including many people linked to government officials and ministers, have driven the rise in these small hydro- power stations, building along rivers and generating power which links straight into the national grid.
But while the government has welcomed the rise in small hydro- power stations, anti-corruption campaigners have linked them to money laundering and corruption and environmentalists have said that they are damaging rivers’ eco-systems and creating eye-sores.
“Critics say the plants already in operation are sucking up most of the water in the river system, destroying traditional trout fisheries and depriving area residents of reliable access to water,” Kristine Aghalaryan said in report in the Hetq newspaper.
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(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)
MARCH 7 2016, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom reached an agreement with the government of Georgia to supply gas via Armenia, renewing a deal that has bound the two countries together.
The deal had been in jeopardy after negotiations over additional gas supplies to Georgia from Russia were frozen. But both the Kremlin and Tbilisi see the Armenia gas supply arrangement as a useful dialogue forum and forced it through.
After last-minute negotiations, Kakha Kaladze, Georgia’s minister of energy, confirmed a deal.
“We have reached an agreement with Gazprom, now we just have to sign it,” he told media.
The deal, Mr Kaladze said was similar to the earlier one, with Georgia receiving 10% of the total gas Gazprom sent to Armenia. Georgia, which has been transforming itself into a transit hub for the South Caucasus, had wanted cash instead of gas for the arrangement but Russia refused to budge.
The renewed deal between Georgia and Gazprom will also be a relief to Armenia, which is reliant on supplies from Russia. It has struck deals with Iran but Russia remains its most important partner.
Until the first quarter of 2016, Armenia will continue paying s discounted rate of $165/thousand cubic metres, which Gazprom cut by 12.% last September.
Armenia and Gazprom will have to negotiate a new price for gas for the rest of the year.
Earlier, on March 4, Georgia signed a deal with Azerbaijan to receive an extra 500,000 cubic metres of gas. It had been in negotiations with Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia for months to seal the deal.
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(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)
MARCH 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Data from Armenia has shown that small hydro power stations now generate a significant amount of the country’s power.
Of course this could be a good thing, reducing Armenia’s dependency on its aging nuclear power station. It also needs to be viewed with a degree of concern.
Many of these power stations actually do more harm than good to the environment. They are often built in fragile parts of the eco-system without much, if any, planning. They can damage and harm the environment.
And there is a whiff of corruption surrounding them or at least nepotism. Many of these small hydro-power stations are owned or linked to, members of parliament and even government.
Armenia needs to impose proper oversight on the sector, building up trust in its intentions. If it is properly regulated, small hydro-power stations could be a benefit to the environment and to ordinary Armenians. If it isn’t, it’ll be a blight on the environment and on the country’s governance reputation.
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(Editorial from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)
MARCH 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling, the Armenian distributor of soft drinks, said it disagreed with the State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition which imposed a 50m dram ($102,000) fine on it for unfair competition last week. Coca Cola Hellenic said it will challenge the fine in court.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)