Tag Archives: Azerbaijan

Cotton sector grows in Azerbaijan

MARCH 30 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In 2016, Azerbaijan’s cotton sector created 64,000 jobs, the industry fibre2fibre.com website reported. It was quoting President Ilham Aliyev who also said the industry would create another 200,000 jobs in 2017. Mr Aliyev promised to invest millions of dollars into the cotton industry last year, part of his strategy to wean the economy off oil and gas.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Kazakh president visits Aliyev

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APRIL 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev flew to Baku for talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev that focused on boosting trade between the two Caspian Sea allies. No treaties or deals were signed but people at the meeting said that there the rapport between the two men had been good, laying the foundations for stronger ties.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Refined oil exports drop in Azerbaijan

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APRIL 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s exports of refined oil products fell by 18.3% in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the year before to 286,000 tonnes, media reported quoting state- owned SOCAR. SOCAR didn’t give a reason for the drop but oil sales and refined oil products are a vital part of Azerbaijan’s economy and foreign earning power. Azerbaijan, like the rest of the region, is trying to recover from an economic slump.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

BP wants contract extension on Azerbaijan’s ACG oil fields

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APRIL 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bob Dudley, the BP CEO, said that he had signed a letter of intent with the other partners of Azerbaijan’s ACG to extend the contract to operate the country’s biggest oil producing site by 25 years to 2050.

He said a final contract still needed to be signed but that this was likely this year. ACG is critical to Azerbaijan’s economy although its production rate has been falling over the past few years, a drop blamed on aging infrastructure, frustrating Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev.

“I think it’ll happen this year,” media quoted Mr Dudley as saying of the ACG contract extension.

“The contract expires in 2024, but you don’t want activity to drop off in the end of the contract period.”

BP owns a 35.78% stake in ACG (Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli). The other shareholders are Chevron (11.28%), Inpex (10.96%), AzACG (11.65 per- cent), Statoil (8.55 percent), Exxon (8 percent), TPAO (6.75 percent), Itochu (4.3 percent) and ONGC (2.72 percent).

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

US Senators want Trump Azerbaijan deal probe

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MARCH 30 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — US Senators asked for an official investigation into a hotel deal US President Donald Trump made in Azerbaijan which they suspect may have exposed him, indirectly, to illegal contact with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The deal, made before Mr Trump became US President earlier this year, involved Anar Mammadov, son of Ziya Mammadov. Ziya Mammadov used to be Azerbaijan’s transport minister and one of the most powerful people in the country. He had a reputation, though, for corruption and also for being linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

As well as possibly being tarnished by association with corruption allegations linked to the Mammadovs, Mr Trump may also have indirectly exposed himself to dealing with the Iran Revolutionary Guard, an organisation still covered by US sanctions. The Senators requested the investigation via the Senate’s Foreign Relations, Banking, and Judiciary committees which then sent on the request to the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, the Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and FBI director, James Comey. They have yet to respond.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Azerbaijan signs up another lobby group

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MARCH 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has signed BGR Government Affairs to lobby for its interest in Washington, the Politico website report. Politico said that Azerbaijan was paying BGR Government Affairs a $50,000/month retainer for its services. Azerbaijan already has the Podesta Group on a $45,000/month retainer. Its critics have previously accused it of spending too much on lobbying while it limps through an economic downturn that has pushed the economy into a recession.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Russians prefer to holiday in Azerbaijan and Georgia

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TBILISI, MARCH 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Baku and Tbilisi are among the top five destinations for Moscovites to choose to holiday in during this year’s spring break in April/May, the Vestnik Kavkaza website reported by quoting the RoomGuru.ru hotel and apartment booking website.

The data, based on bookings made for April 29 – May 10, may be anecdotal but they are more evidence of the growing popularity of both cities as tourist destinations for Russians. Both Baku and Tbilisi represent far cheaper options compared to Europe and are almost certain to guarantee sun, an important draw for Moscovites breaking out of a long cold winter.

Russians have also steered away from holidaying in Europe since sanctions were introduced in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. This, combined with a collapse in oil prices, triggered a recession which has reduced Russians’ spending power.

Maya Lomidze from the Association of Russian Tour Operators, told Vestnik Kavkaza that it was no coincidence that Baku and Tbilisi had grown in popularity.

“Azerbaijan and Georgia are actively developing inbound tourism, creating comfortable conditions for tourists and the potential for this is far from being exhausted,” she was quoted as saying.

Georgia’s tourism board has been working hard to try to entice Russians back to the country after direct flights were resumed in 2014, after being scrapped in 2008 during a war between the two neighbours.

The Georgian tourism agency said that just over 1m Russians visited Georgia in 2016, figures don’t distinguish between tourist and business trips, a 12% rise on 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Azerbaijan airline to connect regions with Moscow

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MARCH 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — AZALJet, the budget airline of Azerbaijan Airlines, said it had started direct flights from Ganja and Qabala to Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. The routes are an important part of the transport network that connects migrant workers in Azerbaijan and the rest of the former Soviet Union, with jobs in Russia. Starting up the routes is a sign that people are starting to have more faith in the region’s economies. Like the rest of the South Caucasus/Central Asia region, Azerbaijan’s economy relies on remittance flows from Russia.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Azerbaijani economy will grow, says Fitch

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MARCH 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Fitch, the ratings agency, said that the Azerbaijani economy was likely to pick up this year after contracting by 3.8% in 2016. In an interview with Reuters, Paul Gamble, head of Fitch’s emerging Europe department said that the economy would grow by 0.2% this year and 1.7% in 2018. Earlier this month, the Asian Development Bank said that Azerbaijan’s economy would shrink again this year.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Currencies: Georgian lari, Azerbaijani manat

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MARCH 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a week of light trading and only incremental currency fluctuations, the Georgian lari performed strongest pushing up by 1.6% to 2.44/$1.

This is its highest level since the start of November last year and reflects a general strengthening of Georgia’s macro-economic scores.

Of the other currencies, only the Azerbaijani manat and the Uzbek som moved more than 1%. The manat continued its strong performance since February by moving up another 1.3% to 1.7050/$1, a five month high. Bloomberg described the manat as the strongest performing currency in the world this year. It also said, though, that ordinary Azerbaijanis still had little confidence in their currency after two devaluations in 2015 halved its value.

It said this lack of confidence showed through in Central Bank data which said 81.3% of bank deposits were now kept in US dollars, up from 79.6% at end-Dec.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)