Tag Archives: business

More loans given to support SMEs in Uzbekistan

JUNE 23 (The Bulletin) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approved another loan of $40 million to UzPromstroybank to be lent out to SMEs that need support to survive the impact of an anti-coronavirus lockdown. Like other international financial institutions, the EBRD has increased lending to Uzbekistan to help it deal with the coronavirus. The International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank, also gave a second Uzbek bank, Ipoteka-Bank, a loan of $35m.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Kazakhstan’s Halyk Bank to debate dividend payout

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JUNE 23 (The Bulletin) — Shareholders of Halyk Bank, the largest bank in Kazakhstan, will vote on July 23 on whether to pay out the second of two planned dividend payments in 2020 because of the impact of the coronavirus on business. In May, Halyk Bank, which is majority-owned by Dinara Nazarbayeva and her husband Timur Kulibayev, voted to scrap its dividend. Ms Nazabayeva is the daughter of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

EBRD gives Georgia’s TBC Bank an unsecured loan of $100m

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JUNE 23 (The Bulletin) — The EBRD gave an unsecured loan of $100m to Georgia’s TBC Bank to help it lend out cash to small and medium-sized businesses fighting off the impact of the coronavirus. The EBRD has been a core supporter of SMEs in Georgia throughout the lockdown. Georgia has been praised for stamping out the virus but its economy is set to shrink by 5% this year.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Berdy approves expansion of two Turkmen cement factories

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JUNE 23 (The Bulletin) — Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov approved the expansion of two cement factories, suggesting that despite the impact of the spread of the coronavirus, Turkmenistan would continue to construct new buildings. The sites will be built by privately-owned companies but will be owned by the Turkmen state.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Tourism dries up in Azerbaijan

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JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — Data from Azerbaijan’s statistics agency showed the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on the tourist industry. It said that in the first five months of the year, the number of tourists in Azerbaijan halved to 563,000. Most of Azerbaijan’s tourists arrive from Russia, Georgia and Turkey but a growing market is tourists from the Middle East. Tourist numbers are proportionally likely to fall further through the year.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Turkmenistan Airlines to lease first Boeing cargo jet

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JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — Turkmenistan Airlines will lease its first Boeing 777F, a cargo plane. Media reported that the deal will cost Turkmenistan Airlines an estimated $352m to lease the aircraft from Frankfurt-based Aircraft Finance Germany. The high cost highlights the growing importance of the Europe-Asia cargo business that airlines in Central Asia are competing for.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Invest in our agriculture, Kazakh officials say

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JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan wants foreign investors to buy into its vision for its agricultural sector, the government said through the state-linked newspaper Astana Times. Kazakh officials have been trying to promote its agricultural sector for the past decade and to expand its exports away from grain.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Uzbekistan wants to sell stake in Coca Cola bottling plant

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TASHKENT/JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — the Uzbek government said it wanted to sell its 57% stake in its joint-venture with Coca-Cola, the largest soft drinks producer in Central Asia.

The sale of the two production plants in Uzbekistan, for an undeclared amount, highlights the government’s commitment to its much-vaunted privatisation process, a process that has touched most sectors of an economy that was once considered off-limits to foreign investors.

Uzbekistan’s State Asset Management Agency gave no other details on the potential sale but it is one of the country’s most-prized manufacturing assets and will attract interest.

In March, Coca-Cola said that it planned to invest $31m into the joint venture to “modernise and expand the production capacities of factories in Tashkent and Khorezm province”.

It also said in its statement at the time that it had increased capacity by more than a third in 2018 and by another third in 2019, reflecting large growth in the soft drinks market in Central Asia and also in Uzbekistan which has experienced an economic boom under Shavkat Mirziyoyev, president since 2016.

“According to the findings of the study conducted in 2019, the market is expected to grow by 1.8 times in the next 10 years due to the growth in population, income and the tourist inflow into the region,” Coca Cola said in its March statement.

This was shortly before the Uzbek government locked the country down to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Economists have said that the lockdown strategy, adopted by most countries, will tip Uzbekistan into a recession this year.

The sale of its stake in the Coca-Cola joint-venture is just the latest asset that the Uzbek government has put up for sale. Earlier this year it said that it wanted to find a foreign partner to run its airline, Uzbekistan Airways. It was unclear if a deal with Uzbekistan Airways may also involve selling off a stake.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Turkish Airlines to restart flying to the region

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JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — Turkish Airlines, a vital service into both Central Asia and the South Caucasus, said that it was going to restart most of its routes from July 1. Like the rest of the aviation sector Turkish Airlines had stopped its routes when the coronavirus was spreading across the globe and governments were imposing lockdowns.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Turkmenistan opens border with Iran

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JUNE 20 (The Bulletin) — Turkmen officials allowed 30 trucks stuck in Iran for 2-1/2 months after the country was closed as part of Turkmenistan’s push to incubate itself against the spread of the coronavirus to cross the border. According to media reports, Iranian officials are still waiting to process 740 more trucks that have been stuck at the border since April 1.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020