Tag Archives: business

Business comment: Transit rush in Eurasia

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — From Iran to Lithuania, several countries have tried to impose their agenda to lay out transit routes across the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

Iran, which will soon be no longer cut off from international trade by Western sanctions, said it wants to become a road and rail transport link between Pakistan and the South Caucasus.

The link, which would run through Afghanistan and Tajikistan, would also connect Central Asia to Azerbaijan, said Iranian minister of roads and urban development Abbas Akhoundi.

In Klaipeda, Lithuania, thousands of kilometres away from the region, representatives from Lithuanian, Kazakh and Georgian railway and maritime companies met with large transport companies — among which were Britain-based DBSchenker and Germany-based InterRail Logistics — to design a China-Europe Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.

Georgia and Turkey also want to be included in the project, which could compete with the EU- sponsored TRACECA corridors spanning from Central Asia to Europe and the Beijing-funded One

Belt One Road project from Eastern China to Western Europe.

In addition, because of the recent diplomatic row between Russia and Turkey, Azerbaijan has come forward and said it wants to become the transport hub for Turkish goods to Central Asia.

The growing links across the region will improve connectivity and cut back on transport times for westbound goods from China, South and Central Asia.

And its worth keeping in mind that stresses caused by the Russia- Turkey row may create opportunities for new trade routes.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Uzbekistan boosts solar sector

DEC. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek government has signed a decree that will allow people and small businesses to sell electricity they generate via solar panels to the state for the first time, media reported.

Potentially this edict is a small scale way of giving private entrepre- neurship a boost. As the website norma.uz reported earlier this year, there are a number of small businesses producing solar power electricity in Uzbekistan.

With its long, hot, cloudless summers, Uzbekistan is ripe for solar power.

Earlier this year, Uzbekistan launched a $700m project to build three solar panel farms to generate electricity.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Kazakh government to cut oil exports

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a move designed to help oil exporters, the Kazakh government said it would cut export duty on a tonne of oil to $40 from $60. Some exporters in Kazakhstan have simply stopped production until either oil prices improved or taxes were cut.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kazakhstan-focused Nostrum slashes revenues

NOV. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In its financial results for the first nine months of the year, Kazakhstan- focused Nostrum Oil & Gas said revenues were down 40% to $374.8m. Low oil prices and back taxes dented Nostrum’s financial position. Nostrum is investing around $500m in the GTU3 gas treatment facility, which will increase production to 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by 2017 from around 40,000boepd.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

New gas pipeline opened in Kazakhstan

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s pipeline monopoly Kaztransgas launched the $3.5b Beineu- Bozoi-Shymkent gas pipeline, five months early. The pipeline is important because it pumps gas from fields in the north-west to urban centres in the south.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

40,000 workers in Kazakhstan face threat

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik said 40,000 people working in the country’s oil and gas sector could lose their jobs next year if energy prices continued to stay low. He said the depressed price of oil had decimated the oil and gas sector.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Rosneft buys into Armenia

NOV. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Rosneft, the Russian oil and gas company, bought Armenia’s Petrol Market chain of petrol stations for $40m, media reported, extending Russian influence over the country. Media reported that the deal was made in August but only reported now.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

EU to give Georgia grant

NOV. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EU is preparing to give Georgia a 100m euro grant to help its public administration, farming and rural development sectors improve and move towards European standards, the EU commissioner for enlargement, Johannes Hahn, said on a trip to Tbilisi. Georgia wants to eventually join the EU.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Uzbekistan reduces child cotton pickers

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A report by the UN’s International Labour Office (ILO) said the use of child labour to pick cotton in Uzbekistan has reduced although it hasn’t been totally eradicated.

The ILO’s findings are important because Uzbekistan has come under growing criticism for its use of children, medical staff and teachers for picking cotton. Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s biggest exports, although many Western companies have stopped buying Uzbek cotton.

“The use of children in the cotton harvest has become rare and sporadic,” the ILO said in its report. “Authorities have taken a range of measures to reduce the incidence of child labour and make it socially unacceptable.”

It said that a campaign to stop teachers and medics being used to pick cotton has been less successful.

Activists rank Uzbekistan as one of the worst countries in the world for upholding human rights.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

VimpelCom close to deal due to Uzbek bribery

NOV. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian telecoms company VimpelCom could be close to a $775m settlement with a US court that accused it of paying bribes to access mobile licences in Uzbekistan, Bloomberg reported. Earlier in November, the company set aside $900m for settlement costs. VimpelCom representatives declined to comment.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)