MAY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament will consider adopting a law that will shift supervisory powers over commercial banks away from the Central Bank to an independent supervisory body, media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – BP suspended operations for 22 days at its West Azeri platform in the Caspian Sea for planned maintenance work. The Azerbaijani government has put BP under pressure to maintain oil output at its fields.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s government said it would privatise the national post office group Haypost, potentially setting up one of the biggest sales of state assets this year.
One of the overriding reasons behind the sale is to modernise Haypost and its 900 branches around the country, Arman Sahakyan, head of the statement, said.
“With the help of investments we expect to modernize physical infrastructures, to restore around 250 post offices, to purchase mobile post vehicles, which will serve all Armenian communities including those 250 communities where there are no post offices at the moment. Transportation means will also be renovated, post-boxes will be placed at all 750,000 registered addresses of Armenia,” media quoted Mr Sahakyan as saying.
The Armenian government is under increased pressure to rebuff a worsening economic outlook.
Haypost, which is in desperate need of modernisation has been a prime candidate to attract an investor to buy it from the government and update the service.
The Armenian state wholly owns Haypost, although in 2006 it handed the management of the company over to a company registered in the Netherlands but owned by Argentinean-Armenian businessman Eduardo Eurnekian. It’s unclear from reports if Mr Eurnekian will be involved in the privatisation.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
BAKU/Azerbaijan, MAY 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — For 20 years Sugra, a weather-beaten 72-year-old, has pulled up vegetables, and picked off fruit, that she has grown in her small yard in the village of Sabirabad. She collects them together and brings them to market in Baku, 100km away.
The European Games, set for next month in Baku, will change that, though.
“We were told that vehicles from the regions will be allowed in Baku only from 10pm to 5am during the Games. This makes our work very complicated,” she said. “Why do I even need this Games? How will I sell my stuff? I have to go to Baku, in my town, I can’t sell all these.”
The authorities in Baku have said that they are concerned about traffic jams building up in the city during the European Games. Limiting cars and lorries from the provinces will reduce these jams.
Ziyafet, 44, who sells vegetables in the next door to Sugra Guliyeva said the police officer had already warned her to stay away from the city when the Games are taking place.
“I will lose contacts with my costumers,” she said. “Some want chicken, some want milk. I have to refuse them all.
These insights are important. The government is keen to showcase Azerbaijan through the inaugural European Games but human rights activists have accused it of cracking down on dissenters during the build up to the event.
But it is not only market traders who are grumbling. Taxi driver Akif, 36, said they had been told that they cannot work during the Games.
Only specific taxis, the purple London Cabs, will be allowed in the city.
“When we heard about the games, we were glad that this might give business a boost as many people will visit the city and we will have more costumers,” he said. “Now we are told we won’t be allowed to work. This is a huge loss for us. I don’t know how I will feed my family.”
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan extended a ban on the import of higher grade oil- products from Russia until June 20, the ministry of energy said, potentially enflaming a growing trade row between the two neighbours.
This is the second extension to the ban on A92/93 diesel fuel, first imposed for 40 days on March 5 to protect domestic producers against cheap Russian imports.
The Russian rouble has roughly halved in value over the past year, mainly because of the slump in oil prices, while the Kazakh Central Bank has defended its currency vigorously.
This created a large imbal- ance in prices.
This year Moscow and Astana have banned various products under the guise of breaking health regulations. In reality, though, Commentators have said the various ban on foodstuffs has been a low-level trade war.
The irony is that Kazakhstan and Russia are supposed to have reduced trade barriers after the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union which also includes Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.
Separately, the Kazakh energy ministry also announced it was increasing petrol prices slightly.
The government controls petrol prices. It has previously reduced them.
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(News report from Issue No. 233, published on May 28 2015)
MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s weapons manufacturers have developed a drone, media reported. Azerbaijan, which is still officially at war with Armenia, has been increasing military spending. It has close links with the Russian and Israeli defence sectors.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik bank Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston (BRT) will switch to Islamic banking rules after striking a deal with the Saudi Arabia- based Islamic Development Bank, media reported.
BRT will be the first Islamic Bank in Tajikistan. Its conversion shows the increasing appeal of Islamic banking, after banks in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan agreed to switch.
BRT aims to complete the conversion by mid-2015.
“This will open the door to numerous other operators iden- tifying the opportunities inherent in the sharia compli- ant financial system,” Khaled Al-Aboodi, head of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector was quoted as saying. Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector is the unit within the Islamic Development Bank which helps banks convert to Islamic banking rules.
Reuters reported that Islamic banking has grown more popular across the world but has been slower in taking off in Muslim dominated countries that are officially secular. The popularity of finance raised through a sukuk, an instrument that adheres to Islamic banking rules, has also grown in popularity in the region. Earlier this year, the part state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan said it wanted to issue a sukuk worth $200m to $300m.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – China’s Export-Import Bank has agreed to give a loan of $185m to Kyrgyzstan to help it build a road and tunnel between the north and south of the country, media reported. China has been funding more and more projects in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif flew to Ashgabat to meet with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and discuss prospective energy projects.
After their meeting, Mr Sharif said Pakistan wanted to speed up regional energy projects, including the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan- India (TAPI) pipeline — a much-discussed project that could deliver Turkmen gas to South Asia.
Mr Sharif’s visit to Ashgabat highlights just how important the TAPI project is to South Asia and also reflects Turkmenistan’s burgeoning status in the region.
Turkmenistan is trying to push the TAPI project forward in order to diversify its export routes. Its main client is China although it is also in talks with the EU to supply gas.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered the Central Bank to move from Almaty to Astana by 2017.
The Central Bank is the last major government institution to move to Astana,
marking the final act of the ascendency of Mr Nazarbayev’s purpose-built capital over the far more louche Almaty.
He built up Astana, after declaring it his new capital in 1997, to reflect his status as the creator of a modern Kazakhstan. New buildings and towers dot the city’s skyline every year.
Now, it appears, Mr Nazarbayev has decided that it’s time for the economic and financial power to be transferred north. Both the Central Bank and Kazakhstan Stock Exchange had remained stubbornly based in Almaty, anchoring other commercial banks to the city. By wrenching the Bank to Astana, Mr Nazarbayev will pull other companies with it.
In 2013, Mr Nazarbayev replaced the popular and independent-minded Grigory Marchenko as Central Bank chief with the more pliant Kariat Kelimbetov.
At the time, the financial community speculated that the change would precede a move north to Astana by the Central Bank. This was denied. Now, it seems, this speculation has been borne out.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)