APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Apparently worried about people defaulting on mortgage payments, the Kazakh Central Bank has set up a 130b tenge ($700m) fund. Kazakh media said the Central Bank will loan cash to commercial banks who will then help people who took out mortgages, possibly in dollars, between 2004 and 2009.
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan banned poultry products from Russia after the Russian ministry of agriculture identified an outbreak of Bird Flu on the Caspian Sea near the Kazakh border.
Some analysts and media pundits, though, said Kazakhstan’s speedy ban on poultry goods from Russia was an escalation of a trade war.
Although both Kazakhstan and Russia are members of the Eurasian Economic Union, a Kremlin-led club supposed to smooth trade in the region, the fall in the value of the Russian rouble has increased tension. Businesses in Kazakhstan have been lobbying the government to impose barriers against the now far-cheaper goods from Russia.
It has banned oil-product imports as well as butter, chocolate, sweets and mayonnaise to defend jobs and companies. In retaliation, Russia has banned flour and dairy products from Kazakhstan.
Both governments have denied they are involved in a trade war and have instead insisted that various bans have been triggered by health concerns.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
MAY 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan plans to increase gold production by up to 30% between 2015 and 2019, the Azerbaijani news agency Trend quoted a government source as saying. Gold is a major source of foreign currency for the Uzbek government.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
MAY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Union wants to take gas deliveries from Turkmenistan from 2019, part of a determined drive to use Central Asia to weaken Russia’s grip over its energy supplies.
On a trip to Ashgabat, Maros Sefcovic, a European Commission vice-president and its top energy official, said gas could be sent to Europe from Turkmenistan either through a proposed pipeline that runs along the Caspian Sea floor or via Iran and then through neighbouring Turkey.
“Europe expects supplies of Turkmen gas to begin by 2019,” he said after meeting Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.
For years Europe and Turkmenistan have discussed the tantalising potential of Turkmen gas reaching European households, but Mr Sefcovic’s trip to Ashgabat and subsequent statement is the strongest indication yet that what once appeared rather fanciful could actually materialise.
And it would be a game changer for Europe and Turkmenistan.
Europe is desperate to reduce Russia’s grip over its gas supplies, especially since the eruption of war in east Ukraine and the souring of relations with the Kremlin.
Turkmenistan, which holds the world’s fourth largest gas reserves and has been maturing its production process, is eager for more clients.
Currently China buys most of Turkmenistan’s gas. Europe, though, would be another large, stable client and it would propel Turkmenistan into the top division of global gas suppliers.
On his trip to Ashgabat, Mr Sefcovic also met with energy ministers from Azerbaijan and Turkey. The EU needs their support to pump Turkmen gas.
The stakes are high for both Europe and Turkmenistan.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
MAY 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Azerbaijan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding worth $1b to modernise the country’s power distribution network, media reported. The ADB will give three tranches of $250m, totalling $750m, and Azerbaijan will provide the final $250m.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
MAY 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has increased the price of electricity it charges its citizens by 7.4%, media reported, the second price rise in the last six months. Prices for basic utilities in Uzbekistan have been rising steadily.
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Revenue at Kazmunaigas EP, the London-listed unit of Kazakhstan’s state energy company, fell by 47% last year because of the collapse in oil prices, it said at its annual results. Importantly, too, salaries increased by 10% at Kazmunaigas after last year’s devaluation of the Kazakh tenge.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Dominoes Pizza, arguably the most recognisable pizza brand in the world, opened its first store in Tbilisi on April 26, the company said in a statement. US fast food chains have been piling into Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
APRIL 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Vladimir Shkolnik, Kazakhstan’s energy minister, said the Caspian Sea oil project Kashagan would resume pumping oil in December 2016. This estimation is a few weeks earlier than Western energy companies linked to the project have suggested. Oil from Kashagan was suspended in 2013.
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
MAY 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Nurzhan Subkhanberdin resigned as director of Kazkommertsbank after selling a 7.2% stake in the bank, one of the largest in Kazakhstan, to Kenes Rakishev, the son-in-law of the Kazakh defence minister.
Although Mr Subkhanberdin still owns 37.8% of Kazkommertsbank his ousting from the board effectively completes the takeover of Kazkommertsbank by businessmen
loyal to President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Earlier this year Mr Subkhanberdin was replaced as chairman of Kazkommertsbank, a position he had held since setting it up in 1991.
The London-based Mr Subkhanberdin was viewed with suspicion. He had openly sup- ported opponents of Mr Nazarbayev in the early 2000s.
Last year, Kazkommertsbank had been cajoled into a merger with BTA Bank, which the government rescued from bankruptcy in 2009. The merger imposed BTA Bank’s large portfolio of bad loans onto Kazkommertsbank, hitting its profits. In 2014, Kazkommertsbank said on April 30, profit dropped by 55%.
The deal is another major boon for Mr Rakishev too. He now owns 23.34% of the bank.
Mr Rakishev, 35, is closely linked to the Kazakh elite. Analysts have said the Kazakh elite use Mr Rakishev to buy companies and to hold shares in businesses.
He is married to the daughter of the minister of defence Imangali Tasmagambetov, one of President Nazarbayev’s closest associates.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)