NOV. 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkish president Recep Erdogan was due to visit Ashgabat on Nov. 6 for a two-day visit, media reported, his first to Central Asia since switching from being PM to the presidency in August. Mr Erdogan’s visit to Turkmenistan highlights just how important Turkmenistan has become as a global energy supplier.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
OCT. 31 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhmys, the London-listed Kazakh copper miner that anti-corruption campaigners say has strong links to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, has changed its name to KAZ Minerals PLC. KAZ Minerals retains the newer copper mines while the older mines in central Kazakhstan will operate under a new company called Cuprum Holding.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
OCT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Air Armenia, the only Armenian-owned passenger airline, suspended all passenger flights until at least Dec. 20 because of financial problems.
Privately owned, Air Armenia has been flying to Russia and a handful of other destinations for a year. It was set up as a freight airline in 2003 but branched into passenger flights after the collapse of Armavia in 2013.
Air Armenia’s financial problems highlight just how difficult the business environment in Armenia is currently.
Armenia has been hard hit by the financial problems facing Russia, its main ally and sponsor. Remittances from workers in Russia have dried up as has financial support and investment. Economic growth rates have been slashed, currency warnings have been put out and inflation is creeping up. These are difficult times for Armenian businesses, more so in the aviation sector.
It looks increasingly likely that Armenians will now be without a national airline.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
NOV. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s national grid company, KEGOC, will sell 10% of its shares on the local stock market this year for an estimated $72m. KEGOC will become the second company after oil pipeline monopoly KazTransOil to launch a so-called People’s IPO, a high-profile part-privatisation of some state companies.
NOV. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan has agreed to export electricity to Kyrgyzstan to help ease its impending power problems. The deal is likely to be finalised later this week when the leaders of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan meet. Kyrgyzstan has said low reservoir levels means an electricity shortage this winter.
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(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
OCT. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani media has refuted a suggestion by Kazakh deputy energy minister Uzakbay Karabalin that it will be able to supply Kazakhstan with enough fuel to make up for its on-going shortfall. Kazakhstan is looking for options to make up for the shortfall, which is frustrating ordinary people.
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(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
OCT. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a speech to potential foreign investors, Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili underlined the economic importance of the Baku- Tbilisi-Kars railway, due to launch next year, to Georgia. The railway will supposedly give industry and business across the region a boost.
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(News report from Issue No. 207, published on Nov. 5 2014)
OCT. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A group of Iranian MPs visited Georgia for talks with their Georgian counterparts, media reported, highlighting the increasingly close relations between the two countries. Georgia has become a popular destination for Iranians looking to set up businesses as a way around sanctions imposed by the West.
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(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)
OCT. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia has denied that it has given permission for a commercial flight between Yerevan and Simferopol, the capital of Crimea.
As reported by the Bulletin last week, Grozny Avia, a Chechen airline, has floated plans to fly between the two cities twice a week. If the flight route did materialise it would be the first air route into Crimea, other than from Russia, since Russian forces annexed the Ukrainian province earlier this year.
News of the planned flight angered the Ukrainian government. It has also been suggested that Armenia had been coaxed into allowing the flight to appease Russia. Armenia needs Russian economic support to keep its finances in order and Russian military support to balance the threat posed by Azerbaijan which wants to re-take the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia-back rebels.
But Armenia’s civil aviation authority has said that an earlier statement from Crimea’s transport minister about the planned flight was simply wrong.
“The Head Department of Civil Aviation did not receive, and therefore has not examine, a bid for operation of direct flights from Yerevan to Simferopol,” media quoted spokesman Ruben Grdzelyan as saying.
This is not a categorical no, then. It does suggest that this issue may have further to run.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)
OCT. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s oil production will drop by 2.5% next year because of the continued slump in output from BP’s Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil fields, Reuters reported quoting a source close to the government. ACG is currently Azerbaijan’s largest oil producing field. BP has promised to maintain output but without success.
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(News report from Issue No. 206, published on Oct. 29 2014)