JULY 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has agreed to loan Tajikistan $50m to modernise a vital power station, media reported. The Qairokkum plant, built in 1958, is the only power generating plant in the north of the country and supplies electricity to 500,000 homes.
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(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s oil output has continued to fall in 2014 despite attempts by BP, the country’s biggest foreign investor, to stem the decline. Reuters quoted a source in the Azerbaijani statistics department as saying that output was down 2.8% in the first six months of the year.
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(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s national energy company Barqi Tojik has blamed another massive state-run concern, the aluminium smelter TALCO, for part of its growing $300m debt.
Over a third of Barqi Tojik’s debts are owed to a pair of hydroelectric power facilities, which TALCO officially co-owns with Russia and Iran. Other debts are unpaid taxes to the state, salary arrears, and unpaid loans.
In an interview with Asia-Plus, a Barqi Tojik official said TALCO owed the company $50 million in unpaid energy bills. TALCO, which as reported is itself suffering from a major slump in demand for its products, has denied the allegations.
Barqi Tojik and TALCO are two of Tajikistan’s most significant state-owned companies and both appear to be in trouble.
Barqi Tojik’s debts have grown as public sector clients like TALCO (which alone consumes at least a sixth of national energy production) and other major industrial facilities renege on payments. TALCO reportedly haemorrhaged $40m last year and laid off a fifth of its workforce. The company has suffered from low prices for aluminium and alleged corruption within the political elite. Tajikistan’s economy looks increasing fragile.
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(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan has annulled a takeover of cement producer Akhangarancement by Russia’s Eurocement in 2006, paving the way for the state to renationalise it. The ruling is a blow for foreign businesses in Uzbekistan and underlines their suspicion of the Uzbek government.
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(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan finalised a deal with Canada’s Bombardier aircraft maker to buy 10 Q400 passenger aircraft for $230m for its new domestic airline.
The Q400 is a 70 person twin-propeller airplane, designed for short range flights.
The size of the deal underlines Kazakhstan’s spending power and also its drive to build an airline specifically to service its domestic air routes.
Domestic transport is one sector that the Kazakh government has ploughed cash into over the past few years, specifically upgrading its rail and flight network.
“Each aircraft cost $23m. In March and April 2015 five or six aircraft will be delivered to Kazakhstan. From then on, they will start to operate domestic flights,” media quoted Nurjan Shakirov, head of the newly incorporated Air Kazakhstan, as saying.
This is, of course, good news for Kazakh air travels as well as for business and industry. It’s unclear, though, what impact this new airline will have on Air Astana, the country’s current flag carrier. Officials have said that Air Astana will concentrate on international flights and major regional routes, such as Almaty to Astana, while Air
Kazakhstan will connect less frequent domestic routes.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said the notoriously stand-offish country would open up an embassy in Bishkek, the second new diplomatic outpost it has announced in the last few days.
Last month, Mr Berdymukhamedov said Turkmenistan would also open an office in Tbilisi. The common thread is that these are both countries in the former Soviet Union that Turkmenistan is now partnering with on energy projects.
In Georgia, Turkmenistan is interested in utilising the South Caucasus energy corridor to Europe. In Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan sees an increasingly important partner for sending gas to China, its key client.
Over the past few years, Turkmenistan has transformed itself into a major gas exporter. It has become rich and increasingly open. As well as funding various follies, such as an Olympic stadium and building white marble facades around its government buildings, some funds have gone into burnishing Turkmenistan’s image abroad. This includes opening new embassies.
Mr Berdymukhamedov’s predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, was a notorious recluse. Part of Mr Berdymukhamedov’s recent success has been his willingness to open up to the world, a strategy that appears to be continuing.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An official at the Tajik ministry for industry told the Asia Plus news agency that the country was a step closer to cement self-sufficiency thanks largely to the work of Huaksin Gayur Cement, a factory completed last year that can produce 1m tonnes of cement annually.
That figure dwarfs the productive capacity of national champion Tajik Cement, which produces four or five times less. Tajikistan consumes 1.5m tonnes of cement per year and imports from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and Russia.
The 75% Chinese-owned enterprise in the capital Dushanbe is one of several key Chinese investments to have popped up in Tajikistan over the last year. In addition to building heating plants for Dushanbe and Tajikistan’s second city, Khujand, China has begun construction of an oil refinery in Khatlon province that will almost meet Tajikistan’s domestic fuel needs.
Factory-by-factory, Beijing is also easing the employment crisis in the world’s most remittance-dependent country. Huaksin Gayur Cement has provided over 400 local jobs. The Khatlon refinery will provide a similar number.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
China’s investment surge in impoverished Tajikistan is beginning to show results.
JULY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has given a green light for Russian mobile operator MTS to re-start work in the country after it withdrew following a row in 2012, various local media reported quoting security forces. Media said that MTS would resume operations in Uzbekistan by the end of 2012.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has completed a 700km stretch of railway linking Iran and Kazakhstan, media reported quoting officials. The railway, which runs through the Karakum Desert, is another important exit route for goods and oil being exported out of Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Eurocement, a Russian company linked to oligarch Filaret Galchev, will build a factory near Tashkent, media reported. The $128m plant will take two years to build. The announcement is an indicator that Russian business is interested in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan and Russia have had strained relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)