NOV. 25 (The Bulletin) — A new 150-bedroom Ibis hotel, operated by the Accor Hotels Group, opened in Tbilisi. The Ibis Tbilisi Stadium hotel is the third-largest hotel operating in the Georgian capital. Tourism is booming in Georgia, leading to a surge in hotel construction.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 25 (The Bulletin) — Air Astana, the Kazakh airline owned by Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk Kazyna and BAE Systems, will replace its flight to Paris from Nur-Sultan with a new route from Almaty from June next year. The move may mark a shift back to Almaty acting as the main entry point into Kazakhstan for European airlines. A few years ago, when the government was trying to promote Astana, as Nur-Sultan was known, it insisted that flights should fly into the Kazakh capital.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 22 (The Bulletin) — A Russia-Azerbaijan joint-venture to build a pharmaceutical plant on the edge of Baku is nearing completion, media reported by quoting Azerbaijan’s deputy PM Shahin Mustafayev. The 80m euro plant has been more than a year in the making. Plans for the plant, called Hayat Pharm, show that it is expected to produce 89 different medicines, many for export.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 22 (The Bulletin) — The Almaty-based Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), which is focused on the region covered by the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), wants to increase its operations in Armenia, one of its directors, Dmitry Ladikov-Roev, said on a visit to Yerevan. The EEU is seen as a Kremlin political project.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 19 (The Bulletin) — Construction has started on a fibre-optical line running across the Caspian Sea between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan’s government-linked Astana Times reported. The project will, officials said, improve communication between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 5 (The Bulletin) — The retail franchise Spar will set up shops in Armenia from 2020, the business lobby group Invest in Armeni said. It did not say who would operate the franchise. Armenia’s economy has been growing, making it an increasingly attractive prospect for international franchise. There are 12,500 shops operating under the Spar brand in 44 countries. In the region, Spar already operates in Georgia and Azerbaijan.
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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 11 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan is losing $11m every month because of Russia’s ban on coal being sent to Ukraine across its territory, the Kazakh ministry of trade said. The Kazakh ministry said that it had approved a plan in July to send 103,500 tonnes of coal to Ukraine but that this had been downgraded by the Russian authorities to 60,200 tonnes. It said that subsequent coal supplies had also been reduced by the Russian authorities.
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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 3 (The Bulletin) — Iran wants Kyrgyz and Uzbek companies to transport goods across its territory to the Persian Gulf, Iranian First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri told reporters after meeting with Uzbek PM Abdulla Aripov on the sidelines at a meeting for heads of governments of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tashkent. Increasingly isolated, Iran has been trying to woo Central Asian countries by offering them access to global markets via the Persian Gulf.
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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 7 (The Bulletin) — Irish budget airline Ryanair started flying to Georgia. The inaugural flight was from Marseille to Kutaisi, Georgia’s second city which has developed a reputation as a hub for budget airlines flying into Georgia. Ryanair will fly to Kutaisi from Marseille and Bologna twice a week. Tourism has boomed in Georgia this year, driving up the number of airlines flying to the country.
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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin.
TBILISI/Nov. 7 (The Bulletin) — London-listed Bank of Georgia said that its Q3 profit was 30% higher this year than in 2018, pushing its shares up by nearly 8%.
The bank, one of the two biggest banks in Georgia, generally performs well if Georgia’s economy is performing well and it has boomed over the past couple of years, helped by a surge in tourism and renewed business confidence after a slump in 2014-16.
In what it described as an “outstanding” quarter, Bank of Georgia said that its income from interest was 1.8% higher than Q3 2018 at 188.7m lari and that there had been a 22% rise in net fee and commission income to 48m lari.
Bank of Georgia CEO, Archil Gachechiladze, said that the bank had shifted from a high yield, high risk loan portfolio to a lower risk and lower yield portfolio.
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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin.