SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan will allow five more airports, mainly in the eastern Ferghana Valley, to accept international flights, media reported. The flights are likely to serve Russia where labourers head for jobs, underlining the importance of Uzbekistan’s migrant workforce to its economy.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), half owned by the Azerbaijani government, released a new debit card with an in-built compass pointing to Mecca so that Muslims know which direction to pray. The new card may be a bit of a gimmick but Azerbaijan has been strengthening Islamic aspects of its banking system.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
BATUMI/Georgia, OCT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The rain lashed down. It turned Batumi’s roads into streams and sent tourists scuttling for cover. Sudden downpours are part of the summer scene at this resort town on Georgia’s Black Sea coast but it still takes unsuspecting tourists by surprise.
And it’s an eclectic mix of tourists. There are Georgians, Russians, Kazakhs and other tourists from the former Soviet Union, as well as Western backpackers and businessmen.
Then there are the Iraqis and Iranians. Georgia’s tourism agency said 10,811 Iraqis and 11,032 Iranians entered the country in August. After visitors from the former Soviet Union and Turkey, Iraqis and Iranians are the two biggest groups.
An investigation by the Wall Street Journal earlier this year said Iranian businessman, who until recently didn’t need a visa to enter Georgia, were setting up Georgian companies to avoid US sanctions. Possibly, but many Iranian and Iraqi visitors are going to Georgia to holiday.
There are now direct flights to Tbilisi from Tehran, Baghdad, Erbil in Kurdish Iraq and Basra on the Iraqi Persian Gulf. From Tbilisi, Batumi is an easy five hours by train.
In central Batumi three rather rotund Iraqi men had taken advantage of a break in the rain to dash into a barber shop. They grinned and sat down to wait their turn.
“Georgia is great. Very calm and relaxing,” one of the men said.
ENDS
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(Correspondent’s Notebook from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Less than two weeks after the start of official production, a gas leak halted oil output at the Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea. The gas leak was relatively minor, energy minister Uzakbai Karabalin said, and it wouldn’t delay the start of commercial oil production next month.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — It can be useful having a billionaire as your PM.
This year foreign direct investment in Georgia has slumped. This is bad news for Georgian PM Bidzina Ivanishvili who pledged that FDI would increase after he won a parliamentary election last October. It’s bad news also for the Georgia; FDI is a major cornerstone of the economy.
In September, Georgia’s foreign minister, Nodar Khaduri, said FDI this year would probably be around $1b, half the initial estimate.
Political instability is likely the main cause of foreigners’ reticence to invest. A presidential election, that could be genuinely destabilising, is set for Oct. 27.
So, Mr Ivanishvili has come up with a solution. On Sept. 30 he announced a $6b private equity fund that would invest in the country. He personally will, reportedly, pledge $1b to the fund. The other main investors are Dhabi Group and Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA) as well as Turkish, Chinese and Kazakh investment funds.
Of the $6b, half will be invested in the energy sector and the rest in manufacturing and tourism.
Coming less than a month before the election, this is a clever ploy from Mr Ivanishvili. Time will tell, though, whether the fund is just a vote winner or a genuine investment vehicle.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan is facing a petrol shortage because demand from industry and agriculture is overwhelming production, the head of the Kazakh Fuel Association Ashim Abdrakhmetov told reporters. Mr Abdrakhmetov said shortages are likely to worsen this year when one of Kazakhstan’s three refineries closes for an upgrade.
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(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)
SEPT. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia halved its prediction of foreign direct investment this year, a crucial pillar of the Georgian economy. In an interview with Reuters, Georgian finance minister Nodar Khaduri said that political uncertainty after a change of government in 2013 and a presidential election next month were worrying investors.
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(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)
SEPT. 19 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The consortium developing the Shah Deniz II gas field in Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian Sea signed a deal with various companies in the EU to supply them with gas over the next 25 years. The deal will help reduce the EU’s reliance on Russia for gas supplies.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)
SEPT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — From summer 2014 Kazakhstan will drop visa requirements for tourists from some EU countries, media quoted Kazakh deputy foreign minister Rapil Zhoshybayev as saying. Mr Zhoshybayev said visa-free regulations were likely to cover countries, such as Croatia, where Kazakh citizens can travel to without a visa.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)
SEPT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction Corp has won a $1.4b contract to build the second phase of a petrochemical plant in Kazakhstan, it said. The contract was awarded by Kazakhstan LG Poly Ethylene, a joint venture between SAT & Co and LG Chem ltd.
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(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)