AUG. 8 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek subsidiary of Russian mobile operator MTS, Uzdunrobita, is facing fines of $80m for violating various regulations, the AP news agency quoted the company as saying. The Uzbek authorities suspended Uzdunrobita last month after accusing it of avoiding taxes. Uzdunrobita, which had nearly 10m subscribers, denies the charges.
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(News report from Issue No. 100, published on Aug. 10 2012)
AUG. 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps a sign that Azerbaijan’s oil production is slowing, the pipeline that pumps oil from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, BTC, recorded a 10% drop in volumes for the year to end-July, Bloomberg reported. Oil has been vital for Azerbaijan’s recent economic boom.
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(News report from Issue No. 100, published on Aug. 10 2012)
AUG. 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – BP, Total and Socar, the Azerbaijani state energy company, agreed to fund a pipeline that will link with an energy transit route in the South Caucasus and pump gas across Albania and Greece to Italy. The pipeline, dubbed TAP, is part of an alternative gas route to the EU-backed Nabucco project.
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(News report from Issue No. 100, published on Aug. 10 2012)
JULY 30 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The fortunes of MTS, the Russian mobile operator, in Central Asia have been fluctuating wildly.
On July 26, Turkmen officials reinstated its licence, after a 19 month break. Meanwhile in neighbouring Uzbekistan, officials said they would lengthen the suspension of MTS’s mobile operator licence to 90 days (from an original 10 day suspension from July 17) while it investigates allegations of tax evasion. MTS has denied the allegations and accused Uzbekistan of trying to grab assets.
As a correspondent reports for The Conway Bulletin in the accompanying Correspondents’ Notebook, thousands of Uzbeks have queued through the heat to exchange SIM cards at MTS’s rivals.
MTS has played a patient game in Turkmenistan, where it had held an 85% market share, and got what it wanted — its licence back. Now it has to play another game in Uzbekistan.
The fallout for MTS and Uzbekistan has only just started but it’s likely to be costly for both sides. German car maker Daimler has just pulled out of a proposed joint-venture in Uzbekistan. The timing of its withdrawal could, of course, be a coincidental.
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(News report from Issue No. 099, published on Aug. 3 2012)
JULY 30 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Canadian miner Stans Energy threatened legal action against the Kyrgyz parliament after it annulled a mining licence. The row deals another blow to Kyrgyzstan’s business reputation. Earlier this year, Kyrgyzstan said it wanted larger payments from its biggest investor Centerra Gold, another Canadian miner.
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(News report from Issue No. 099, published on Aug. 3 2012)
JULY 28 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen officials will travel to Singapore, New York and London in September and October to try and tempt potential investors into sponsoring a proposed gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan, media reported. The estimated cost of the proposed pipeline, dubbed TAPI, is around $10b.
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(News report from Issue No. 099, published on Aug. 3 2012)
AUG. 2 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Germany’s Daimler has pulled out of proposed bus making joint-venture with Uzbek state company Uzavtosanoat, media reported. A Daimler spokesperson cited tough economic conditions as the reason for pulling out of the deal although the environment for foreign investors in Uzbekistan has also become increasingly difficult.
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(News report from Issue No. 099, published on Aug. 3 2012)
JULY 24 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Siemens, the German industrial conglomerate, has won a contract to update the Turkmen government communication systems, Turkmenistan’s state media reported. Reports did not reveal the cost of the contract. Turkmenistan, made wealthy by gas exports, has become a lucrative client for Western businesses.
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(News report from Issue No. 098, published on July 27 2012)
JULY 25/26 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s government stepped into the row between Uzbekistan and Russian mobile operator MTS. It sent a formal note to the Uzbek government noting its concern over the arrest of a handful of MTS executives for tax evasion. In Turkmenistan, MTS said it had resumed operations after being thrown out in Dec. 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 098, published on July 27 2012)
JULY 12/13 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan has agreed to help finance and build Tajikistan’s first oil refinery, media reported after talks between Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon and Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev in Baku. Tajikistan imports all its oil products, 90% of them from Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 097, published on July 20 2012)