JULY 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Keen to reduce its energy import bill, Tajikistan has begun to build its first oil refinery, media reported. Tajikistan imports 90% of its oil from Russia which imposed an export duty tax earlier this year. The new refinery, 30km outside Dushanbe, is set to open in the second half of 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 50, published on July 27 2011)
JULY 18 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bucking most foreign investors’ opinion that doing business in Uzbekistan is difficult, US carmaker GM’s joint venture with the Uzbek government has increased production. Russian news agency Interfax quoted the Uzbek State Statistics Committee saying production at GM Uzbekistan, in which GM owns 25%, rose by 4.2% in the first half of 2011 compared to 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 49, published on July 20 2011)
JULY 19 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan will award two more 3G licences within the next few days, websites quoted the Communications Minister as saying. Local mobile operators Bakcell and Azercell are likely to win the licences, reports said. Currently only Azerfon holds a 3G licence.
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(News report from Issue No. 49, published on July 20 2011)
JULY 19 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Twenty Turkish companies complained they are owed $1b by Turkmenistan for construction work. Turkmenistan has denied the claims which are potentially damaging for the country’s reputation. Turkmenistan is trying to present itself as favourable for foreign investors.
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(News report from Issue No. 49, published on July 20 2011)
JULY 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Workers’ rights, the energy business and rock music are mixing into a potent concoction in Kazakhstan.
British pop star Sting stepped into the row between striking oil workers and Kazakhstan’s business elite when he cancelled a concert in support of a six-week long strike. Sting’s concert had been planned for Astana on July 4 as part of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s birthday celebrations.
Cancelling it handed the oil workers a massive publicity coup and Nazarbayev a very public snub.
On his website Sting, former frontman of the 1970s/1980s rock band The Police, said: “Hunger strikes, imprisoned workers and tens of thousands on strike represents a virtual picket line which I have no intention of crossing.”
Perhaps Sting also had in mind the criticism he took last year after playing for the daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, a man western human rights groups accuse of abuses.
The Kazakh strikers are mainly from Ozenmunaigas, a subsidiary of the state energy company Kazmunaigas in Kazakhstan’s energy producing western hinterland. They say they are not being paid enough. The authorities and Kazmunaigas have declared the strike illegal and arrested some of the workers’ leaders but they have failed to pressure them back to work.
Strikes in Kazakhstan are rare. This one though has already forced KMG EP, the London-listed arm of Kazmunaigas, to reduce its 2011 production forecast by 4% and looks set to rumble on.
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(News report from Issue No. 47, published on July 6 2011)
JUNE 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian gas monopoly Gazprom appointed Timur Kulibayev, the favoured son-in-law of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, as one of its directors. Mr Kulibayev was appointed head of Kazakhstan’s $80b sovereign wealth fund earlier this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 47, published on July 6 2011)
JUNE 30 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Miner Oxus gold quit London’s AIM stock market after it failed to file financial results for 2010, required under the market’s rules. Formerly one of Uzbekistan’s most high profile foreign investors, Oxus Gold is locked in an increasingly acrimonious dispute with the Uzbek government over ownership of the Amantaytau gold field.
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(News report from Issue No. 47, published on July 6 2011)
JUNE 22 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan will award a licence to develop the important Konimansuri Kalon silver deposit by the end of the year, Reuters quoted the first deputy head of the Tajik geology agency as saying. Developing the deposit will give Tajikistan’s economy a boost.
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(News report from Issue No. 46, published on June 28 2011)
JUNE 21 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – It is difficult to overstate the potential importance of the Konimansuri Kalon silver deposit in Tajikistan.
The IFC, part of the World Bank, which is advising the government on how best to exploit the deposit, reckons that mining the silver could earn Tajikistan $2b. In 2010 according to the CIA World Factbook, Tajikistan’s total national income was just under $6b.
Reuters reported that the Chinese companies considering bidding for the contract have pulled out and that only Kazzinc, which is owned by Switzerland-based Glencore, and BHP Billiton remain in the race to partner the government.
Tajikistan is poor and mountainous. Inflation is rife and living standards are dropping.
Alongside battling a growing insurgency in the mountains, the government is pursuing a heavy-handed policy against practising Muslims which analysts say is likely to back fire and push people towards militant Islamists.
Corruption is rife in Tajikistan and the economy is reliant on a Soviet-era copper smelter with opaque finances and cash from remittances. Estimates say that money from people working abroad accounts for 50% of the Tajik economy. The illegal drug trade from neighbouring Afghanistan is also an important source of income.
The Konimansuri Kalon silver deposit, located around 50km from Tajikistan’s second city of Khujand in the northwest of the country, isn’t going to change the situation overnight but it does offer some hope.
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(News report from Issue No. 46, published on June 28 2011)
JUNE 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The London-listed subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state oil company, KMG EP, reduced its 2011 oil production target by 4% because of strikes in the west of the country. Hundreds of oil workers have been on strike for a month over pay.
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(News report from Issue No. 46, published on June 28 2011)