MARCH 24 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A joint venture between Kazakh private equity group Visor and the Turkish unit of Italy’s Relight, are planning to invest $1b in two wind farms in southern Kazakhstan. Energy generated by the wind farms would free south Kazakhstan from relying on electricity imports from Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 33, published on March 28 2011)
MARCH 19 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian news agencies quoted Kyrgyz PM Almazbek Atambayev as saying during a meeting with Russian PM Vladimir Putin that Kyrgyzstan was ready to sell 75% of its gas company, KyrgyzGas, to Russia. Russia and the US are competing for influence in Kyrgyzstan, where they each have an airbase.
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(News report from Issue No. 32, published on March 21 2011)
MARCH 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to lend Turkmenistan $125m for work on building part of a railway that will link Central Asia with the Persian Gulf. This is the first ADB loan to Turkmenistan and shows businesses are increasingly willing to do deals with Ashgabat.
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(News report from Issue No. 32, published on March 21 2011)
MARCH 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Already Central Asia’s biggest energy producer, Kazakhstan’s oil and gas ministry published plans in the official newspaper to boost natural gas production by 12%. According to the plan Kazakhstan will produce 42b cubic metres of gas in 2011 compared to 37.4b last year pushing it into the world’s top 20 gas producers.
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(News report from Issue No. 32, published on March 21 2011)
MARCH 16 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan, the largest uranium producer in the world, will push ahead with plans to build its first nuclear power station by 2020 despite global concerns about atomic energy after an earthquake severely damaged Japan’s nuclear plants, media quoted the deputy head of energy as saying. Officials have said Kazakhstan’s nuclear power plant will be built on land not prone to earthquakes.
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(News report from Issue No. 32, published on March 21 2011)
MARCH 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh energy company Kazmunaigas has asked banks for proposals to borrow $1b in a five-year unsecured loan, Reuters reported quoting unnamed sources. This is the first unsecured loan request from Kazakhstan since 2009 when the banking sector restructured. It may trigger other Kazakh companies to follow.
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(News report from Issue No. 31, published on March 14 2011)
MARCH 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps with an eye on rising demand in China, Kazakhstan’s state-owned nuclear agency will build a solar panel factory, said its head Vladimir Shkolnik. Kazatomprom will invest about $230m in the factory in Astana. The factory will take two years to build and an unnamed French company will partner with Kazatomprom in the project.
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(News report from Issue No. 31, published on March 14 2011)
MARCH 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a glitzy ceremony in New York, US businessman Donald Trump finalised a deal to build the two tallest towers in Georgia. The deal, estimated to be worth about $300m, is important to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili who wants to attract more foreign investors to Georgia after a war in 2008 with Russia hit investment levels.
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(News report from Issue No. 31, published on March 14 2011)
MARCH 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The black London taxi cab will become a familiar sight in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku this year after the privately-owned Baku Taxi Company ordered 1,000 vehicles from Manganese Bronze, the British firm that makes the vehicle, according to the company. Manganese Bronze said this was the largest ever single order for the taxi cabs and was worth about $27m.
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(News report from Issue No. 30, published on March 7 2011)
MARCH 2 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has agreed to boost by 50% the amount of gas it supplies to China, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on its website. The deal for Turkmenistan to supply China with 60b cubic metres of gas a year will be finalised in the second half of 2011, the NDRC said.
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(News report from Issue No. 30, published on March 7 2011)