OCT. 8 (The Conway Bulletin) – Myratniyaz Berdyev has been promoted to chairman of Dayhanbank State Commercial Bank of Turkmenistan, from deputy chairman, official Turkmen media reported by quoting a presidential press release. Dayhanbank focuses on supplying loans to agriculture businesses. Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov fired the bank’s previous chairman last month.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
OCT. 15 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s nuclear agency Kazatomprom said that it was readying to list Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) on the London Stock Exchange. Kazakhstan has been talking up the prospect of listing a handful of its top state-owned companies on international stock markets this year although none have yet been confirmed.
>> See Comment on Page 2
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
OCT.15 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s state-owned KazTransKaz and China’s PetroChina signed a 5-year deal to double Kazakh gas imports into China to 10b cubic metres of gas per year from 2019. Kazakhstan has increased its gas production this year to 41.45b cubic metres in the first nine months of the year, up 6%. Of this it will export more than a quarter.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
OCT. 12 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan is keen to build a high-speed train link between Beijing and Astana which will also connect China to Moscow and Berlin. Kazakh PM Bakytzhan Sagintayev suggested the infrastructure project at a meeting of heads of governments of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states in Dushanbe. He said that a high-speed train link was an obvious extension for China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
OCT. 4 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has allowed Tajik trucks to cross its territory after a month-long delay, media reported. No explanation was given for the delay but the row had threatened to damage Tajik-Turkmen relations. At one point, the Tajik ambassador in Ashgabat had said that his government would stop cooperating in a high-profile joint railway project linking the two countries to Afghanistan. The Tajik trucks had been carrying goods to and from Afghanistan.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
OCT. 3 (The Conway Bulletin) – London-listed gold miner Anglo Asian Mining said gold output had risen by 47% in July-Sept. compared to 2017, immediately pushing up its share price by 12% to an all-time high of 74.5p.
The announcement followed a dividend for shareholders for the first time in September and guidance that gold output would be at the higher end of expectations. Since the start of September, Anglo Asian’s share price has risen by 76%.
CEO Reza Vaziri said: “Given the strong production in the year so far, I am expecting production for the full year to be at the upper end of our guidance.”
Anglo Asian’s operations are focused in Azerbaijan. In Q3 2018, it produced 21,318 ounces of gold compared to 14,684 ounces in Q3 2017.
Anglo Asian has been able to exploit its main Gedabek mine more quickly than anticipated and it also announced an increase in reserves at the mine.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
OCT. 2 (The Conway Bulletin) – US energy major ExxonMobil and Uzbekistan’s state-owned Uzbekneftegaz have entered into a new $150m joint-venture to produce base oils groups II and III at the Ferghana oil refinery, media reported. Base oils are lubricants used as grease, motor oil and metal processing fluids.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
OCT. 15 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a press conference in Yerevan, Russia’s trade representative to Armenia, Andrey Balko, talked up business and economic relations between the two neighbour. He said that bilateral trade has increased by 26% this year and that 3/4 of all businesses in Armenia were linked to or owned by Russians. Analysts have said that a revolution in April and May that propelled Nikol Pashinyan into power in Armenia as PM may have damaged Armenian- Russian relations.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
OCT. 15 (The Conway Bulletin) – Regus, the London-listed company that offers serviced offices, hot-desking and virtual offices around the world, said that is was going to open a third site in Tbilisi. In an interview with Georgia Today, Regus area manager for Georgia, Ruska Chakvetadze, said that the expansion reflected increased interest in Georgia from international companies.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018
YEREVAN/ Oct. 16 (The Conway Bulletin) — The outgoing US ambassador in Armenia, Richard Mills, said he was increasingly concerned about the amount of time it was taking for the authorities to allow the Amuslar gold mine, owned by Colorado-based Lydian, to start operating.
This rare criticism by a US ambassador highlights the frustration building up at Lydian and its supporters over what they see as political meddling. In an interview with the EVN Report, Mr Mills said that delays at Amuslar, which has been accused of breaking environmental regulations and of corruption, was damaging Armenia’s investment climate.
“I’m not aware that they have violated environmental norms,” he said. “It does create an investment concern and that’s not a threat.”
The Amuslar mine was given approval in 2016 and was due to start producing gold this year although this is now considered unlikely. This year protesters have blocked roads leading to the mine and in August, prosecutors launched a minor criminal case against Lydian Armenia. The environmental agency has also forced the mine to halt production to investigate discoveries of ‘Red List’ animals and plants.
Lydian International has denied any wrongdoing and has said that allegations are designed to either stop the project altogether or to generate payments. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is a shareholder in Lydian.
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>>This story was first published in issue 388 of The Conway Bulletin on Oct. 17 2018