Tag Archives: business

Uzbek airports cut landing rates for foreign airlines

OCT. 21 2021 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s airports cut their landing rates for foreign airlines by around 15% and divided service options into ‘pick-and-mix’ packages (Oct. 21). Central Asia’s airports and airlines are competing for the lucrative Asia-Europe passenger and freight trade. Rano Juraeva, chairman of Uzbekistan Airports, said in a statement that the rate cut was designed to “attract foreign airlines”. As well as investing in airports and logistics hubs, governments in Central Asia have been investing in upgrades to their state-run national airlines.

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— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Gold production falls at Kumtor, says Centerra

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NOV. 3 2021 (The Bulletin) — Toronto-based Centerra Gold accused the Kyrgyz government of significantly reducing gold production at the Kumtor gold mine since it expropriated it in May. In its quarterly results, Centerra Gold said that between June and September, the Kumtor gold mine had produced 24% less gold than expected. Centerra Gold has said that it will fight to regain ownership.

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— This story was published in issue 506 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Nov. 4 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Cryptocurrency producers invest in Kazakhstan

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ALMATY/OCT. 27 2021 (The Bulletin) — Cryptocurrency miners are continuing to invest in Kazakhstan despite a cap on the amount of power they can use after they were blamed for outages.

Taoping Capital, which is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, said that it had set up a subsidiary in Kazakhstan called Kazakh Taoping to produce energy-intensive cryptocurrencies.

In a statement, Taoping Capital said that it will spend $3.2m building a data centre in the next six months.

“Kazakhstan is a growing hub for cryptocurrency mining, we believe the completion and operation of the project will create greater value for our shareholders and clients,” Taoping Capital chairman Jianghuai Lim was quoted as saying.

And here lies the quandary for Kazakh government officials. Since China evicted cryptocurrency producers this year because of their excessive energy use, many have set up in Kazakhstan where electricity is relatively cheap and effectively subsidised by the government. The problem is that while they generate investment, Kazakh officials have also blamed them for excess energy use which they say has crashed the systems.

Kazakhstan’s National Association of Blockchain and Data Centre Industry said that cryptocurrency miners bring in 98b tenge per year, around $1.5b, but the government has also said that a single cryptocurrency production centre uses the same amount of energy as 24,000 homes.

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— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

China stops processing cargo from Central Asia

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ALMATY/BISHKEK/OCT. 27 2021 (The Bulletin) — China has stopped processing rail cargo to and from Central Asia at its Khorgos terminal on the Kazakhstan-China border because it is prioristing a backlog of wagons heading to Europe.

A Beijing-based official from Kazakhstan’s national railway company Temir Zholy told media that there were 3,000 railway wagons stuck at the border trying to get into Kazakhstan and 7,000 trying to get into China.

“The main demand from the Chinese side is for container trains to the EU,” the official was quoted as saying. “They account for 90% of all traffic, while in the direction of Central Asia only 10%.”

Freight networks in Central Asia are under increasing pressure. Kyrgyz officials have also said that their usual border crossings directly into China at the Torugart and Irkeshtam passes are either closed or reduced to a fraction of their pre-coronavirus traffic, forcing most truck drivers to cross into Kazakhstan and head for Khorgos.

Not only is this a major detour but Kyrgyz truck drivers have said that Kazakh officials harass them. The head of the Kyrgyz Freight Carriers Association Temirbek Shabdanaliev said that he thought that Kazakh customs officials had been told to harass Kyrgyz drivers to put Chinese companies off using the Kyrgyzstan route into Central Asia.

“Our drivers have to unload and load several times, often in bad weather. This takes five or six days,” he said.

Kazakh officials have said they are trying to clamp down on smuggling.

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— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Turkmen foreign minister flies to Kabul for Taliban meeting

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OCT. 27 2021 (The Bulletin) — Turkmen officials were preparing to fly to Kabul after the Taliban government said that it supported its moves to build a gas pipeline, dubbed TAPI, across the country.

The project is important to Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov because he wants to diversify Turkmenistan’s gas clients away from an over-reliance on China. The Western-backed government in Afghanistan had supported the TAPI plans but there were some concerns that the Taliban, which took control of Afghanistan in August, might ditch it.

Turkmen officials, though, have taken a comparatively soft line towards the Taliban since they took power, opening up lines of communications and sending aid. Now, it seems, the Taliban have decided to back TAPI.

In a statement, the acting Taliban minister for mines and petroleum, Mohammed Issa Akhund, said that the project would now go ahead, although he didn’t give dates.

“We have been working hard for some time and we are ready to take pride in starting work on the TAPI project,” he said.

The pipeline is slated to carry 33b cubic metres of gas across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India from Turkmenistan’s giant Galkynysh field once it is completed, an ambitious plan by Turkmenistan to turn itself into the region’s main gas exporter.

Under the current plans, Afghanistan would keep about 5% of the gas supplies and also earn hundreds of millions of dollars in transit fees.

Separately, the Taliban government also said that it will pay Uzbekistan millions of dollars in fees it owes for electricity purchases. Like Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan has looked to engage with the Taliban government in Afghanistan since it took control of the country, hosting its officials in Termez and sending envoys to Kabul.

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— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Internet companies will pay tax in Kazakhstan

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OCT. 27 2021 (The Bulletin) — Internet companies such as Google and Amazon will pay tax in Kazakhstan for the first time from January, Kazakhstan’s government said. There will also be a new tax brought in for cryptocurrency miners. Kazakh businesses have complained this year that the Kazakh tax system fails to tax online companies properly.

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— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Police in Bishkek close pizza chain after illnesses

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BISHKEK/OCT. 27 2021 (The Bulletin) — Police closed down branches of Pizza Empire in Kyrgyzstan after 300 people fell ill after eating at one of its Bishkek restaurants.

The mass poisoning, one of the biggest recorded in Central Asia, highlights concerns that some people have had with hygiene and food safety standards in Kyrgyzstan.

Media reports said that of the 300 people who had been poisoned, 40 have been hospitalised. Pizza Empire often shares a restaurant, and a kitchen, with Sushi Empire.

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— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

London shell company takes over Kazakh miner

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OCT. 26 2021 (The Bulletin) — London-listed shell company East Star Resources agreed a deal to buy Discovery Ventures Kazakhstan (DVK) in a reverse takeover. It said that DVK shareholders will be issued with 45m East Star shares, with another 75m on offer depending on performance. DVK owns the right to gold and silver prospects in Kazakhstan.

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— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Hilton Garden Inn opens in Tbilisi

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OCT. 26 2021 (The Bulletin) — Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili opened the Hilton Garden Inn in Tbilisi, the latest luxury hotel to start up operations in Georgia’s capital. Business and tourism demand has boomed in Tbilisi over the past few years. The Hilton Garden Inn, which is aimed at business travellers, has opened through a franchise agreement with Lasha Papashvili’s Redix Group, a conglomerate of hotels, property, business centres, winemakers, industry and agriculture.

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— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 202

Erdogan opens new Nagorno-Karabakh airport

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OCT. 26 2021 (The Bulletin) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew to Nagorno-Karabakh, the region recaptured by Azerbaijan in a war last year against Armenia, for the third time in the past 12 months to open a new airport alongside his ally, Azerbaijani Pres. Ilham Aliyev. The new airport at Fizula is being promoted as one of the highlights of Azerbaijan’s infrastructure push in Nagorno-Karabakh.

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— This story was published in issue 505 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on Oct. 28 2021