Tag Archives: business

Kazakhstan and China sign agriculture deal

JULY 14 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan and China signed an agriculture deal worth a reported $160m, state-linked media said. The deal, at a China-Kazakhstan investment forum three days earlier, will mean that Kazakhstan will send 200,000 tonnes of grain and 100,000 tonnes of oil crops to China. It will also mean that a grain terminal is set up on the border of Kazakhstan and China.

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Copyright ©Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

 

China-Armenia trade rises

JULY 22 2017 (The Bulletin) — Trade turnover between Armenia and China in the first five months of the year was 28.4% higher in 2017, at $194.9m, than during the same period in 2016, media reported. The rise shows the impact of China’s “Belt and Road” policy, a drive to spread its influence through trade across Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

 

Azerbaijani firm wins construction tender

JULY 24 2017 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijani construction company Akkord has won a $70m road building contract in the Astana region run by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), media reported. The IBRD is linked to the World Bank and is funding a series of projects in the region to improve infrastructure.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

 

Alstom opens repair hub in Kazakhstan

JULY 24 2017 (The Bulletin) — French train-maker Alstom has opened a new repair depot in Astana, media reported, underlining its interest in the region. Bernard Peille, Alstom’s managing director for the CIS region, said it would act as a hub for the wider region. Alstom and Spain’s Talgo have been competing to win business in Central Asia to modernise Soviet-era train stock.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

 

Metal production rises in Kazakhstan

JULY 19 2017 (The Bulletin) — Metal production in Kazakhstan mainly rose in the first half of the year, government data showed, giving the country’s metal producers and miners a lift. Data showed that Kazakhstan’s copper output increased by 5.4% in the first six months of 2017 compared to the same period in 2017, and that steel output rose by 9.7%. KAZ Minerals is Kazakhstan’s biggest copper producer and Arcelor Mittal, which owns the Temirtau steel factory is the biggest steel producer.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

 

Azerbaijan boycotts Yandex Taxi and Uber JV

TBILISI, JULY 17 2017 (The Bulletin) — NewCo, a joint-venture between ride sharing companies Uber and Yandex Taxi in the former Soviet Union, ran into trouble within four days of its unveiling when Azerbaijan said it would boycott it because of its Armenian CEO.

The statement from the Baku Transport Agency is a reminder of how politics and business are closely entwined in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

“For this reason, after the unification of Yandex Taxi and Uber companies, if this structure is to be headed by an Armenian citizen or a person of Armenian origin,  drivers of Baku will be called on to cease communication with this company,” a spokesman for the  agency was quoted by Armenian media as saying. NewCo has “ appointed Armenian Tigran Khudaverdiyan, head of Yandex Taxi, as its CEO.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over Nagorno- Karabakh. A shaky UN-negotiated ceasefire has maintained a peace since 1994 but analysts have been warning that tension is rising with sporadic outbursts of violence and shelling intensifying.

Four days earlier Uber and Yandex Taxi agreed to merge their operations in Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Uber owns a 36.6% stake in the company and Yandex Taxi owns a 59.3% stake with the final 4.1% company,”  being owned by management.

In a statement on the merger, Mr Khudaverdiyan, still formerly head of Yandex Taxi until the merger is completed by the end of 2017, said on July 13 that the new company currently services 35m rides every month, is growing at 400% per year and has a paper value of $3.725b.

“This combination greatly enhances Yandex’s ability to offer better quality service to our riders and drivers, to quickly expand our services to new regions, and to build a sustainable business,” he said.

Yandex Taxi and Uber dominate the ride-hailing market in the former Soviet Union. Their nearest rival, Gett, holds roughly 15% of the market.

Market analysts welcomed the ” move. Roman Luzgin, an analyst for investment website Seeking Alpha, said: “As the NewCo will account for more than 70% of the ride-on- demand market, the advantage of the monopolistic position will appear once the deal is executed.”

NewsCo will keep both brands operational. On the New York Stock Exchange shares in Yandex, best known as the Russian-language version of Google, rose to $31 from $27 after the news.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

 

 

Tajik President daughter heads bank

JULY 18 2017 (The Bulletin) — One of Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon’s daughters, 23-year-old Zarina Rakhmona, was appointed deputy head of Orienbank, a commercial bank, in January, media reported. News of the appointment has only just emerged as it was not announced at the time. The head of the bank is the President Rakhmon’s brother-in- law, Hasan Asadullozoda. Mr Rakhmon has steadily appointed his close family members into increasingly important positions. His son is the mayor of Dushanbe and his eldest daughter is his chief- of-staff.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

 

Turkmenistan to start Galkynysh 3rd phase

JULY 21 2017 (The Bulletin) — Turkmenistan is due to begin work on a third phase development of its Galkynysh gas field next year, a source at the project told the Trend news agency. Galkynysh, in the east of the country, is one of the biggest gas fields in the world and is central to Turkmenistan’s wealth. It pumps almost all of its gas to China, currently. The extension to Galkynysh is timed for the start of the so-called TAPI gas pipeline, scheduled for 2019, which will send gas across Afghanistan to energy- hungry consumers in Pakistan and India.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

 

Kazakhstan establishes national tourism company

JULY 23 2017 (The Bulletin) — Looking to attract more tourists to Kazakhstan, the Kazakh government set up the Kazakh National Tourism Company. Shrugging off accusations of an old-fashioned top- down approach to tourism development, Arystanbek Mukhamediuly, the Kazakh minister for culture, said that Kazakhstan’s tourism potential was untapped.

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Copyright ©Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

 

AIFC promises Bitcoin lead for Kazakhstan

JULY 17 2017 (The Bulletin) — Nurlan Kussainov, head of the Astana International Finance Centre Authority (AIFC), said that he wanted Kazakhstan to become a global centre for the bitcoin virtual currency, promising to set up a legal framework to regulate and stabilise the controversial cryptocurrency. The AIFC Authority is the legal body set up to regulate the AIFC, an attempt by the Kazakh government to lure international finance companies to set up companies in Astana.

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Copyright ©Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)