APRIL 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tbilisi Zoo will house its first tiger since a flood in 2015 destroyed the site and killed dozens of animals including the zoo’s tigers, media reported. The Siberian tiger is being donated by Riga Zoo. Other zoos have also donated animals to Tbilisi’s zoo, including London Zoo. 19 people were also killed in the flood on June 13 2015.
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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
MARCH 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two fruit and vegetable companies in Armenia have signed supply deals with six luxury hotels in the UAE, media reported. The Armenian companies, Tamara Fruit and Natural Organic Healthy Food Company, signed the deals earlier in March at a UAE-Armenia trade meeting in the Dubai. This sort of deal is important for Armenia which is looking to boost its exports.
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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
TBILISI, MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgians held street parties and hung the Council of Europe’s blue and gold starred flag from their windows as they celebrated being allowed to travel to the European Union’s Schengen Zone without a visa.
Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili, together with students, journalists and state officials, was one of the first to use the new visa-free regime, taking an early morning flight from Tbilisi to Athens for an academic conference on the future of Europe, before flying on to Brussels.
He hailed the start of a new, increasingly close relationship between Georgia and the EU.
“This is an enormous achievement and a great opportunity for Georgian citizens to better acquaint with the European Union, to better learn the values that the European Union stands on,” he was quoted as saying.
Georgia harbours ambitions to join the EU at some point and, although there is no appetite among EU member states to bring Georgia into the Union, relations are growing increasingly close. Last year Georgia and the EU signed an enhanced Association Agreement that allows Georgian companies to export to the EU.
Under the new rules, Georgians are allowed to travel to the EU’s 26- country Schengen Zone without a visa for 90 days. Georgians citizens will still have to carry documents confirming the purpose of their visit to the EU, including a return air ticket, insurance, a bank statement and accommodation bookings.
Still, most people in Tbilisi were excited by the prospect of visa-free travel to the EU. Miranda, travelled to Vienna on March 29. She said that border controls could not have been easier.
“I travelled the very day next after visa liberalisation was put into force,” she said.
“It was as easy as one can imagine. I met other Georgians at the airport who were travelling without visa. They all made it safely as well.”
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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
APRIL 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russian air authorities have once again banned Tajikistan’s privately-owned Somon Air from flying to Russia, an apparent resumption of the row between the two countries earlier this year which cut the number of air-links. Air-links between Russia and Tajikistan are especially important for Tajikistan’s migrant work force which relies on jobs in Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
MARCH 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In the first two months of the year, 18,000 new apartments were built in Kazakhstan, a 23% increase on the same period in 2016, media reported quoting official statistics. The increase is driven by the government housing building scheme unveiled last year called Nurly Zher. The scheme is part- political, part-economic in its aims which are to build homes for 1.5m families over the next 15 years and also to lift the country’s flatlining economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
MARCH 29 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A group of Armenian investors have set up a fund to help kick-start IT projects, media reported, boosting Armenia’s reputation as the IT hub of the South Caucasus/Central Asia region. Reports said that the fund was looking to sponsor 10 start-ups with $200,000 each. Armenia’s government has been encouraging the development of an IT sector. It has made deals with Microsoft and an Armenian-US company produces smartphones and tablets in the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
MARCH 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — China’s Anhui Conch Cement Co. said that it wanted to invest in a 2m tonne/year cement plant in Uzbekistan because of the improve economic conditions in the country. Cement production has become big business in Uzbekistan with Chinese, Turkish and Russian companies all setting up production there, but if Anhui Conch did build a 2m tonne capacity plant it would be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, in the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)
MARCH 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Canada-based Condor Petroleum resumed production at its oil wells in Kazakhstan in the second half of last year, it said in a full-year trading update, around 15 months after it cut production because oil prices had dropped too low to make it economical. Combined output from these two fields, Shoba and Taskuduk, is tiny at 588 barrels per day but it does indicate a renewed confidence in the Kazakh oil sector. Also in Kazakhstan, Condor has applied to extend its exploration licence over the Zharkamys exploration area which officially expired at the end of last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)
MARCH 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nostrum, the London-listed oil company with assets in Kazakhstan, saw its share price fall 11% to 416p, its lowest price since the start of the year, after full year results for 2016 showed a sharp fall in revenues.
It said that revenue was down by $100m to $348m because of sustained low oil prices. Its chairman, Frank Monstrey, said that 2016 had been one of the most difficult years on record although cost cutting had reduced losses.
“Nostrum has not wavered during one of the most challenging years for the oil and gas industry in over a decade,” he was quoted as saying by media. “We have navigated 2016 with caution and great care to ensure our vision remains intact.”
Nostrum has been one of the best performing Central Asia/South Caucasus stocks this year, surging to an 18-month high of 518p at the start of March.
A drop in oil prices and the tough trading figures from 2016 put a dampener on this buy analysts are still backing it.
Brokerage Credit Suisse gave the Nostrum stock an ‘outperform’ rating with a target price of 535p for this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)
ALMATY, MARCH 21 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to ape the World Bank’s global ‘Ease of Doing Business’ survey, Kazakh officials said they wanted to set up a regional version covering all of Kazakhstan.
The survey will measure how difficult, or easy, Kazakh and foreign companies find it to do business in Kazakhstan’s regions, providing data for investors and the government.
Serzhan Madiyev, head of the state-linked Economic Research Institute said that the index had been ordered by President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
“We provide recommendations to the government on what needs to be done to raise the position in this rating every year,” he told the state- owned Astana Times newspaper. “It
is very important for attracting foreign investments.”
Kazakhstan has been looking to attract more investors, and its ‘Ease of Doing Business’ ranking by the World Bank has improved. In 2017, it was ranked in 35th position. The World Bank survey, though, doesn’t measure corruption, one of the main grudges that foreign investors have.
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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)