MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Telecoms companies in Tajikistan have, according to local media, stopped taking payments via terminals because of a dispute over the commission that the terminal operators were charging. The row has meant that long queues of people waiting to top up their mobiles are snaking out of telecoms shops in Dushanbe and other cities.
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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)
MARCH 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The consortium developing the Karachaganak oil and gas site in northwest Kazakhstan paid a fine of 10.4m tenge ($32,800) because of an inventory error, media reported quoting the court in west Kazakhstan. It wasn’t specific about the inventory error. In a far bigger arbitration dispute playing out from last year, the Kazakh government has accused the Karachaganak consortium of withholding oil worth billions.
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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)
MARCH 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgians will finally be allowed to travel to the EU for up to 90 days without a visa from March 28, Georgia’s foreign ministry said. Earlier this month, the EU had approved visa-free travel for Georgia and Ukraine to the 26- member Schengen Zone.
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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)
MARCH 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The IFC, part of the World Bank, is developing a programme to help cotton growers in Uzbekistan produce better cotton, more efficiently and without forced labour, an industry website reported. Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s key currency earners but its reputation has been dented over the past few years because of the use of child labour to pick cotton. Many Western brands have boycotted it. The IFC is trialling its programme across 12 farms. If it is successful, it will roll it out to 3,000.
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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)
MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a major blow to Turkmenistan’s ambitions to cements itself as the region’s top gas exporter, Uzbekistan and China cancelled planned work on a fourth pipeline that was to pump gas to Chinese consumers.
The so-called Line D was quietly dropped at the beginning of the month, media reported quoting a RIA-Novosti article. In the article, RIA-Novosti quoted unnamed officials as saying a drop in demand for gas in China meant that there was no need to build an expensive fourth pipeline from Turkmenistan.
A JV between China’s CNPC and Uzbekneftegas had been created in 2014 to build the 200km section of the pipeline through Uzbekistan. Work had been due to start in H1 2016 but had been pushed back.
For Turkmenistan, the cancelling of Line D, which hasn’t been officially confirmed by Ashgabat or Beijing, is bad news. It’s economy is reliant on gas exports, and with prices low, it is floundering.
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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)
MARCH 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Opponents of US President Donald Trump verged on accusing him of corruption after they linked him to a hotel in Baku connected to Azerbaijani officials accused of taking bribes and of having links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
A report by the New Yorker said the Trump International Hotel and Tower Baku was linked to Azerbaijan’s former transport minister Ziya Mammadov who has been linked to a business partner who does business with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Some sanctions on dealing with Iran have been lifted but for US citizens it is still illegal to deal with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, directly or indirectly
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)
TBILISI, MARCH 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Official data from Georgia showed that its wine producers exported 8.8m bottles of wine in January and February, nearly double the volume during the same period in 2016.
Wine is one of Georgia’s most important exports and the National Wine Agency said that the value of exports in January and February hit $20.5m. This puts Georgia on course for a record year and highlights the success of its export strategy. So successful has the marketing strategy become that rival winemaker Azerbaijan has pledged to mimic it.
Georgia’s wine industry has concentrated its efforts on breaking into new markets where drinkers are acquiring a taste for wine. Top of this list is China. Georgia sold nearly 832,000 bottles of wine to China in Jan. – Feb. and expects the Chinese market to become the second biggest, after Russia, by the end of the year, overtaking Ukraine.
The head of marketing at the Wine Agency, Irakli Cholobargia, said: “China as a market is one of the keys to drive volumes and serve as one of the alternatives to the Russian market on which we would like to be less dependent as far as unstable political relations are concerned.”
The boost in wine exports to China also vindicates advocates of a free-trade deal signed with China in Sept. 2016. Since then Georgian wine companies have signed a series of deals with Chinese companies, including a deal by Badagoni in Nov. 2016 to export 5m bottles of wine.
In 2016, Georgia’s overall exports rose by 38% to 50m bottles. Russia made up 27.2m of this total, Ukraine 8.8m and China 8.3m.
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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)
MARCH 5 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The first cargo train crossed a new bridge over the River Astarachy, the border between Azerbaijan and Iran, media reported. This is the only railway link between Azerbaijan and Iran and is important because it signifies just how relations between neighbours have improved. The bridge is also vital if a plan to build a north-south trade corridor from India to Russia is to be turned into reality.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)
MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a major boost for Uzbekistan under its new president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) hinted that it was going to re-engage with the country after a 10 year break.
The move comes a month after EBRD delegates flew to Tashkent for talks with the Uzbek government on how best to reignite the lending process, a credit line that was cut in the late 2000s after rows over corruption, human rights and media freedom.
Reuters news agency quoted two anonymous EBRD officials in their London office as saying that they expected the bank to signal that it was re-starting lending to projects in Uzbekistan within a couple of days. They also said a visit to Tashkent later this month by EBRD president Suma Chakrabarti had also been discussed. By the end of the week no official word had been given but neither had officials refuted the Reuters story.
For Mr Mirziyoyev, a signal from the EBRD that it was preparing to resume normal service would be a major boost. He has been trying to pursue a reform-minded agenda, rolling back some of the more intransigent and isolationist policies that
his predecessor, Islam Karimov, followed. Karimov died in September 2016.
A second Reuters exclusive from Tashkent on March 7 said Mr Mirziyoyev had clashed with some of his ministers over his reform agenda.
The EBRD said that it has lent 900m euro to projects in Uzbekistan, although the flow dropped off in the first decade of the 21st century. In hasn’t approved a project in Uzbekistan since 2007 and doesn’t keep an office in Tashkent. In 2003, Uzbekistan held its AGM in Tashkent, a meeting overshadowed by rows over human rights.
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(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)
MARCH 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A low enriched uranium bank being built in Kazakhstan should be operational by September, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano said in a press release. The uranium fuel bank will be the first of its kind in the world and will allow countries to buy uranium for nuclear fuel. It will be administered by the IAEA. For Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, the fuel bank will be a personal success as he wants to build Kazakhstan’s reputation as a global centre for nuclear energy. Kazakhstan is the world’s biggest uranium miner.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 320, published on March 13 2017)