Tag Archives: business

Tajik banks to be investigated

FEB. 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Prosecutors in Tajikistan have opened investigations in four banks for mismanagement, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported, adding another twist to a worsening Tajik banking crisis. The government had already said that it will bail out three of the bank — Tojiksodirotbank, Agroinvestbank and Tojprombank — before prosecutors said they were going to investigate them too. The fourth bank set to be investigated is state- owned Amonatbank.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

McDonald’s not to open in Armenia

FEB. 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The McDonald’s fast food chain has no intention of opening a restaurant in Armenia, its Europe spokesperson Sanjay Mistry said, dampening media speculation that Georgian businessman Temur Chkonia was planning to extend his McDonald’s franchise to Yerevan. In 2016 McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Armenian hydro set for update

YEREVAN, FEB. 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A group of Western finance organisations lead by The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) agreed to lend ContourGlobal Hydro Cascade, a subsidiary of the US group by the same name, $140m to upgrade the Armenian Vorotan hydropower plant.

Upgrading the 404MW Vorotan hydropower plant is considered vital to boosting Armenia’s green power output. It was built by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and has only been patched up in a piecemeal fashion since.

Importantly, too, the upgrade scheme will created hundreds of jobs in the mountainous Syunik province of southeast Armenia, the rural and underdeveloped region where the plant is sited.

“This is the first time we are putting together very large, long-term financing package for an infrastructure project in Armenia,” the IFC said.

The deal was struck on Dec. 29. It involved a $45m loan from the IFC, $65m from FMO, the Dutch development bank, and $30m from DEG, the German Investment and Development Corporation.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Lydian mining takes loan to operate in Armenia

FEB. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Armenia-registered subsidiary of Canada’s Lydian mining has taken out a loan of $50m with ING Bank to fund buying equipment at its gold mine in southern Armenia. Lydian said that the cash would be used to buy crushing, conveying and electrical equipment for its 100%-owned Amulsar Gold Project. It expects gold production to begin in 2018.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Tajikistan makes first flight to Uzbekistan in 25 years

FEB. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Somon Air flight made the first passenger flight between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for 25 years, highlighting the improved relations with neighbours that Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev has ordered his officials to develop since taking over the presidency in September. Mr Mirziyoyev took over from Islam Karimov who died on Sept. 2 after ruling Uzbekistan for 25 years. Somon Air is a Tajik airline. According to reports there were 65 passengers on the first flight.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Qatar to increase flights to Azerbaijan

JAN. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a press conference with his Qatari counterpart, Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that the Qatar airline had agreed to increase the number of flights to Baku. He said that the driving motivator of the planned flight increase was a jump in the number of tourists travelling to Azerbaijan. Mr Mammadyarov didn’t give any figures to back this up or say how many Qatar flights would now operate to Baku. International airlines have been increasing their flights to the South Caucasus.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Kazakh bank says KKB needs to shed bad assets

JAN. 30 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Halyk Bank CEO Umut Shayakhmetova told the Forbes Kazakhstan website that for talks on a merger with Kazkommertsbank to continue, Kazkommertsbank needed to deal with a pile of bad debt it had acquired after taking over BTA Bank in 2014/15. A deal between Halyk Bank, which is owned by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s son-in-law and daughter, would create a banking giant in Kazakhstan that will dominate the banking sector.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Flights to resume between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

FEB. 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Somon Air, Tajikistan’s national airline, has scheduled a first Tajikistan-Uzbekistan flight since 1992 for Feb. 10, media reported. Regular flights are expected to start up between Dushanbe and Tashkent on Feb. 20. These flights are important as they signify a sea- change in relations between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, who have quarrelled for years, since the death in September of Uzbekistan’s president Islam Karimov.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Aliyev wants Azerbaijan to boost wine sales

FEB. 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan is producing only 20m bottles of wine per year, roughly a fifth of its capacity, media quoted President Ilham Aliyev as saying.

Mr Aliyev wants Azerbaijan to diversify away from oil and gas, which dominates the economy. The economy has taken a hit with the collapse in oil prices. He has previously highlighted the potential for growth in the hazelnut sector and now appears to have earmarked the wine-making industry for growth.

“Most of these plants were built in recent years. Major funds have been invested in them and modern equipment installed. How can it be possible for plants with a production capacity of 100m bottles to produce only 20m bottles of wine?” media quoted him as saying.

Georgia, which has a far more developed wine production and sales system, exports 50m bottles of wine every year. Most of the growth has come in China and other parts of the Far East.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Azerbaijani bank drops football sponsorship

JAN. 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), majority owned by the Azerbaijani government, has dropped sponsorship of a Baku football team as part of a cost-cutting drive.

Dropping sponsorship of Inter Baku, a top tier team, is another sign that the tough economic conditions have hit IBA hard. A few years ago such a move would have been unimaginable.

“In accordance with new strategic goals limitation of the IBA’s sports support will help the bank optimise its expenses and direct resources to the sphere of finance and banking, which are priority,” IBA chairman Khalid Ahadov said in a statement released by the bank.

“That will increase the efficiency of the recovery processes, conducted with government’s support.”

At the end of January, the Azerbaijani government increased its stake in IBA to 77% from 56% in order to ensure the stability of the bank, Azerbaijan’s biggest. Analysts have been warning for the past 12 months that an economic downturn was pressuring the banking sector in Azerbaijan. The Central Bank has also withdrawn trading licences from some of the smaller banks.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)