Tag Archives: business

Kazakh car manufacturing slides

ALMATY, JAN. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Car manufacturing in Kazakhstan fell by around a third in 2016 to 8,397, dragged down by a stagnant economy.

The disappointing data, released by the Kazakh state statistics committee, is even more stark when laid alongside earlier, pre-economic downturn aspirations. In 2013, with oil prices hovering above $100/barrel, double today’s prices, and with domestic consumer demand buoyant, foreign carmakers were lining up to cut deals with local producers to get their models into the market.

Back then, industry officials were predicting that Kazakhstan would produce over 50,000 cars in 2014.

The economic downturn been so devastating on Kazakhstan’s industrial base, that the government has said that it will step in and subsidise the car industry.

Kazakhstan’s Auto Business Association said that official car dealers’ sales sharply dropped in 2016 to 46,712 cars from 97,469 in 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Agriculture investment rises in Kazakhstan

JAN. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan increased investment in its agriculture sector by 50%, in US dollar terms, in 2016, media reported quoting a senior official at KazAgroFinance. Tuleugazy Seisenovm described as general manager of Assets of the Inspection Department at the state-owned KazAgroFinance, said that the government had spent $686m on investments in agriculture this year compared to $446m in 2015. Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev has ordered his officials to diversify investment away from the dominating oil and gas sector.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Gulf Air to fly to Georgian capital

JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, said it will start up a three- times a week service to Tbilisi. The move is just the latest announcement from an international airline to connect with Tbilisi. In December Qatar said it would fly to Tbilisi four times per week. Passenger numbers at Tbilisi airport have increased by 50% from 2010. It is building a new arrivals terminal to deal with the larger passenger flow.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Armenian aviation numbers grow

JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport reported passenger growth of 10.4% in 2016 compared to 2015, media reported. It said that just over 2.1m people had used Armenia’s main airport without giving a reason for the rise.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)f

Tajikistan to resume Air-links talks with Russia

JAN. 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Talks between Russia and Tajikistan over restarting air-links, vital for Tajikistan’s remittance-dependent economy, will resume on Jan. 26, media reported. Both countries cut air-links in December after a row. Without the vital air-link to Moscow and other major Russian cities, young Tajik men will not be able to travel to Russia, the source of most of the remittance cash.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Kazakh cement maker reports soft market

JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Steppe Cement, the London-listed Kazakhstan-based cement producer, posted full year results which showed a 4% drop in production and a 4% fall in prices because of a fall in demand. Steppe Cement’s main market is Kazakhstan which has been struggling to maintain economic output because of a drop in oil and gas prices, a recession in Russia and fall in the value of the tenge. Steppe Cement said it was going to focus on maintaining prices over market share in 2017.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Georgia president criticises new gas deal

TBILISI, JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili criticised a high-profile gas deal struck with Russia by energy minister Kakha Kaladze as a threat to national security, exposing a deep fissure in Georgia’s politics.

Commenting on a new agreement that will see Russia pay to transport gas across Georgia to Armenia, instead of giving Georgia 10% of the volume on a barter arrangement, Mr Margvelashvili’s official spokesperson, Eka Mishveladze, said Mr Kaladze was playing a high-risk game.

“The issue of Gazprom is more than just a business agreement, this is security, foreign policy and geopolitics first and energy and economy after that,” she said.

Although elected on a Georgian Dream ticket, Mr Margvelashvili has increasingly distanced himself from his former colleagues, preferring to present himself as an independent voice. Georgia is set for a presidential election in 2018.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Tajikistan cancels electricity rationing

JAN. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan cancelled electricity rationing because a new thermal power station has come online and the water levels in its reservoirs, vital for turning the hydropower stations, are high. This is important because power rationing had become a staple of Tajik life every winter. Tajikistan wants to turn itself into something of a regional electricity hub.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Designing a yurt-shaped greenhouse for Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK, JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tilek Toktogaziev has a vision. The 27-year-old Kyrgyz businessman wants to make farming more efficient and he wants to do it by turning the yurt, Kyrgyzstan’s national icon, into a greenhouse.

Or at least construct greenhouses in the shape of a yurt.

“We often copy models of greenhouses from the Koreans or the Dutch,” he told The Conway Bulletin (Jan. 6). “But they have their own climatic conditions. Even in cold times Kyrgyz people have survived in yurts.”

He has set about designing a greenhouse that will look and function like a yurt – the circular, heavy felt tent-like structure used by nomads to live in during the summer when their horses graze in lush valleys under snow-capped mountains.

Mr Toktogaziev has been building greenhouses since 2012, but it was only in 2016 that he thought of the yurt-shaped greenhouse.

“Out of season, local greenhouses cover 10% of market demand in Kyrgyzstan, whereas 90% of vegetables come from China and Uzbekistan,” he said, indicating market potential.

For now, though, Mr Toktogaziev wants to find foreign investors to help propel his concept onto the world market and also to educate Kyrgyz on the benefits of the greenhouse. He already has local investors and says the first greenhouse will be built in 2017.

It’s an uncertain road. What he is certain about, though, is keeping the national identity of the greenhouses.

“Local thermofelt (produced in a village near Bishkek) will be used to cover yurt-shaped greenhouse roof in nighttime to keep warmth,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Estonian builder says Kazakhstan hasn’t paid fine

JAN. 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Estonian construction company Windoor said that Kazakhstan had refused to pay a 23m euro settlement imposed by Stockholm’s arbitration court last year for reneging on a 2012 deal to build a conference centre in Astana for the Kazakh foreign ministry. Windoor said that it would now take the judgement to an international tribunal in Washington.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)