Tag Archives: construction

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan move up ‘Doing Business’ survey

ALMATY, OCT. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Central Asian countries fared strikingly well in the latest Doing Business report published by the World Bank, possibly reflecting a drive to attract investment to fight off worsening economic conditions across the region.

The World Bank report singled out Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as among the ten most improved countries in the world. Georgia fell from 15th to 24th place but its overall score was deemed an improvement over last year’s. All other countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus improved their ranking.

According to the World Bank’s assessments. Kazakhstan, 41st in the rankings, made registering a property transfer faster and easier, and Uzbekistan made it easier to start a new business and access credit. It was ranked at 87th, up 54 positions from last year.

In an interview with the Bulletin, Valentina Saltane, Private Sector Development Specialist at the World Bank said Kazakhstan had reformed seven key areas.

“The only area that needs real improvement is cross-border trade,” she said. “Uzbekistan adopted three major reforms, one of which , starting a business, dates back to 2013, but became accessible to private businesses only at the end of 2014.”

Other analysts also said that Kazakhstan had been working hard to speed up various technical reforms.

Alex Nice, Eastern Europe editor at the EIU, said: “Kazakhstan has announced a range of technical reforms, to try to improve the investment climate, in response to the economic slowdown. So it’s not surprising it has moved up the rankings.”

But Mr Nice also sounded a note of caution. He said that developing countries, Kazakhstan included, hire consultants just to advise them on how to move up the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ survey.

“Kazakhstan invests a lot in promoting its image abroad, and may well have hired consultants to advise it on how to achieve a move up the rankings,” Mr Nice continued. “That doesn’t mean that the challenges to doing business in Kazakhstan have fundamentally changed.”

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Japan builds plant in Turkmenistan

OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation will build a 400 megawatt gas-fired power plant in north Turkmenistan, a plant that will both increase electricity production and also extend the reach of the Turkmen power grid. The deal, worth $300m, was signed during Japanese PM Shinzo Abe’s visit to Turkmenistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Austria’s Poerner to build Azerbaijan’s capital bitumen plant

OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan hired Austrian Poerner Group alongside Texas-based Fluor Corp. to build a bitumen plant, a deal poised to boost Azerbaijan’s output of petroleum products.

Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR contracted Poerner to design the 400,000 tonnes/year plant, which Fluor Corp will build over the next decade.

Earlier this year, Azerbaijan said it wanted to modernise its oil, gas and petrochemicals processing plants near Baku. In March, Reuters quoted the US embassy in Azerbaijan saying the new complex will cost around $16.5b.

Neither Poerner nor Fluor have disclosed the value of their contracts with SOCAR, but their contribution will be important to boost Azerbaijan’s bitumen, or asphalt, production. Bitumen is a product of oil refining and an important commodity for the entire South Caucasus region. Bitumen’s main use is in road-building. Azerbaijan, as well as Armenia and Georgia, has committed itself to improving and expanding the country’s road network.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Korea-Uzbekistan JV complete giant gas processing plant

OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uz-Kor Gas, a joint venture between South Korean and Uzbek companies, has finished building a $3.9b natural gas processing plant in Uzbekistan, a project that will improve commercial and diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Located in the Karakalpakstan region of north-western Uzbekistan, the Ustyurt Gas Chemical Complex will become the biggest petrochemical complex in Europe and Asia. Ustyurt includes a new gas field and a petrochemical plant. Its production will be mostly earmarked for the export market.

Companies from South Korea and Uzbekistan have been working on the project since 2006 through a joint- venture that includes Lotte Chemical, part of the Lotte Group, state-owned Korea Gas and Uzbekistan’s energy company Uzbekneftegaz.

Huh Soo-young, CEO of Lotte Chemical, said production would begin in 2016.

“From extracting liquefied natural gas in the upstream, to cracking and processing LNG into petrochemical products in the downstream, we have successfully built up a vertical integration system,” Mr Huh told the Korea Herald.

The plant will receive around 3.6mn tonnes of liquefied natural gas each year from a field in Surgil, around 100km away from the complex.

Lotte Chemical has predicted it will earn around 1tn won ($890mn) each year from the new project. Mr Huh said the complex would only be profitable as long as energy prices stay at current levels.

“As long as crude oil prices remain above $40, our petrochemical products based on low-cost ethane will remain competitive in the global market,” he said.

Uzbekistan and South Korea have been improving their commercial ties. In May, Uzbek president Islam Karimov used his visit foreign trip after winning re-election to travel to South Korea to close deals worth $7.7b.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Japanese holding to build Turkmen power plant

OCT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sumitomo Corporation, a Japanese holding focusing on industrial production, said it will build a $330m thermal power plant in the north- western part of Turkmenistan. Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, another Japanese company, will provide the gas turbine for the new 400 megawatt plant. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe will visit Turkmenistan at the end of October to attend the signing of the deal.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Tajik capital demolition angers many

OCT. 23 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Tajikistan plan to demolish some of Dushanbe’s most striking buildings to make way for new developments, infuriating many people.

Specifically, city planners are eyeing up the Rohat teahouse — a tourist destination — two theatres, the former presidential administration and the current parliament building for demolition. All of the buildings lie on prime real estate in the city centre and were built during the early Soviet period.

Nurali Saidzoda, deputy head of architecture and construction committee, told Tajik media last week that the buildings selected for demolition are not unique.

“If you had seen the blueprints of what will be built in their places, you would say the same,” he said.

The Tajik authorities appear to have something of a fad for large construction projects and grandiose design. Over the past few years they have built the biggest library, biggest teahouse, and biggest mosque in the region.

But not everybody was happy. Grassroots activism is rare in Tajikistan but, even so, hundreds of people signed an online petition calling for the demolition to be scrapped.

Fotima, an old woman walking in central Dushanbe, said she was concerned about the future of the city.

“The buildings to be demolished carry the spirit of the city. The city will not be as the same as I remember it anymore,” she said.

Abdulfattoh Shafiev, a Dushanbe- based analyst, said the demolition plans was linked to business.

“Demolition of old Stalinist buildings in the Tajik capital is completely unrelated to any ideology and is simply a business idea to build new and bigger skyscrapers in the most valuable part of Dushanbe, down- town,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

After seven year delay, Georgia restarts skyscraper project

TBILISI, OCT. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Construction work on two twisting skyscrapers that will dominate the Tbilisi skyline restarted after a seven year lull, a symbolic act of confidence in Georgia’s economic revival since a 2008 war with Russia.

At 41-storeys , the Axis Towers will become Tbilisi’s tallest – and one of its most iconic – buildings when they are completed in 2017.

Opening the start of construction for the towers, Georgia’s President Irakli Garibashvili said the project will help boost the tourism industry in Georgia.

“The Axis Towers is a completely Georgian project,” Garibashvili added.

One of the two towers will be a five-star hotel operated by the French company Pullman, and the other tower will host residential apartments. The British company Arup would be involved in building the towers.

In February, the Georgian government and the Axis property company agreed to re-start the $83m project that was derailed by economic stagnation in Georgia after the 2008 war.

The project is funded through a joint venture between Axis and the state-owned Georgian Co-Investment Fund.

“About 1,000 people will be employed in the Axis Towers in the (construction) stage,” Mr Garibashvili according to comments on his website.

“Once it’s built several hundred people will have steady employment here.”

Georgia is witnessing a surge in prestige building projects, including the Tbilisi Sea New City development and various projects planned for the Black Sea resort of Batumi.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Hill to manage Azerbaijan’s capital Tower

OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan hired US-based consulting firm Hill International on a $3.7m contract to manage the construction of the Baku Tower, a 50-storey skyscraper on the man-made Khazar island, outside the Azerbaijani capital. Avesta Group, an investment company linked to the Azerbaijani elite, has invested $2b into its Baku Tower project.

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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Construction starts on $85m aircraft parts plant in Georgian capital

TBILISI, SEPT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s PM Irakli Garibashvili officially initiated construction of a factory near Tbilisi airport that will produce structural components for airplanes.

Last March, Israel’s Elbit Systems and Georgia’s Partnership Fund, a state-owned holding, set up a joint- venture called Aero-Structure Technologies to build the $85m plant.

“The fact that Elbit Systems is returning to Georgia means a lot to me personally and to the Georgian government, because this is an expression of confidence towards our government and our country,”

Mr Garibashvili said at the opening ceremony.

The plant will give Georgia’s tech industry a major boost as well as create 300 new jobs. It will open in 2017. A Georgian government press release said the plant’s production was aimed at the major aircraft manufacturers Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier and Sukhoi.

For Elbit, one of Israel’s biggest weapon’s manufacturers, the new factory marks a remarkable turn around in its business relationship with Georgia.

Elbit Systems had previously built and sold Hermes 450 reconnaissance drones in Georgia. In 2011, though, it fell out with the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili.

The government launched a $100m law suit against Elbit which it settled for $35m.

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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

ADB approves loan for Georgian coast

AUG. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $20m loan to boost coastal defences along the Black Sea. The loan will be used to strengthen 5km of shore south of Batumi. The ADB said it was important to defend the shoreline to protect farmland and housing as well as the region’s beaches which attract thousands of tourists each year.

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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)