MARCH 23/29 2 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s London-listed mining companies, ENRC and Kazakhmys, recorded large jumps in profit in 2010 because of high global metal prices. ENRC’s underlying profit doubled and Kazakhmys’ rose 75%. Both companies are closely linked to the Kazakh elite, including President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
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(News report from Issue No. 34, published on April 4 2011)
MARCH 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, each of its 153 members can block the accession of another country.
Russia has been negotiating since 1993 to join the WTO. The US wants it to join and in December 2010, the European Union said it also wanted Russia to join.
The main stumbling block is Georgia. Already a WTO member, Georgia’s block on Russian membership is one of its strongest diplomatic weapons. But Georgia also has to be wary of over playing it.
Georgia and Russia resumed their negotiations over Russian WTO membership during a two-day meeting in Bern on March 9. It was their first meeting on the WTO issue since Georgia broke off talks in April 2008 after Russia strengthened relations with the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Relations worsened further and in August 2008 they fought a brief war.
But now, under pressure from its allies, Georgia is back negotiating with Russia. In exchange for agreeing to Russian WTO membership Georgia wants more control over customs points along its internationally recognised border between Russia and Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Georgia can take a tough line but it has to be careful not to isolate itself and irritate its allies. Both sides said the meeting in Bern was constructive. The next meeting is expected in April.
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(News report from Issue No. 33, published on March 28 2011)
MARCH 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a thinly veiled warning that food prices in Tajikistan will continue to rise and that supplies are running low, local media quoted President Emomali Rakhmon telling people in a northern province to hoard food over the next two years. Food prices have soared in Central Asia, worrying governments which fear unrest. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have been worst hit.
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(News report from Issue No. 33, published on March 28 2011)
MARCH 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Masked police raided several Turkish businesses in Tashkent including one of the city’s biggest supermarket Turkuaz, media reported. The authorities said the businesses were fronts for Islamic extremism, accusations the businesses deny. The raids follow similar action against Turkish business in December and may be part of turf war.
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(News report from Issue No. 31, published on March 14 2011)
MARCH 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a glitzy ceremony in New York, US businessman Donald Trump finalised a deal to build the two tallest towers in Georgia. The deal, estimated to be worth about $300m, is important to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili who wants to attract more foreign investors to Georgia after a war in 2008 with Russia hit investment levels.
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(News report from Issue No. 31, published on March 14 2011)
FEB. 22 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a three-day trip to Beijing, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev agreed a series of deals with Chinese President Hu Jintao. The deals included Chinese funds for a new Astana-Almaty high speed rail link, a uranium supply deal and various oil and gas projects.
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(News report from Issue No. 29, published on Feb. 28 2011)
FEB. 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh Central Bank scrapped a two-year valuation corridor for the tenge in favour of a managed float. Kazakhstan introduced a 145-155 tenge/$1 corridor in Feb. 2009 after it devalued the tenge by 18% during the global financial crisis. Rising oil, grain and metals prices have pushed up the value of the tenge.
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(News report from Issue No. 29, published on Feb. 28 2011)
FEB. 28 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Despite the rather turgid official photos, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev left observers in no doubt how important they viewed relations between China and Kazakhstan when they met in Beijing on Feb. 22.
According to Xinhua, China’s state news agency, Mr Hu told Mr Nazarbayev that his trip to Beijing was the first by a head of state since the Chinese New Year on Feb. 3.
Mr Nazarbayev went one better. He told Mr Hu this was his first overseas trip of 2011.
Away from the platitudes, the deals the two leaders struck underlined how quickly the Sino-Kazakh economic relationship had developed. Mr Nazarbayev returned from Beijing with investment from China worth billions of dollars for a wide range of projects.
Perhaps the most important was for uranium sales. Kazakhstan is one of the world’s biggest uranium producers while China is energy hungry and has said it wants to boost its nuclear energy capacity. According to media reports Kazakhstan pledged to feed China with 40% of its uranium needs over the next few years.
Also agreed was a $1.7b loan from China to Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna, Chinese investment for a 1,050km high-speed rail link between Astana and Almaty and a $1b plan to modernise the oil refinery in Atyrau on the Caspian Sea — one of three in Kazakhstan.
According to Mr Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s bilateral trade with China reached $20b in 2010, up 45% from 2009.
It looks set to continue to rise.
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(News report from Issue No. 29, published on Feb. 28 2011)
FEB. 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan will spend $1b on its housing sector between 2011 and 2012, Serik Nokin, head of the state’s housing agency, told a cabinet meeting. Mr Nokin said about 1/4 of the cash will be spent on new housing, another 1/4 will be spent on social housing and the rest on providing mortgages for low-cost homes.
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(News report from Issue No. 28, published on Feb. 21 2011)
FEB. 18 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan will increase its defence budget by 17% to $1.4b in 2011, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said. According to the World Bank’s latest data, in 2009 Kazakhstan spent 1.2% of its GDP on military spending.
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(News report from Issue No. 28, published on Feb. 21 2011)