MAY 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has signed a deal with the Tajik government to help it update and modernise its power network. The agreement is part of general modernisation linked to the CASA-1000 deal that will see Tajikistan export electricity to Pakistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) holds its 24th annual meeting and business forum in Tbilisi May 14-15, placing Georgia firmly at the centre of the region’s attention.
Georgia is the first country in the Caucasus to host the annual EBRD meeting. Uzbekistan hosted the event in 2003. The Bank is a major player in Georgia, and has invested a total of $3b over the last 22 years.
This meeting is strategically important for Georgia to demonstrate its economic development, especially now, when the country is mired in a currency crisis. The lari has lost around 32% of its value since November.
Deputy minister of finance Davit Lezhava said the meeting was a perfect opportunity to spread information about Georgia to the outside world.
“I hope that the meeting will result in more investment, greater integration with the democratic world and in more political support,” Mr Lezhava told the Bulletin.
Over $7.2m was spent in preparing the EBRD annual meeting by the private sponsors and the government, media reported.
Mr Lezhava said that he didn’t know how much came from the state’s budget.
“But whatever the governmentcontribution was, it is not a waste of money because we will have great benefits from this event,” he said.
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(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)
MAY 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it will give a syndicated loan for the second phase development of the Caspian Sea Shah Deniz gas project. EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti said on a visit to Baku that the size and timeframe were undecided.
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(News report from Issue No. 231, published on May 13 2015)
MAY 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Azerbaijan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding worth $1b to modernise the country’s power distribution network, media reported. The ADB will give three tranches of $250m, totalling $750m, and Azerbaijan will provide the final $250m.
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(News report from Issue No. 230, published on May 6 2015)
APRIL 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has agreed to give Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the Kazakh national rail company, a loan of $200m to restructure its debt, media reported. Temir Zholy has been upgrading rapidly over the past few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 227, published on April 15 2015)
MARCH 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The World Bank has approved a $52m loan to upgrade Armenia’s power distribution network, media reported. The authorities in Armenia blame the aging power network partly for the patchy electricity supplies across the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia will build a hydropower station with a $250m loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which will boost electricity production in winter and allow it to export power to neighbouring Turkey. Demand for power in Georgia is increasing.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 12 2015 (The Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has opened up an office in the town of Khujand in north Tajikistan to help support small business, media reported. The EBRD has been extending its Tajik projects.
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(News report from Issue No. 223, published on March 18 2015)
FEB. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two major inter-governmental financial organisations — the Asian Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) — have issued lari-denominated bonds for the first time.
The IFC, which is part of the World Bank, issued a 30m lari ($13.2m) bond with an initial yield of 6.924% and the Asian Development Bank issued a 100m lari ($44.2m) bond with a floating yield.
The idea behind the issues is to help boost the Georgian capital markets and to support small businesses.
In a statement, Pierre Van Peteghem, treasury of the Asian Development Bank said: “This bond — the largest by a foreign issuer — will provide a key market benchmark and could encourage more borrowers, both domestic and foreign, to tap the Georgian bond market.”
The ADB explained that profit from the bonds would be given to TBC Bank to lend out to small and medium sized enterprises.
And they need all the help they can get at the moment.
Like its neighbours in the South Caucasus, Georgia is struggling to deal with the fallout from the economic turbulence in Russia. Its lari currency is losing value, making lari-denominated bonds a risky investment.
Still, the drive by the IFC and the ADB to sell lari denominated bonds is a boost for the ailing currency. It also shows confidence in its future. It remains to be seen if the market also holds the same confidence in the lari currency.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a major boost for the retail market in Tajikistan, Auchan, the French supermarket brand, has agreed to open up its first franchise in Dushanbe later this year.
Media said that Auchan had signed a deal with French distributor Schiever to manage the stores.
It did not report where exactly the store would open but it did say that it would stock mainly Russian produce and open in 2015.
Schiever already runs Auchan’s stores in Poland.
The news is, obviously, good for Tajikistan which has been short on positive economic news lately. It’s also a departure from the norm.
Headlines from Tajikistan recently have focused on major Chinese expansion but little investment from European retailers.
It will also shake up the Tajik retail sector which has been dominated by small shops selling goods of variable quality. The Auchan store will, according to press reports, be roughly the size of a football pitch.
The Auchan store project is partly financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) which has expanded its portfolio of projects across the region. In 2014, the EBRD said, it invested 100m euro into Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)