OCT. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EBRD gave a $560,000 loan to Taze Ay, a Turkmen meatpacker aiming to expand its production line by 25%. Located in the southern city of Mary, Taze Ay was founded in 2003 by a local family. Taiwan’s International Development and Cooperation fund will also contribute to the expansion of the factory with a $240,000 loan.
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(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)
TBILISI, OCT. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian government unveiled the 20.7MW Kartli Wind Farm, Georgia’s first large-scale wind farm which is considered a key milestone towards both boosting its power production and increasing its green energy footprint.
Kartli Wind Power Plant, a joint venture owned by the Georgian Energy Development Fund (GEDF) and Oil and Gas Company of Georgia, manages the project, which cost $34m to build. GEDF is part-owned by the EBRD, which loaned $22m for the project.
At the inauguration ceremony near the town of Gori in central Georgia, PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili lauded the project and highlighted its importance.
“This project is an indication that Georgia is becoming a truly developed country with leading technologies,” Mr Kvirikashvili said.
“This wind farm will enable us to partly meet our electricity demand during winter time.”
The government has pushed for the development of wind projects across the country to increase domestic production and limit the growth in imports during the winter months.
In the summer, Georgia exports its electricity surplus from its hydropower plants, mainly to Russia and Turkey.
The Kartli wind farm aims to reduce the winter gap and lower carbon emissions.
The EBRD also praised the project and said that it was ready to lend more funds to develop the country’s renewable energies.
“The EBRD stands ready to support Georgia in promoting renewable energy sources and this project confirms our determination to continue making significant investments in renewable energy,” Aida Sitdikova, EBRD’s regional director for Energy, said in a statement.
The Kartli Wind Farm is the biggest wind power project in the South Caucasus although Azerbaijan said it was considering erecting a wind farm in the Caspian Sea.
Power production has become a major headache for governments in the region as they try to feed electricity to growing populations and also replace aging Soviet infrastructure.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – During a visit to Uzbekistan by the World Bank’s new regional director for Central Asia, Lilia Burunciuc, the Uzbek ministry of economy asked for a $100m loan to improve the country’s job market. The ministry said it wanted to create around 500,000 new, sustainable jobs over the next five years. In June, the World Bank committed to a new partnership with Uzbekistan, earmarking around $3b for a vast range of projects.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Korea International Cooperation Agency will send $4m to the United Nations World Food Programme to implement a three-year programme aimed at improving food security in four regions of Kyrgyzstan. The project will target the poorest areas of the Batken, Jalal-Abad, Osh and Naryn provinces in central and south Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
SEPT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – During a visit to the Karakalpakstan region in west Uzbekistan, acting President and PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev urged the local administration to speed up the modernisation of the region’s biggest thermal power station, Takhiatash. The upgrade scheme is being part funded by a $300m loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and will boost overall production to 930MW from the current 730MW.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EBRD said it may withhold funds for a pipeline linking gas fields in the Caspian Sea to consumers in Europe until Azerbaijan agreed to provide more transparency into its state linked energy companies.
Taking a tough stance, the EBRD, a London-based intra-governmental bank set up during the collapse of the Soviet Union to fund business and infrastructure projects, said unless Azerbaijan complied with the Extrac- tive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), it would withhold $1.5b ear- marked for the TANAP pipeline.
The EBRD’s stance casts fresh doubts over the Azerbaijani leadership’s commitment to transparency into its business dealings.
Riccardo Puliti, the EBRD’s managing director for energy, said that EITI, considered a global benchmark for transparency in the extractive sectors, would consider whether Azerbaijan had made progress at its next meeting in Kazakhstan in October.
“In the case of TANAP, it is important that this progress takes place. If there is no progress it will be quite difficult to justify a large amount of financing,” he told Turkish media.
Last year, the EITI downgraded Azerbaijan from ‘compliant’ to ‘candidate’ country and criticised it for a lack of transparency.
TANAP will link Azerbaijan’s pipe- line network to Greece via Turkey, forming part of the Southern Gas Corridor. SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state- owned energy company, owns a 58% stake in TANAP, Turkey’s Botas (30%) and BP (12%) own the rest. TANAP will link with TAP which will pump the gas to Italy.
Azerbaijan has yet to react to the EBRD’s statement.
Aliya Tskhay, a researcher focus- ing on Azerbaijan at the University of St Andrews said that the EBRD may have been trying to encourage Azerbaijan to engage more closely with the EITI.
“The EBRD request seems to be an encouragement for Azerbaijan’s government to still be part of the EITI, despite a status downgrade last year,” she said.
TANAP will cost $10b to build, while TAP has a price tag of around $5b.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
SEPT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to issue $95m in loans and grants to Kyrgyzstan for the reconstruction of the North-South Corridor, a vital road link. The Eurasian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the Saudi Fund for Development and China’s Export-Import Bank are also participating in the reconstruction of the road.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
SEPT. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The International Labor Rights Forum published a report corroborating claims that the World Bank could be inadvertently financing a textile factory involved in forced labour practices. The report, which follows a petition in July sent by human rights activists directly to the World Bank, targets specifically an Uzbek-Indonesian joint venture, Indorama Kokand Textile. The World Bank had previously denied the allegations, saying it only deals with forced labour-free companies.
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(News report from Issue No. 296, published on Sept. 16 2016)
SEPT. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $240m loan to help Kazakhstan improve a 185-km highway around its northern Caspian Sea shore to Russia. The road is important to link Kazakhstan to Russia and the South Caucasus via land, giving it further access to European markets. The ADB said the road improvements will open up new trade and investment opportunities.
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(News report from Issue No. 294, published on Sept. 2 2016)
JULY 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it will postpone its decision to increase its stake in Holcim Azerbaijan, a cement company. The EBRD already owns a 10% stake in the company. Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim (66%), Germany’s Holcim (10%) and other private investors (14%) own the rest of the company. The EBRD said it will wait until September to take a decision.
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(News report from Issue No. 291, published on Aug. 1 2016)