MAY 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government will make a final decision on whether to buy the 8.2% stake in the Kashagan Caspian Sea oil field by July 2, energy minister Sauat Mynbayev said. ConocoPhillips, the US oil company, is selling the stake which could fetch up to $5b. Both India and China have expressed interest in a deal.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — After flying to Beijing, Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon signed a strategic partnership with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping which is designed to enhance cooperation, media reported. China has been playing an increasingly influential role in Tajikistan, mining for metals and building roads.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish TV aired fresh documents appearing to show more evidence that telecoms giant TeliaSonera paid Gulnara Karimova, the all-powerful eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, to win a 3G licence in Uzbekistan. TeliaSonera is the subject of a Swedish investigation into corruption allegations.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Consumer markets in Central Asia and the South Caucasus region are maturing, as Tesco, the British supermarket chain, has realised.
Or at least, consumer markets in some of the region’s countries are maturing.
Tesco’s clothing department, which trades under the brand name F&F, announced that it planned to open various franchise stores across the Middle East, Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
Specifically it said that F&F would open a store in Astana, the Kazakh capital by the end of June, to be followed by stores in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia.
These will be opened through franchise agreements with Saudi Arabia-based Al Hokair and Dubai-based Futtaim.
The deal and Tesco’s intention to expand across Central Asia and the South Caucasus is important as it acts as further evidence that consumer demand in these markets is changing.
Long associated with the luxury market, Western high street brands have moved into Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, over the past couple of years and now, with the arrival of Tesco, it appears that discount brands are following.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ashgabat, the Turkmen capital lying on the edge of the Kyzylkum desert, received the Guinness World Record for the highest density of marble buildings in the world. Flush with profit from gas sales, Turkmenistan’s leaders have re-built Ashgabat with white marble since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Britain will pay Kazakhstan between $300,000 and $400,000 a year to shift military equipment across its territory, media quoted Kazakh deputy foreign minister Aleksei Volkov as saying. NATO members have been agreeing deals with Central Asian states to help pull military equipment out of Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In terms of banknote sophistication — artwork and anti-forgery security — Kazakhstan is world class.
The International Bank Note Society named Kazakhstan’s 5,000 tenge note, worth around $33, as the best new issue of 2012.
This is the second consecutive year that Kazakhstan has won the award after its new 10,000 tenge note won in 2012.
With the help of the British banknote printer De La Rue, the Kazakh Central Bank designed and launched the new 5,000 tenge banknote on New Year’s Eve 2011/12.
The judges praised its bright orange colour as well as the banknote’s designs, including an outline of the country, the iconic Soviet-built Hotel Kazakhstan in Almaty and Independence Statue in the centre of the city.
The note also contains various anti-forgery watermarks and other devices that improve its security.
Unusually for banknotes, the 5,000 tenge note, which beat Canada’s 50 dollar bill and the Jersey 100 pound bill for the award, does not carry the image of a famous national person.
If banknote art and sophistication is a sign of a confident, growing economy that is increasingly proud of its currency and aware of its national symbols, then Kazakhstan is definitely moving in the right direction.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)
MAY 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in the US arrested an Uzbek man on suspicion of links to Islamic extremists, barely a month after two ethnic Chechen brothers, who were brought up in Kyrgyzstan, allegedly bombed the Boston marathon. The new arrest appears unrelated to the Boston bombs but will again draw Central Asia into the spotlight.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)
MAY 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Three Georgian soldiers died in Afghanistan when a suicide bomber attacked their base in Helmand province in the south of the country, media reported. Pro-West Georgia has been a stalwart supporter of NATO’s war in Afghanistan. Media reported that 22 Georgian soldiers have now died in Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)
MAY 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Much to the irritation of the Kyrgyz authorities, prosecutors in the US dropped a fraud case against Maxim Bakiyev, son of the ousted former president of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The US authorities wanted to extradite Mr Bakiyev from London where he has lived since a 2010 coup in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz authorities accuse Mr Bakiyev of corruption.
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(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)