MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — KEGOC, a state-owned electricity distributor in Kazakhstan, said it would be open to exporting electricity to Afghanistan and Pakistan through the CASA-1000 line. The CASA-1000 project is scheduled for completion by 2020.
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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)
MAY 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Halyk Bank, Kazakhstan’s second- largest bank, said profits fell by 33% in Q1 2016, compared to 2015 due to a slowdown in lending. The bank said high interest rates at the beginning of the year had scared away consumers. Importantly, Halyk also said the proportion of bad loans in its portfolio increased to 11.7% from 9.1% in Q4 2015.
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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)
BISHKEK, MAY 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A comment about Kyrgyz women cleaning lavatories in Moscow by Kazakhstan’s minister of culture, Arystanbek Mukhamediuly, hit a raw nerve with Kyrgyzstan and triggered a diplomatic row.
In comments to media, Mr Mukhamediuly said Kyrgyz women cleaning lavatories in Moscow reflected poorly on Kyrgyzstan.
“Every time I fly to Moscow and other cities I see that young Kyrgyz ladies, our neighbours, are cleaning toilets,” he said. “It hurts me, as I see these young creatures who had to leave Kyrgyzstan because of unemployment and the absence of opportunities.”
Thousands of people leave Kyrgyzstan each year to find work in Russia and send back remittances. It is a system that spans Central Asia.
And both the Kyrgyz government, which sent an official note of protest to the Kazakh embassy, and ordinary Kyrgyz took umbrage at Mr Mukhamediuly’s comments.
In Bishkek Ulukbek, 20, said the comments had been disrespectful. “As a high-rank official, he should not have talked about our migrants,” he said.
Some others, though, felt that the Kazakh minister had made a good point. “I do not think that he was wrong about us, thousands of my fellow citizens have to work in Russia to earn some money,” said Bolot, 42. “We should blame our government and our president as it is their fault.”
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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)
MAY 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna said it is considering selling off its 10.72% stake in Kazkommertsbank. Kenes Rakishev, a businessman with links to the elite, has increased his stake to 71.2%. He has offered to buy out minority stakeholders.
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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)
ALMATY, MAY 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps betraying the authorities’ nervousness that anti- government demonstrations are gaining momentum, police in Kazakhstan detained hundreds of people ahead of planned protests against land reforms and worsening economic conditions.
The scale of the arrests showed just how much support the protests have gathered.
What started as an isolated demonstration in Atyrau, western Kazakhstan, in mid-April against proposed reforms to the land code, which would have allowed foreigners more rights, has now morphed into more general outpouring of discontent against the government.
In Almaty, police wearing black balaclavas detained people before they could reach a planned demonstration in the central square. In Astana, and other cities across the country, police detained smaller numbers of people.
Anti-government demonstrations are rare in Kazakhstan but ordinary Kazakhs, frustrated with worsening economic conditions brought on by a collapse in oil prices and a recession in Russia, have latched onto the land reform issue as a channel for their discontent. Even a pledge earlier this month by President Nursultan Nazarbayev to defer the land reforms has not quashed the protests.
Rinat, a protester in Astana, explained the protesters’ frustrations. “I do not want a change of power, a revolution or a war,” he told the Bulletin’s correspondent.
“I just want the authorities to hear public opinion, conduct fair elections so that the generation of my children can live without loans and be sure of their future.”
These complaints were echoed across the country. “It is not the issue of nationalism, separatism or about outside influences,” said Sergei, a protester in Atyrau. “It is about distrust in the administration that hasn’t done anything good for the economy for a long period of time.”
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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)
MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The number of employed people in Kazakhstan fell by 5% to 3.4m, the sharpest fall in recent years, signalling just how hard the economic crisis has hit the country. Unemployment data is unreliable in Kazakhstan, as the statistics can be manipulated. The data is more evidence of the impact of the economic downturn on lives of ordinary Kazakhs. Protests have broken out across Kazakhstan over the past few weeks. These started as protests against a land reform and have now morphed into wider protests against the government.
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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)
MAY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Make no mistake, the protests in Kazakhstan are no longer about land reform issues – they are almost entirely focused on ordinary Kazakhs’ frustrations with the elite and their government.
For nearly two years Kazakhs have watched as their economic outlook and livelihoods have worsened. Never mind what President Nursultan Nazarbayev says about Kazakhs never having had it so good. For ordinary Kazakhs it doesn’t feel that way.
The mass arrests last week ahead of planned protests are an indication of just how worried the authorities are over the groundswell of anti-government feelings. Mr Nazarbayev and his advisers look out of touch. They sit in their Ivory Towers while police wearing black balaclavas chase demonstrators around the streets. This doesn’t give the impression of being in control.
This year, the Kazakh authorities have clamped down on the press and forced through a snap election. Despite these heavy-handed tactics, they still don’t look fully in control.
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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)
MAY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Amsterdam-based Nostrum Oil & Gas posted poor results for Q1 2016, but the company’s promising outlook encouraged investors, sending its share up by 1% when the results were published on May 25 before falling on May 26.
The share price has grown steadily since the beginning of April, as the company successfully completed maintenance work the month before.
The management is confident that new agreements and infrastructure would boost the company’s profile “We look forward to completing negotiations to open up the possibility of transporting our crude oil through the KTO pipeline, thereby further reducing our crude oil transport costs,” CEO Kai-Uwe Kessel said in a statement. The KTO pipeline is the network operated by the Kazakh pipeline company KazTransOil.
Mr Kessel also said that the company plans to ramp up production by 2.5 times to 100,000 barrels of oil per day in 2017.
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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)
MAY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — For the past six months, Kazkommertsbank, Kazakhstan’s largest lender, has been hogging the news flow.
Every week, board members have been changed, shares were bought and sold and agreements were signed.
Now it has become clear that by the end of the year, Kenes Rakishev will seize full ownership of the bank. He has already accrued a 71% stake over the past few weeks and has proposed to buying out the remaining minority shareholders.
One of them, importantly, is Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund.
In early 2009, as the fallout of the Global Financial Crisis sank Kazakhstan’s banking sector, Samruk-Kazyna paid around $1b to boost KazKom’s capital and refinance corporate loans. The bailout resulted in Samruk-Kazyna owning a 21% stake in the bank.
Samruk-Kazyna gradually reduced its stake in the second half of 2014 and said it is now ready to sell its remaining 10.72% stake to Mr Rakishev. This will likely be the end of a saga that has seen KazKom take over the beleaguered BTA Bank and drop its founding chairman Nurzhan Subkhanberdin.
Now it’s time for Mr Rakishev, son-in-law of defence minister Imangali Tasmagambetov, to be at the helm and use KazKom for his business interests.
Many, however, believe Mr Rakishev will serve the interest of the highest echelons in Astana.
In essence, this means ownership of the two largest banks in Kazakhstan – KazKom and Halyk Bank – are concentrated in the hands of people close to the top of the Kazakh elite. Mr Rakishev owns KazKom, Timur Kulibayev and his wife, Pres. Nazarbayev’s daughter, own Halyk Bank.
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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)
MAY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hit by sustained low oil prices, Kazakhstan-focused energy company Nostrum Oil & Gas posted a 27% fall in revenues in Q1 2016, compared to the previous year. Importantly, average daily production fell by 15% compared to last year, to 38,754 barrels of oil per day.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)