DEC. 21 2014, (The Conway Bulletin) — Nurali Aliyev, the 30-year-old grandson of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, became deputy mayor of Astana. The move sparked both allegations of nepotism and speculation that Mr Nazarbayev may be grooming Mr Aliyev, son of his eldest daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva as a successor.
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(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)
DEC. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The consortium developing the Karachaganak oil and gas site (KPO) in west Kazakhstan denied that a gas leak at its plant poisoned 20 children and three teachers at a school in a nearby village.
Ambulances rushed the children and teachers to hospital after they suddenly fainted on Nov. 28.
KPO made the statement after Kazakh media widely quoted the Prosecutor-General for Kazakhstan’s western region, Serik Karamanov, saying that there had been a brief gas leak the day before the mass fainting at the Karachaganak site only a few kilometres away from the village.
The KPO statement said: “A mobile environmental monitoring station has also been despatched to Berezovka village and has reported no exceedances above the official Maximum Permissible Concentration limits.”
Whether the Kazakh authorities agree, remains to be seen.
Mr Karamanov was clear about what he thought may have been the cause of the poisoning.
“It has been established that at 14:19 on November 27 at the gas-processing complex of KPO, there occurred a discharge of condensate for a period of two minutes,” he said according to local media reports.
The incident is a reminder of the tension at local levels between the foreign-led projects in the energy sector and local communities who accuse them of not doing enough to protect their environment.
Karachaganak is important to Kazakhstan. It is considered one of the country’s most successful projects, and produces around 40% of Kazakhstan’s gas and 13% of its oil. Britain’s BG Group and Italy’s ENI own a 29.5% stake each, Chevron owns 18%, Russia’s Lukoil owns 13.5% and the Kazakh state oil and gas company, KazMunaiGas owns 10%.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The IMF cut Kazakhstan’s growth rate for 2014 to 4.3% from 4.6% because of a slump in oil prices and the downturn in Russia’s sanction-hit economy. It also said Kazakhstan needed to cut more of its non-performing loans (NPLs) from its banking sector. Kazakhstan has one of the highest proportions of NPLs in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alongside Armenia, Kyrgyzstan will finally join the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union in 2015 despite few analysts deeming it ready or suited to full membership.
Bishkek will sign accession documents on Dec. 23, although it could be May before it adopts the protectionist taxes slapped on goods from outside the union, Kyrgyz PM Djoomart Otorbayev told journalists.
Eurasian Economic Union officials have even said they will allow Chinese goods “for domestic consumption” to enter Kyrgyzstan according to pre-existing Kyrgyz tariffs for an unspecified period of time, a concession that suggests other members view Kyrgyzstan’s membership as symbolic.
Kyrgyzstan first agreed in 2010 to enter a trade bloc with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan — the current members of the Customs Union which will morph into the Eurasian Economic Union next year — so it has been a long wait.
But Kyrgyzstan has an economy a tenth the size of Belarus’, an unresolved row over ownership of the Kumtor gold mine, its single largest industrial unit, and worries about rising inflation. This makes it a potential weak link.
Arkady Gladilov, editor of local analytical website polit.kg noted that Kyrgyzstan has had three prime ministers in the time it has been committed to joining the bloc. He said the government may have been dragging its feet over Eurasian Economic Union accession.
“Russia is facing a difficult time with sanctions, and Kyrgyzstan’s own picture is far from rosy. If I were them, I would probably do the same in their position,” he told the Conway Bulletin.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a reminder of the Kazakh car-making boom over the past few years, French manufacturer Citroen- Peugeot said it had entered into a joint-venture to produce its models at the SaryarkaAvtoProm plant in Kostanay in north Kazakhstan. Many Western car-makers are already producing cars in Kostanay.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhs are becoming more comfortable paying for products on their credit and debit cards, the research website ranking.kz said. It said that for the year to the end of October transactions using either credit or debit cards had risen by 22%. This increase should aid consumer spending.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government plans to start regulating fuel against prices in neighbouring Russia, media reported. Kazakhstan imports a third of its fuel from Russia and has blamed price disparities and the downturn in the Russian economy for shortages.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The presidents of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Iran formally opened a railway line that will connect the three countries. At the event in Ashgabat, the leaders said that the railway line would increase trade between Central Asia and Iran and help ignite a new north-south Silk Road.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a press conference in Astana with visiting French president Francois Hollande, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev called on the West to relax sanctions against Russia imposed for its alleged support of rebel forces in the east of the country. The sanctions on Russia have had a knock-on effect on Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan unveiled a project to build a six-lane 66km ring-road around Almaty which they hope will both ease congestion in the city and provide a new financing model for major infrastructure projects.
The FT reported that the number of cars in Almaty has exploded by 50% in the last five years. Anybody walking around its choked-up streets at rush hour will be able to taste the exhaust fumes in the air.
With support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Kazakhstan has launched a plan to raise $680m in what has been dubbed its first internationally-tendered public-private partnership scheme.
Importantly, as the EBRD’s infrastructure chief, Thomas Meier, said the project is a test of Kazakhstan’s attractiveness and in particular law changes made this year. Most important of these was that any disputes concerning infrastructure developments would be settled by international arbitration.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)