Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Problems mount in Kyrgyz farming

JUNE 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz agriculture accounts for around a fifth of GDP and just under half the country’s employment according to the country’s National Statistics Committee, yet many farmers say the sector is on its knees.

As Kyrgyzstan prepares for entry into the Eurasian Economic Union comprising Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, discussions over farming’s future are only likely to intensify.

On June 12, Alibek Rakaev, Head of the Association of Pastoralists told journalists that meat production in the country was falling due to the prevalence of diseases that village vets have proven unable to diagnose or treat. Livestock farming was in a “critical condition”, he said.

Back in Soviet times Kyrgyzstan’s meat and dairy products were exported all over the Union, but neighbouring Kazakhstan now views Kyrgyzstan’s products with caution and has banned import of Kyrgyz milk and meat in the past. The Eurasian Economic Union has even tighter controls.

Poultry farmers might welcome membership, with high tariffs on non-Union imports potentially restricting the flow of Chinese chicken and eggs onto the domestic market, but for Kyrgyzstan’s crop-growers, Jomart Jumabekov, a member of the Public Advisory Board on the Ministry of Agriculture, said, closer integration with Russia and Kyrgyzstan means problems.

“I view the Customs Union negatively. Russian and Kazakh wheat and grains already dominate our market,” Mr Jumabekov told the Conway Bulletin. “With even fewer barriers to trade with these countries, we will stop growing even a small proportion of our own food. No-one will till the land.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Workers strike in west Kazakhstan

JUNE 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Workers at an oil services company that supplies equipment to the Kashagan oil project in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea have gone on strike, media reported.

Since a strike by oil workers in west Kazakhstan ended in 2011 in clashes with police and 15 people being killed, the authorities have been ultra-sensitive to industrial action, so news that workers have walked out of Tuplar Energy Serves Company (TESCO) complaining of late salary payments will frustrate them.

TESCO have responded that their main client, the Australian company WorleyParsons hasn’t paid their invoices on time. WorleyParsons hasn’t commented.

The importance of this latest strike action in west Kazakhstan is not who is ultimately responsibly, no doubt lawyers will thrash this out, but the impact on the local community. If people aren’t working and aren’t being paid that means less cash in the local economy, increasing frustration and resentment of the increasingly rich political elite.

One disgruntled worker told the lada.kz news website: “I came here to work and establish a family, now I can’t find another job, the company hasn’t paid me for six months and the banks are pressuring me about my mortgage.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Bread price rises in Kazakh city

JUNE 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The price of a loaf of bread has increased in Pavlodar, north Kazakhstan, to 60 tenge from 47 tenge, media reported. The price rise is just the latest in Kazakhstan. Creeping inflation, triggered by supply line problems and utility price rises, threaten to cause social tension.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Doctors’ salaries to rise in Kazakhstan

JUNE 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Doctors and nurses will receive a 28% salary rise next year, media quoted health minister Salidat Kairbekova as saying. Medical workers have long complained that they are underpaid, especially since a 20% devaluation of the tenge this year. Nurses in Kazakhstan are currently paid $436/month; doctors $620/month.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)

Kazakh President supports ENI

JUNE 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan and Italy demonstrated their strong links by agreeing a series of deals at a meeting between Italian PM Matteo Renzi and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the Borovoye resort outside Astana.

Despite criticism of its handling of the Kashagan oil field development in the Caspian Sea, Italian energy company ENI was the main beneficiary of the deals.

Kashagan was supposed to be pumping out oil and projecting Kazakhstan into the top ranks of global oil producers. Instead, it lies idle while repairs are made.

Alongside Kazakh energy company KazMunaiGaz, ENI will explore a new site in the Caspian Sea. It will also team up with Italian engineer Finmeccanica to build a new shipyard at Kuryk on the Caspian Sea coast. Italian truck maker Iveco also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kazakh ministry of transport.

Domenico Sermesi, a partner at Almaty-based Adala Consulting, said the deals were good news.

“After the hiccups of last summer, this agreement, together with the document on the military corridor, is a sign of a renewed partnership,” he said.

Reference to a military corridor is to NATO forces withdrawing from Afghanistan through Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan and Italy certainly have a close relationship and Mr Nazarbayev emphasised this when he said that he was “confident that ENI’s activities in Kazakhstan will continue to be successful”.

Of course there will be strings attached to this backing. Kazakhstan will expect support for its application to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and also to win a seat at the UN Security Council in 2017/18.

Regardless, the Italian stock market liked Mr Renzi’s visit to Kazakhstan. ENI’s shares rose 1.66% afterwards in an otherwise flat market.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)

Potato prices rise in Kazakhstan

JUNE 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The price of potatoes in Kazakhstan has roughly doubled because of a shortage, media reported.This is important because food price spikes can generate discontent. Earlier this month, bread price increased in south Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)

Kazakhstan approved Russian oil transit to China

JUNE 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s lower house of parliament ratified a deal that will increase the amount of Russian oil pumped through Kazakh pipelines to China to 10m tonnes per year from 7m tonnes per year. The deal highlights Kazakhstan’s role as a oil transporter, and not just a producer, to China.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)

Kazakhstan drops visa requirements

JUNE 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a year-long pilot project starting on July 15, Kazakhstan will drop visa requirements for citizens staying for up to 15 days from 10 countries, media reported. These countries are the United States, the Netherlands, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, and Japan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)

Kazakhstan drops tax on FDI

JUNE 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan will waive corporation and land tax for 10 years for foreign investors outside its energy industry, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said.The initiative is part of a drive to try and attract investors back to Kazakhstan. Rampant corruption and a flatlining economy have deterred some investors.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)

S&P cuts Kazakhstan outlook

JUNE 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s reduced Kazakhstan’s outlook to negative from stable, hitting the country’s reputation as a target for foreign investment.

Slower economic growth estimates and the limited impact of monetary policy have dented Kazakhstan’s reputation and Standard & Poor’s said it could cut its BBB+ rating within the next two years. BBB+ is Standard & Poor’s third lowest investment grade rating.

Kazakhstan cut the value of its tenge currency in February by 20% and Standard & Poor’s said that if the Central Bank was forced to intervene again it would almost certainly cut the rating.

Since February sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine have hit the entire former Soviet region, cutting economic growth rates.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)