Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazakh C. Bank aims to hire foreign managers

OCT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Central Bank aims to hire foreign managers to oversee spending of the foreign currency- denominated element of its pension fund, worth around $5b. The hiring process could kick-start next year, according to one source at the Central Bank. Foreign currency-denominated assets make up around 21% of the $20b pension fund. The Central Bank aims to increase the share to 23% this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Comment: An unexpected PR boost for Kazakhstan’s prisons, writes Kilner

NOV. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s not often that Kazakhstan gets praised for its prison system. Not very often at all.

And there is a reason for this. There have been improvements over the last few years but the overwhelming majority of its prisons are based on crumbling Soviet-era infrastructure accompanied by an uncompromising Soviet-era mindset. There is no Norwegian cuddliness here.

These are mainly cold, uncomfortable and dangerous places. Stories from Kazakh prisons are hooked on riots, Islamic extremism recruitment, hunger strikes and deaths — both suicides and apparent suicides.

It’s the same story across the rest of Central Asia. Human rights groups and the media criticise governments for not investing enough time or money into their prison systems and the governments get defensive.

Except in last week’s Financial Times, when Kazakhstan scored what must have been a wonderful piece of prison PR.

On a week-long trip to Kazakhstan, FT editor Lionel Barber wrote in a diary-style entry that he had been inspired by Jonathan Aitken, a British Conservative politician who went to jail for perjury, to look around a Kazakh prison. Aitken had written glowingly about them in a book he’d been paid to write by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Barber was also impressed.

“It is unlikely to be wholly representative, compared with the former Soviet gulags in Kazakhstan. But its rooms are spotless; there are curtains and large glass window panes without bars, all of which would be seen as suicide risks elsewhere,” he said of prison 66/10 outside Astana which he was shown around.

Prison 66/10 is one of Kazakhstan’s new showcase prison and he knows it, but he also dangerously underplays the awfulness of most of the Kazakh prison system. Since 2011, when prisoners rioted and sliced open their stomachs in protest at the poor conditions, Kazakhstan has improved its prison system but perspective is needed.

Roger Boyes, a columnist at the London Times newspaper, picked up this theme. He said high-profile former politicians and visitors, such as Aitken and Tony Blair and Barber, were being used to whitewash Kazakhstan.

“He should have asked to see the basement,” Boyes wrote of Barber’s comments on Kazakh prison 66/10. “That’s where the truths are buried.”

By James Kilner, Editor, The Conway Bulletin

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Kazakhs look for public sector jobs as business cuts staff to see off econ downturn

ALMATY, OCT. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Official statistics showed that there are now more people working in Kazakhstan’s state sector than in private business, a reflection of how the economic downturn has cut into the job market.

The State Statistics Committee said that 51% of the total labour force in Kazakhstan now worked in the public sector, up from 46% in 2014 and 47% in 2015.

The jump in the proportion of the labour force working in the public sector, though, is only partially driven by an rise in state sector jobs.

The main driver has been a cut in the number of jobs in private enterprise.

Accurate data on these job losses is patchy but anecdotally there are many stories of cuts.

Madina Kuan quit her job at a media firm to look for a better one.

“I thought it would be easy to find a new one but I’ve now been jobless for six months,” she said. “My brother, as well, works in the oil sector in west of Kazakhstan and his company doesn’t have a job for him. They did not fire him though but instead just asked him to wait until things improve.”

A sharp fall in oil prices and a recession in Russia triggered a collapse in Kazakhstan’s currency. Despite fighting talk from the government, inflation has grown and businesses have been cutting staff.

The finprom.kz website has reported that the number of people employed by Kazakh private businesses has shrunk but that the public sector has increased the number of hires.

Kuralay Orazgeldy, who used to work in Almaty’s department of budget planning said people were attracted to public sector jobs because of the stability.

“Turnover is very high, staff changes often,” she said. “The salary is stable, everything is paid on time and often workers are rewarded but I can’t say that salary equals to the volume of work.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Tethys deal with Kazakhstan’s Oilsol collapses

ALMATY, OCT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Guernsey-based oil company Tethys Petroleum said Kazakhstan-based investment group Olisol had failed to pay a final 9.8m Canadian dollars ($7.3m) instalment that it had promised in return for a stake in the company.

Olisol had been viewed as saviour by Tethys, which had been short of cash because of the collapse in oil prices since 2014 which has destroyed profits at energy companies, but failing to pay up on time effectively crushes the deal.

In a harsh statement, Tethys complained that despite its readiness to move forward, Olisol missed the payment deadline, jeopardising the deal.

“Olisol failed to provide Tethys with any of the C$9.8 million purchase price required to purchase the subscription shares under the Investment Agreement,” the company said, referring to the agreement the parties had signed in December 2015 and updated in April.

“Therefore, Tethys considers Olisol to be in breach of the Investment Agreement and reserves all of its legal rights.”

Tethys also said that Olisol also claimed to be entitled to a full refund of the $5.7m it had already invested in the company, because of mutated conditions.

Olisol could not be reached for a comment.

After a takeover offer from London-listed Nostrum Oil & Gas fell through in the summer of 2015, Tethys had placed all its hopes on Olisol, and its mystery backers, to inject enough money to settle its debts.

The battle for survival in Kazakhstan has become increasingly tough for Tethys, which is also involved in legal battles with its partners in Tajikistan, its other main focus in Central Asia.

Days before it announced that its deal with Olisol had fallen through, Tethys said that it had received a notice from Eurasia Gas Group, a local company which had worked with a Tethys subsidiary in Kazakhstan since 2012. Eurasia Gas said that it was suing Tethys Aral Gas for $2.6m for failing to deliver oil supplies.

This is part of a bigger row. Last month, Tethys Aral Gas had threatened to sue Eurasia Gas for $1.3m in unpaid oil supplies.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Kazakhstan receives loan from EBD

NOV. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakhstan/Russia-led Eurasian Development Bank sent a 7.7b tenge ($23m) loan to KazTransGas- Aimak, the largest gas distributor in Kazakhstan, to upgrade the network in the northern Aktobe region. One of the key objectives of the overhaul is to expand the network to isolated villages that are cut off from the grid.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Stock market: Roxi Petroleum

NOV. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a mild slide since mid-August, Roxi Petroleum’s stock price received a bump after the company published encouraging results for its new oil wells on Oct. 28.

The London-based company, which operates the BNG Contract Area in western Kazakhstan near Tengiz, said it has almost completed the initial drilling operations at its new Deep Well 6.

The news, technical in nature, was accompanied by a high volume of trading on the stock market, sending Roxi to 10.5p, a 9% jump on the day of the announcement.

The company now needs to assess the commercial feasibility of the field at different depths. Clive Carver, the company’s chairman, said that the preliminary results at Deep Well 6 were even more encouraging than Roxi’s previously drilled deep wells.

A trio of high-ranking Kazakhs owns Roxi.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Kazakhstan’s Air Astana expands

NOV. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s flagship carrier Air Astana said it plans to buy 13 new aircrafts due to growing demand. Air Astana will make an offer to buy 11 Airbus and two Boeing planes over the next four years. British BAE Systems owns 49% of Air Astana, while Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna owns the rest.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Inflation rises in Kazakhstan

NOV. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Statistics Committee said inflation had risen by 0.6% in October, pushing up prices that had stabilised in previous months. Since the beginning of the year, prices have risen an average of 6.2%. The Central Bank has said that it wants to contain inflation between 6% and 8%. Last year, inflation in Kazakhstan reached double digits.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Netanyahu visits Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan

OCT. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan over the next three months, the Israeli government said. Mr Netanyahu has visited Azerbaijan previously during a term as PM in 1997. No Israeli PM has ever visited Kazakhstan. Both Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are Israel’s biggest oil suppliers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

EBD sends loan to Kazakh telecom

OCT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakhstan/Russia-led Eurasian Development Bank sent a 4b tenge ($12m) loan to Transtelecom, Kazakhstan’s telecoms network, to improve infrastructure ahead of the upcoming EXPO2017 event in Astana. Earlier in October, Nurali Aliyev, grandson of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, said he had bought 49% of Transtelecom in 2015. State-owned railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy owns a 51% stake in Transtelecom.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)