Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

Business comment: FDI in Kyrgyzstan

SEPT. 9/10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Between January and July this year, Canada increased its flow of Foreign Direct Investment into Kyrgystan by 90 times.

For Canada, read Centerra Gold, the Toronto-listed company that is part-owned by the Kyrgyz government. It owns the Kumtor gold mine in the east of the country, Kyrgyzstan’s main economic driver.

And it seems that this investment and the subsequent 49% increase in gold exports has helped Kyrgyzstan to post GDP data in Jan. – Aug. 2015 that shows growth of 7% from the same period last year. If capital flows are encouraging, however, foreign trade has shrunk significantly. The volume of import-export fell by 15% in the first 7 months of 2015.

In 2015, the fall of the som currency has led to lower purchasing power for Kyrgyzstan, and the government recently announced that Kyrgyzstan will inevitably face inflation for the next few months.

But as long as foreign investors retain their confidence in Kyrgyzstan, the country will be able to defend itself from the growing regional economic crisis.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

28% of Kyrgyz electorate fail to register for vote

SEPT. 8 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — More than a quarter of Kyrgyz citizens eligible to vote in next month’s parliamentary election have not submitted their biometric data to the authorities ahead of a Sept. 19 deadline, the State Registration Service said.

Under new election rules, if people fail to submit their personal biometric data before the deadline their right to vote will be withdrawn, drawing criticism from human rights defenders who have said this is a breach of civil liberties. They also said government agencies were not competent enough to protect the data.

The State Registration Service said it still hadn’t receive data from 1,072,080 people of the 3,777,500 electorate. The data people need to submit includes an electronic signature, photos and fingerprints.

In central Bishkek, a 22-year-old man explained why he had not to submit his data.

“Our people love freedom. I don’t want to be controlled by the state,” he said, without giving his name,

The risk for the government is that if a quarter of the electorate chooses not to register for the Oct. 4 vote, it will fail to deliver a genuine mandate.

Rita Karasartova, head of Institute of Public Analysis, a Kyrgyz NGO, told local media she thought many people were unaware that the deadline to submit biometric data was two weeks ahead of the election itself.

“Citizens will start submitting biometrics at the eve of the elections because they will not be aware of this deadline,” she said, warning this may trigger complaints about voters’

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Kyrgyz president woos Iran

SEPT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Tehran, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev said he wanted Iran to join the Russia and China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Mr Atambayev held meetings with his Iranian counter-part Hassan Rouhani to persuade Iran, which is set to become a major regional partner once Western sanctions are removed, to invest in infrastructure projects in Kyrgyzstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Centerra Gold pays tax to Kyrgyz government

SEPT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Toronto-listed Centerra Gold, owner of the Kumtor gold mine in east Kyrgyzstan, has paid 4.3 trillion som (around $65m) in taxes to the Kyrgyz government in the first 8 months of 2015, the ministry of finance said. In 2014, Centerra accounted for 7.4% of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Markets: Central Bank reserves in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan

SEPT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps the most important feature of news and data from the region’s money markets this week was details about the various Central Banks’ gold and currency reserves.

Kazakhstan’s Central Bank said it had increased its reserves in August to $29.1b. Kazakhstan has amassed reserves over the past 3 months after spending around $400m in April to contain the effects of the regional financial crisis.

In Kyrgyzstan, the Central Bank’s reserves hit $2b, according to the Central Bank, back up to the levels of August 2014.

In Baku it was another story. The Central Bank has been spending ferociously since it devalued its manat currency by a third in February. According to the state-linked Trend news agency, the Azerbaijani Central Bank spent 14% of its foreign currency reserves in August. In the last year, Azerbaijan has spent half its foreign currency reserves trying to defend the manat.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Gazprom to invest in Kyrgyzstan

AUG. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, will invest $700m in Kyrgyzstan’s gas infrastructure network, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev told media. Gazprom owns Kyrgyzstan’s gas network and has been promising investment, although it has yet to deliver on these promises.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Currencies: Kyrgyz som falls to lowest level in a decade

SEPT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz som lost 5.4% of its value on Sept. 1 falling to 66 som to $1, the biggest fall by any currency in Central Asia and the South Caucasus over the past week and the lowest value for the som against the US dollar for at least a decade.

This was also the som’s biggest one-day loss since March 2014. The Kyrgyz government, like the rest of Central Asia, has been battling to defend its currency against a sharp fall in the value of the Russian rouble, still the main driver of regional economic growth.

It’s unclear what pressured the Kyrgyz som to fall so severely but a few days earlier the head of the Central Bank Tolkunbek Abdygulov had said that the currency had dropped by 10.3% in 2015 despite the the government spending nearly $180m to protect its value.

“The National Bank will have enough reserves to avoid sharp fluctuations in the exchange rate of the som. Now the situation on the market is stable. There are no reasons for anxiety and panic,” media quoted Mr Abdygulov as saying on Aug. 25.

His statement and the subsequent fall in the value of the som suggest that the Kyrgyz Central Bank may be struggling to maintain its value.

Across the border in Kazakhstan, the Kazakh tenge has been stable at a level of 242/$1 during the past week, down from the a high of 252/$1 in August. The Kazakh Central Bank’s decision to adopt a new benchmark interest rate policy on Sept. 2, did not appear to have a significant impact on the exchange rate.

Elsewhere in Central Asia, the Tajik somoni and the Uzbek sum remained substantially unchanged. Currencies in the South Caucasus kept their against the US dollar throughout the week, fluctuating by just 1%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Gazprom wants 60% of Kyrgyz households to have gas

SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting in Bishkek, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev the Russian gas monopoly wanted 60% of the country to have access to gas.

Gazprom bought the Kyrgyz gas network in 2013 but this is its first major plan for Kyrgyzstan’s pipeline system. Mr Miller said the plan would cost $700m and mean building 2,500km of new gas pipes.

“We are working ahead of our schedule with the government to get Kyrgyzstan ready for the winter,” Mr Miller said at the press conference. He also noted that construction work on the final section of the Tashkent Bishkek-Almaty gas pipeline had started.

The Tashkent–Bishkek-Almaty gas pipeline is touted as a key component of Central Asia’s energy nexus as it will double capacity being sent from Uzbekistan to populated areas in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Kyrgyzstan begins campaigning

SEPT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s parliament cancelled plenary sessions until after an election which is set for Oct. 4. Cancelling plenary sessions effectively marks the start of campaigning for the parliamentary election.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Kyrgyz imports fall

AUG. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The value of imports into Kyrgyzstan fell by nearly 17% in the first half of the year, media reported by quoting official statistics. The data, while not giving specifics, still highlighted the economic slowdown in the region. Kyrgyzstan, like the other Central Asian countries, has been dealing with dropping remittances from Russia and a sharp fall in the value of its currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)