JULY 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekneftegaz, the Uzbek state energy company, has completed the first phase of an upgrade of the Mubarek Gas Processing Plant near Bukhara for $170m, Uzbekistan’s economy ministry said. Upgrading the 1971 gas processing plant is part of a wider investment project to modernise Uzbekistan’s infrastructure.
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(News report from Issue No. 145, published on July 29 2013)
JULY 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting in Tashkent, Uzbek President Islam Karimov and China’s foreign minister Wang Yi pledged to boost cooperation between the two countries. China has been steadily increasing its economic and diplomatic interests in Uzbekistan. Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to visit Uzbekistan in September.
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(News report from Issue No. 144, published on July 22 2013)
JULY 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Japan Oil, Gas and Metal National Corp. (JOGMEC), a state-run company, has signed a deal with Uzbekistan to search for uranium deposits, media reported. The deal underlines Central Asia’s appeal to energy hungry countries in Asia. JOGMEC will search for uranium in the Navoi region, central Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, quit her role as Uzbekistan’s envoy to the UN in Geneva. Ms Karimova, who has been at the centre of business bribery allegations, said she wanted to concentrate on Uzbekistan, triggering speculation over her succession ambitions.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek and Chinese companies signed deals worth $100m at an investment forum, media reported quoting Uzbekistan’s ministry of foreign economic relations. Among these was a deal between Uzbeklegprom, an Uzbek state-run company, and Chinese textile companies. The deals show China’s increasing reach in Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)
JUNE 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — For Western companies, Uzbekistan’s image as a place to do business is at a low ebb. The rule of law in Uzbekistan is considered weak and corruption widespread. India and China, though, have been celebrating some recent successes.
China has been grabbing headlines with large-scale initiatives often thrashed out at government level but Indian companies have also, often more quietly, been making headway.
One of the more eye-catching announcements was that a joint-venture between OliveTelecom, an Indian mobile technology manufacturer, and UzTelecom had started production of its Android tablet near the city of Navoi in central Uzbekistan.
A factory in one of the Uzbek government’s economic free zones, a low tax area for foreign investors, is making the OlivePadV-T300 Tablet PC. The tablet will be sold within Uzbekistan only and retail at 350,000 som (roughly $160).
Production of the OliveTelecom tablet shows that foreign investors can, potentially, operate in Uzbekistan and also that the Uzbek labour market is capable of producing hi-tech gadgets.
Neighbouring Kazakhstan has long said it wants to diversify its economic base away from heavy industry and the energy sector. It can now look to Uzbekistan for advice.
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(News report from Issue No. 140, published on June 24 2013)
JUNE 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting in Tashkent, Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev called for the UN to investigate the potential environmental impact of proposed dams in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Water is a sensitive subject in Central Asia and can aggravate inter-country relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)
JUNE 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch (HRW) said three Uzbek men Kyrgyzstan wanted extradited from Russia may be tortured if they are handed over to the Kyrgyz authorities. The Kyrgyz authorities want to question the men over their roles in ethnic fighting in the south of the country in June 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)
JUNE 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In another sign of Uzbekistan’s growing acceptance by the West, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a British government minister, visited Tashkent for talks. The West had previously shunned Uzbekistan for human rights abuses but they have now smoothed over relations as they need help Uzbek support to withdraw military equipment from Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)
JUNE 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The figures in the BP Statistical Review of World Energy can be dry but the stories behind the figures are important.
The 2013 edition is an important barometer for the energy-centric economies in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. The most telling figure for the region in this year’s edition of the review was that oil consumption in Kazakhstan grew by over 10% in 2012.
This is a large jump. In the countries covered in the review only Israel’s oil consumption increased at a higher rate. The global rise in oil consumption in 2012 was 0.9%.
The increase reflects Kazakhstan’s emergence from a sharp economic retraction triggered by the global crisis of 2008/9 when oil consumption fell.
Last year Kazakhstan, with a population of 17m, consumed 265,000 barrels of oil per day. By comparison, Uzbekistan, population 29.5m, consumed 82,000 barrels/day and Turkmenistan, population 5m, consumed 100,000 barrels/day.
Across the Caspian Sea, BP reported that Azerbaijan, population 9.3m, consumed 93,000 barrels of oil per day, a jump of 5.4%. This rise in Azerbaijan’s oil consumption, although not as big as Kazakhstan’s leap, still shows an increase in economic activity.
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(News report from Issue No. 139, published on June 17 2013)