OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan established a new state company for processing and export- ing cotton, one of its most important commodities. The main mission of Uzpakhtasanoatexport is to integrate the cotton sector.
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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)
OCT. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish telecoms company Telia- Sonera said 2015 profit will be lower than expected due to price competition in Kazakhstan and that it is also struggling to sell its assets in Uzbekistan.
The profit warning will play badly for TeliaSonera which said last month that it wanted to sell its subsidiaries in Eurasia, of which Kcell and Ucell are the biggest.
In Jan.-Sept. 2015, Kcell’s profits fell 13% compared to the same period last year, a drop that Johan Dennelind, TeliaSonera’s CEO, blamed on competition and the government’s decision to let the tenge float free against the US dollar in August.
But Kazakhstan is not TeliaSon- era’s only problem in Central Asia. Marred by corruption allegations, TeliaSonera’s operations in
Uzbekistan have become a dead- weight, dragging the sale of the company’s assets.
“Selling Uzbekistan isn’t an easy task,” Mr Dennelind was quoted as saying in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
US and Dutch prosecutors are investigating whether TeliaSonera paid bribes to secure mobile licences in Uzbekistan in 2007 and 2008.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uz-Kor Gas, a joint venture between South Korean and Uzbek companies, has finished building a $3.9b natural gas processing plant in Uzbekistan, a project that will improve commercial and diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Located in the Karakalpakstan region of north-western Uzbekistan, the Ustyurt Gas Chemical Complex will become the biggest petrochemical complex in Europe and Asia. Ustyurt includes a new gas field and a petrochemical plant. Its production will be mostly earmarked for the export market.
Companies from South Korea and Uzbekistan have been working on the project since 2006 through a joint- venture that includes Lotte Chemical, part of the Lotte Group, state-owned Korea Gas and Uzbekistan’s energy company Uzbekneftegaz.
Huh Soo-young, CEO of Lotte Chemical, said production would begin in 2016.
“From extracting liquefied natural gas in the upstream, to cracking and processing LNG into petrochemical products in the downstream, we have successfully built up a vertical integration system,” Mr Huh told the Korea Herald.
The plant will receive around 3.6mn tonnes of liquefied natural gas each year from a field in Surgil, around 100km away from the complex.
Lotte Chemical has predicted it will earn around 1tn won ($890mn) each year from the new project. Mr Huh said the complex would only be profitable as long as energy prices stay at current levels.
“As long as crude oil prices remain above $40, our petrochemical products based on low-cost ethane will remain competitive in the global market,” he said.
Uzbekistan and South Korea have been improving their commercial ties. In May, Uzbek president Islam Karimov used his visit foreign trip after winning re-election to travel to South Korea to close deals worth $7.7b.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Germany will close its base in Termez, south Uzbekistan, later this year, marking the final withdrawal of Western military forces from Central Asia, media reported quoting official sources.
With operations in neighbouring Afghanistan winding down, it had only ever been a matter of time before the German base at Termez was closed, although the announcement did come just nine months after Germany said it wanted to extend the lifespan of the base.
The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted German military spokesman Dominik Wullers: “Termez right now is just a backup. We are not effectively using it right now, that’s the reason why we are closing it. Some [personnel] will be transferred to Mazar-e Sharif in Afghanistan where we have our base, while others will relocate to Germany.”
The US closed its airbase at Manas outside Bishkek last year and the French military has wound down operations in Dushanbe.
Some Uzbek analysts, though, said the withdrawal of Germany may be linked with Uzbekistan’s demand for a higher fee to rent the base. The Uzbek government had said the rental fee would double to 70m euro in 2016. In 2005, Germany had been paying Uzbekistan only 12.5 euro.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A former colonel in the Uzbek security services stole 32 pieces of art from the state museum in Tashkent, media reported. Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, has previously accused members of the security services of stealing artwork. She has been under house arrest since March last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan and China inaugurated a cargo train service between Binzhou, east China, and Tashkent, an initiative aimed at boosting trade between the two countries. The 5,630km railway also passes through Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uz-Kor Gas, a joint venture between South Korean and Uzbek companies, has completed a $3.9b natural gas processing plant.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian telecoms company VimpelCom said it is selling 50,000 phone towers across the former Soviet Union for $5b. VimpelCom, headquartered in the Netherlands, hired several banks to broker the deal. Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are among the countries involved in the deal.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Telenor, a Norwegian telecoms firm, said it is ready to sell its stake in Vimpelcom, a Russian company that also operates in Central Asia under the Beeline brand (Oct. 5). Vimpelcom is under investigation in the US and in the Netherlands for allegedly paying a bribe to enter the Uzbek market.
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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 7/8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov paid an official visit to Uzbekistan where he discussed security and water scarcity issues with Uzbek President Islam Karimov. An increase in fighting in Afghanistan has become a major concern for the two leaders.
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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)