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The Regions This Week
September 29, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eurasia
Tehran's prosecutor filed criminal charges against the "management" of encrypted messaging app Telegram, referring to child pornography and extremist content allegations. Russian internet entrepreneur Pavel Durov, who founded the service said to have 40mn users in Iran, denied the claims, saying the "real reasons [for the charges] are different".
Iran is planning to build an oil refinery near Homs in Syria once the conflict is definitively over. The Iranians are capitalising on the economic dividends of the gratitude felt by the Damascus regime for military backing. Electricity grid, power plant reconstruction, major telecommunication and mining contracts in Syria have already been handed to Iranian entities including affiliates of the Revolutionary Guards.
French state investment bank Banque publique d'investissement (BPI France) is to from 2018 provide €500mn in finance to French companies investing in the Iranian economy. Denmark’s Danske Bank has also agreed €500mn of financing for investments in Iran, while Austria’s Oberbank signed its anticipated finance deal valued at over €1bn with 14 Iranian private banks. Meanwhile, Denmark’s export guarantee fund Danmarks Eksportkredit (EKF) agreed to support Danish export firms in the event that fresh US sanctions hinder payments from Iran.
The longrunning economic blockading of Qatar by several fellow Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states is pushing the country closer to Iran economically, Qatari foreign minister Abdulrahman al-Thani said. Qatar has been forced to turn to friendly nations Iran and Turkey for consumer goods imports, as well as the use of shipping lanes and airspace.
Tehran’s city government is struggling with
a debt load of IRR300tn ($7.6bn), the capital’s new mayor revealed. Former Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf spent a fortune on new underground
metro lines and highways. The outstanding debt is 1.7 times more than the municipality’s 2017-18 budget. Private sector finance may be sought for further spending needs.
Iran jumped seven places for economic competi- tiveness in the 2017-18 edition of the World Eco- nomic Forum’s (WEF’s) Global Competitiveness Report ranking, meaning it ranks 69th of 137 surveyed countries. Kazakhstan slid four positions to 57th place, Tajikistan fell two places to 79th and Kyrgyzstan moved up nine positions to 102nd. In the South Caucasus, Azerbaijan and Armenia climbed two and six places in the ranking to 35th and 73rd, respectively, while Georgia lost eight positions to place 67th. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were not assessed.
Kazakhstan is facing its first complaint at the WTO. Ukraine has launched a complaint against Kazakhstan’s use of anti-dumping duties on certain types of imported Ukrainian steel pipes.
Air Astana said regular air traffic might come to a halt in Kazakhstan due to falling aviation kero- sene supplies from Russia as well as the upcom- ing suspension of activity at Shymkent oil refinery. Main fuel suppliers Gazprom Neft, Rosneft, Lukoil and Tatneft had not confirmed fuel exports to Ka- zakhstan due to high Russian market demand.
The Russia-led Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) became the largest investor in the primary issuance of 10-year international bonds of Kazakh state-run gas transit company KazTransGas valued at $750mn.
The Kazakh tenge may strengthen thanks to growing energy prices, Kazakh central bank chairman Daniyar Akishev said. The currency hit a 10-month-low against the greenback on September 21, with the regulator attributing the tenge’s weakness to speculative trading, and insisting its interventions are aimed only at smoothing out rate volatility.