Page 11 - bne_newspaper_July-07_2017

The Regions This Week
July 7, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 11
Eurasia
Volkswagen will again sell its vehicles in Iran
after a 17-year market absence. Analysts say exporting to Iran, a country with a population of 80mn people, should help the German giant trim reliance on volatile overseas markets such as China and Brazil.
Two Azerbaijani citizens were killed and a third injured in southern Nagorno-Karabakh in shell- ing by Armenian forces on July 4. The escalation in border violence comes amidst fears that the decade-long conflict over the region is close to turning into an outright war again.
Iran's non-oil exports to the European Union leapt fivefold to €3.4bn in the first four months of 2017. Industrial goods such as hot-rolled non-al- loy iron, steel, condensate, light oils, and metha- nol were the top Iranian exports to Europe.
Georgia's economic growth accelerated from 2.1% y/y in April to 5.3% in May. The small and trade-reliant economy has seen a slowdown
in recent years, following the similar trend ex- perienced by its main trade partners – Turkey, Azerbaijan and, to a smaller extent, Armenia and Russia.
The US state department slammed forced labour in four ex-Soviet countries in the latest Traffick- ing in Persons Report. Forced labour has been identified as a major problem in Russia, Belarus, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The Privatisation Organisation of Iran an- nounced tenders for stakes in four state-owned firms: a 95% stake in East Alborz Mining Com- pany; 33.5% in Iran Helicopter Company; 95%
in oil industry equipment producer Mashin Sazi Lorestan; and 37.1% in INDRO LANDRA Industrial Group, a JV with Italy’s LANDRA automotive engi- neering group.
Kazakhstan has completed 50% of its privatisation programme according to Prime
Minister Bakytzhan Sagyntayev. It has sold 221 companies and has been preparing larger firms for IPOs.
Tajik police killed four relatives of US-trained ex-police force commander Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov in a raid on a house near the Afghan- Tajik border. The US has offered up to $3mn for information about Khalimov, who specialised
in US counter-terrorism before joining Islamic State two years ago.
Kazakhstan's oil output grew 7.8% y/y to 29.8mn tonnes in January-May. Gas condensate output jumped by 18.9% y/y reaching 5.6mn tonnes in the five-month period.
Ratings agency Fitch forecasts the Armenian economy will grow 3.4% in 2017. This forecast came a day after Fitch reaffirmed the country's long-term foreign- and local-currency issuer default rating at 'B+' with a stable outlook, saying the economy continues to adjust to the external shocks of 2014-2015.
Kyrgyzstan is to construct a 500kW power transmission line for the CASA-1000 project with a 450km-long power transmission line starting in January 2018. The aim is to build 1,200 kilometres of transmission lines to create a four-country electricity transfer system.
The Armenian justice ministry will recognise foreign marriage certificates regardless of the gender of the signatories. In practice, this translates to Armenia recognising gay marriages performed abroad.
Transparency International claims there were
widespread abuses in Armenia’s parliamentary election. The watchdog reported "large-scale abuse of administrative resources and other campaign-related electoral violations” in the April poll.