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The Regions This Week
December 1, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eurasia
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev reshuffled
his cabinet, removing long-serving economy minister Galina Saidova and trade minister Elyor Ganiyev, officials left over from predecessor Islam Karimov's time in office.
Iran described Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as “immature and weak- minded” after he called Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “the new Hitler of the Mid- dle East”. In an allusion to Iran's growing regional power, Prince Salman remarked: “We learned from Europe that appeasement doesn't work. We don't want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East.”
Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili vowed to hold to account those responsible for a fire at the upscale Black Sea beach resort Leogrand Hotel in Georgia that killed 11 and injured 21. Hotel managers are to be prosecuted for fire safety breaches.
Freedom of information stipulations revealed Miguel Arias Canete, the EU's climate change and energy commissioner, and Maros Sefcovic, vice president of the European Commission, wrote to the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Euro- pean Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) urging them to finance the Azerbaijan-to- Europe Southern Gas Corridor pipeline.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and newly inaugurated Kyrgyz counterpart Sooranbai Jeen- bekov discussed fixing the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border dispute which began after Kyrgyzstan accused Kazakhstan of meddling in its presidential election. Nazarbayev said Kazakhstan would relax controls at the Kordai border crossing and the EEU would jointly inspect goods coming in from China.
France’s Citroen disclosed that the C3 hatchback will be the first car it produces at its Iranian joint
venture SAIPA-Citroen. Around three-quarters of the parts for the car will be locally sourced.
Iran sold $180mn worth of Persian rugs to global markets in the first seven months of the Persian calendar year (started March 21), put- ting it on course for an annual record. It exported $290mn worth in the 2016/17 Iranian calendar year.
China, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran signed a deal to boost transportation volume on the 10,000-km China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan- Iran (CKTI) rail route. Country-to-country tariff paperwork is to be reduced.
The Iranian Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) decreed that state-owned Telecoms Company of Iran (TCI) must share its new fibre optic network with private internet providers. TCI’s monopoly commercial internet prices
since broadband arrived in Iran in 2006 has throttled rivals.
Dozens of striking Kazakh copper miners demanding wage hikes refused to return to the surface of a mine in Karaganda region. They demanded a meeting with the CEO of mine owner Kazakhmys. Activists posted a photograph on Facebook of the miners along with their list of demands.
Kazakh state uranium miner Kazatomprom reportedly hired JP Morgan as its lead adviser for a London listing planned for 2018. Up to 25% of the company is to be floated.
Uzbek agency Uztrade, which assists small and private businesses and farmers with exporting goods, opened a Tajik branch. Uztrade Tajikistan trading house has so far signed export contracts worth $2.6mn. In H1 2017, Uzbek-Tajik trade grew 22% y/y.