Page 8 - bne_newspaper_March_01_2019

The Regions This Week
March 1, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eurasia
President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed Askar Mamin as Kazakhstan’s new prime minister. The decision follows Nazarbayev’s abrupt sacking of the government last week.
Turkmenistan is offering public sector office employees street-sweeping work as an alter- native to complete dismissal for staff such as accountants, economists and engineers as part of an ongoing downsizing of the Turkmen gov- ernment. Reports from last year indicated that stretched government finances have prompted Turkmen public sector agencies and organisa- tions to cut their workforces and send remaining employees on unpaid leave.
Iran’s Rouhani administration created a special emergency fund with capital of IRR200 trillion (€1.29bn) to assist industrial enterprises struggling to cope amid the country’s recession, IRNA re- ported. Iranian industry has been ravaged in recent months by the collapse in the value of the rial and consequent increases in raw materials prices,
a situation sparked by the reimposition of heavy sanctions against Tehran by the US last year.
Mongolia launched a one-stop service centre
for foreign investors, the country's National Development Agency said. The centre will provide information requested by foreign investors and receive complaints about the country’s investment environment.
Azerbaijan’s national railway operator ADY plans to modernise the 167 km route between Sumqayit and Yalama on the Russian border, Railway Gazette reported. Work is reportedly to get under way this year.
Nestle abandoned plans to purchase Georgian, Ukrainian, Russian mineral water bottler IDS Borjomi. Reportedly after half a year of talks, the parties were unable to agree on a price.
Kyrgyzstan’s flagship gold mine Kumtor pro- duced 534,563 ounces of gold in 2017, down by 5% y/y, mine operator Centerra Gold said in its end-year report. Kumtor mine is the single larg- est contributor to Kyrgyzstan’s GDP. It accounts for approximately 5-7% of national output. The mine enterprise is Kyrgyzstan's largest employer and taxpayer.
The European Union provided an additional €10mn to the Single-Donor Trust Fund, which is currently funding the rehabilitation of the wa- ter management and irrigation systems in the Zarafshon river basin area in Tajikistan, the delegation of the EU to Tajikistan said in a state- ment. The project is being carried out jointly with the World Bank.
Uzbek truck manufacturer Foton Do’stlik Servis and Chinaese car producer Foton Motor plan to jointly launch the production of minibuses in Uzbekistan’s Namangan Region, investment firm IFG Capital said. Production of UzFoton minibuses is set to start in September.
Partly Kazakh government-owned Eurasian Re- sources Group (ERG) reportedly started shipping Kazakh alumina to northwest China’s Xinjiang region. ERG annually produces 1.5mn tonnes of alumina. It used to sell two-thirds of it to Rusal, but began searching for new customers last year following a round of US sanctions aimed at the Russian giant.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian re- turned to a favourite theme – building up his country’s high technology sector – as he received IMF executive director Richard Doornbosch, who represents Armenia at the Fund. Pashinian said
a change in the structure of the economy and the promotion of high technology would help Armenia to grow into a technological country and shape an export-oriented economy.