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The Regions This Week
April 12, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Eurasia
Azerbaijan’s Socar will invest $1.5bn in establishing a petrochemical research and development centre in Turkey, Azerbaijani and Turkish media outlets reported. The centre will
be located on the Aliaga peninsula, near Izmir, on the Aegean coast, where Socar-controlled major petrochemical producer Petkim has its production complex and Socar last year opened Turkey’s first new refinery since 1975, partly to provide raw materials for Petkim.
An extension of the Eastern Partnership Programme is to be endorsed at a meeting next month of the foreign ministers of the European Union and six former Soviet republics, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Under the programme, the countries roll out reforms in return for closer relations and economic benefits.
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed Rus- sian support for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan. Following the pro- posal, Deputy Energy Minister of Kazakhstan Magzum Mirzagaliev said there was no "concrete decision" to build a nuclear power plant, but also revealed that a site for the potential project has already been chosen near the town of Ulken.
Mongolia has seen 10% of its livestock stricken by the proliferation of African swine fever in the East Asian region since January, according to a Bloomberg report. It is a real blow as the country has been expanding its meat processing sector to increase its meat exports.
More Iranians opted to stay at home during the recently concluded long Persian New Year Nowruz holidays, data released by the Iran Civil Aviation Organisation (CAO) shows. Iranians’ spending power has plummeted since the US last year introduced its toughest ever sanctions regime aimed at Tehran.
Uzbekistan plans to acquire two Talgo 250 high-
speed passenger electric trains and four economy class cars from Spain for €57.5mn, UzDaily news agency reported. The country relies on high-speed trains for tourism purposes, with the nation’s historical landmarks of Bukhara and Samarkand only accessible via the Uzbek capital of Tashkent.
A plant to build e-vehicles will be built in Georgia’s Kutaisi. The plant will be developed in partnership with China’s Chang’an automaker. The capacity of the factory is going to be 40,000 cars per year, 50% of which will be intended for the domestic market and 20,000 will be exported to the EU.
Kyrgyzstan's economy expanded by 5.3% y/y
in January-March, compared to the 1.2% y/y growth recorded in the same period of last year, according to latest data released by the country's National Statistical Committee. The acceleration in growth was mostly supported by a recovery in output at the country’s flagship Kumtor gold mine.
The Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a roadmap for expanding Kazakhstan’s agricul- tural exports to multiple Muslim countries, the Kazakh prime minister’s website announced, cit- ing Deputy Agriculture Minister Gulmira Issayeva. Agriculture is one of Kazakhstan's priority sec- tors under its programme to diversify the Kazakh economy away from oil exports.
Turkmenistan’s state-run Turkmengeologia discovered iron ore in the Gyzylgaya-V section of the Chagyl deposit in the country's Balkan Region, Trend news agency reported. The Turkmen authorities hope to use the discovered iron in cement used for high- strength concrete production, saving $10mn annually.
London-based Standard Chartered agreed to pay $1.1bn to US and British authorities for conduct- ing financial transactions that violated sanc- tions against Iran and other countries. Some of the transactions occurred not long after Standard Chartered settled similar charges in 2012.