Page 8 - bne_newspaper_August_10_2018

The Regions This Week
August 10, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eurasia
Azerbaijan’s national oil company Socar
is planning to build a second refinery in
Turkey near the production site of its Turkish petrochemical subsidiary Petkim within five years from now, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news service cited its CEO Zaur Gahramanov as saying. Aviation fuel, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) would be produced at the $2bn facility to be operational by late 2022 or early 2023,
he reportedly said.
Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili set October 28 as the date for the country’s next presidential election. This will be the last time that Georgians elect their president directly, following controversial changes to the constitution that will see the president chosen by the 300 members of the College of Electors.
The National Bank of Kazakhstan said that
a recent selloff of central bank notes by nonresidents had a detrimental effect on the Kazakh tenge. The Kazakh national currency had depreciated by 5% to KZT348.8 against the dollar as of August 6 in the year to date.
Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, currently has no plans to pull out of Iran despite the reactivation of heavy US sanctions aimed at the Islamic Republic and any foreign entities that stick with trade or investment relations with the Iranians. “There are no direct implications for our business at this stage,” the Switzerland-based company told Reuters.
The government of Uzbekistan cancelled the hated exit visas for its citizens. In a holdover from the Soviet-era, citizens were required to apply for special permission to leave the Central Asian republic.
A new mayor of the Kyrgyz capital was elected amid protests at the lack of alternative candidates. City council members voted almost unanimously for Aziz Surakmatov, the only candidate proposed by the ruling Social Democratic party.
Georgia’s Tegeta Truck and Bus won a GEL45mn (€18mn) contract to provide 90 new buses
for the Tbilisi city transport system. Tbilisi mayor Kakha Kaladze is trying to clean up urban transport in the city, where the old yellow buses — the newer eco-friendly buses in operation are painted blue — are a frequent cause of complaint due to their emissions.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed a
civilian career diplomat, Nurlan Yermekbayev, as Kazakhstan’s new defence minister. Nazarbayev talked of the “changing geopolitical situation and ... new challenges” when explaining the decision to select Yermekbayev, whose experience was mainly in China and Southeast Asia.
Production of tablets in Armenia increased by 6.6 times y/y in the first half of 2018, according to National Statistical Service data. The government is seeking to support local computer and tablet manufacturing; Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced in July that his cabinet had switched from Apple laptops to computers manufactured in Armenia.
Official figures show exports of saffron from Iran reached a value of €66.1mn in the first quarter of the current Persian year (started March 21), marking a 56% y/y increase, Mehr News Agency reported. Iran is the world’s biggest saffron producer, accounting for more than 90% of
global production.