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The Regions This Week
February 16, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 10
Eurasia
The Uzbek authorities launched a large-scale op-
eration against tax and customs agencies in Tash- kent, searching their offices, seizing documents and questioning their employees. The searches follow the sacking of Rustam Inoyatov, a powerful figure related to Tax Committee head Botir Parpi- yev, from the post of National Security Service (SNB) chief by President Shavkat Mirziyoev.
Azerbaijan's state-owned oil company Socar
is negotiating an agreement to explore oil and gas in Bangladesh together with its Bangladeshi counterpart, Bapex. Socar has been in an expan- sionary mood in recent years, taking advantage of the low oil and gas prices in 2014-2017 to build up its presence in several African markets, in Europe and in North America.
Turkmenistan opened a new international airport in Turkmenabat city, the administrative centre of the Lebap region. The authorities claim that the launch of the new international airport in Turkme- nabat will contribute to the development of aviation, trade and tourism, but given concerns over budget revenues amid low oil prices, the project raised questions about Ashgabat’s spending priorities.
Mongolia’s lawmakers rejected new proposals to put a cap on immigration in 2018. The move sought to limit the number of new resident permits granted to foreign or stateless people to only 100 per year across 2018-2020, with specific limits on China and Russia.
State owned energy company Electric Power Plants (EPP) awarded the $104mn contract for the moderni- sation of Kyrgyzstan’s Toktogul hydropower plant to a joint venture between GE Hydro and GE Renewa- bles. The project is aimed at increasing the reliabil- ity of the national and regional power systems.
Georgia's foreign trade deficit increased by 13.9% y/y in January to $371.3mn. A commodity importer, Georgia's foreign trade has sustained chronic deficits, despite the government's efforts to promote exports.
All smuggled phones not officially registered with the Iranian regulator will be disconnected by the Persian New Year (March 21) with no ex- ceptions, the deputy minister of communications and information technology announced. Decem- ber last year saw some 25,000 smuggled Apple iPhones disconnected from Iran’s three mobile networks.
A new International Labour Organisation (ILO) report reaffirmed that the systematic use of child labour in Uzbekistan’s cotton harvest has been completely phased out. However, uneven imple- mentation of measures to prevent child labour as well as the use of pressure and intimidation on local levels still remain.
Kazakhstan’s bilateral trade with fellow mem- bers of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) grew by 30.2% y/y to $17.36bn in 2017. The figures mark a recovery from the 16.8% decline in trade with EEU countries seen in 2016, with the rebound driven by growing world oil prices and economic stabilisation in Russia.
Azerbaijan's economy grew by 2% y/y in January, its highest growth rate in two years.
The non-oil economy grew the fastest, at 3.9% y/y, indicating signs of a recovery in consumption, and the oil and gas sectors grew by 0.5%, boosted by a hike in global oil prices.
Georgia will introduce tougher sanctions for citi- zens that violate the country's travel agreement with the EU. Georgia and the EU enjoy a visa-free travel agreement, allowing Georgians to spend 90 days within any 180-day period in the Schengen zone without a visa.
Armenia will borrow $360mn in 2018 in order to finance its budget deficit, Finance Minister Var- tan Aramian said. The official emphasised the fact that the sum is markedly lower compared to the level of borrowing in past years, which stood at $863.5mn in 2016 and $832.5mn in 2017.