Page 8 - bne IntelliNews weekly newspaper June 23

The Regions This Week
June 23, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eurasia
A tender for developing Iran’s largest oil
field, Azadegan, was delayed by a few more months with foreign energy companies needing additional time to study the field. Azadegan has an estimated 37bn barrels of oil and is shared with neighbouring Iraq. France’s Total, Malaysia’s Petronas and Japan’s Inpex have conducted technical assessments of the field.
Iran’s second biggest airline, Mahan Air, com- menced twice-weekly flights from Tehran to Barcelona, making it the first airline to operate direct flights to Spain from Iran. Previously it took around 15 hours to fly from Iran to Spain, or vice versa, via a connection in Italy. The new flight’s duration is 6 hours. Boosts to bilateral trade, in- vestment and tourism are hoped for.
Iranian state media portrayed the Saudi appoint- ment of Mohammed Bin Salman to the position of crown prince and successor to King Salman as a “soft coup”. Iran’s defence minister was in early May involved in a war of words with 31-year-old Prince Mohammed after the king’s son told inter- national media that any battle with Iran would be moved to the Islamic Republic.
The South Korean Export-Import Bank is set to award Iran an €8bn credit line targeted at fi- nancing renewable energy, petrochemical, oil and health investments. Korean firms including LG, Samsung and Hyundai have already begun the process of investing in Iran through partnership deals.
Kazakhstan will reduce tax inspections “by 37.5%” in 2017 by removing “56% of regula- tions” in a new tax code. Officials are trying to improve the business climate in the country by improving tax, customs and investment protection legislation as the economy has been hit by low
oil prices and sluggish demand for the country’s main exports in Russia, China and the EU.
Kazakhstan’s short-term economic indicator,
a narrower gauge of annual GDP growth, moved up to 5.8% in January-May. The indicator is based on recorded changes in output indices in six basic sectors: agriculture, industry, construction, trade, transport and telecommunications.
A first-ever train connecting the capitals of Tajik- istan and Kazakhstan concluded its first run. The train operates on Thursdays from Dushanbe and Mondays from Astana and passes through Uzbeki- stan’s Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakistan.
A bill allowing Astana to deprive Kazakh “ter- rorists” of citizenship has moved to President Nursultan Nazarbayev for ratification. Kazakh- stan suffered alleged terrorist attacks in 2016 raising concerns that home-grown radicalism was on the rise. Officials have mulled banning the Salafi branch of Islam and Islamic attire and beards associated with extremism.
Three Armenian soldiers and at least one Azer- baijani soldier died during clashes over the Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region. Peace negotiators fear the decade-long conflict and standoff is close to turning into an outright war again. Azerbaijan has announced military exercis- es involving 23,000 personnel and up to 120 tanks and armoured vehicles.
Russia’s VTB Bank confirmed exposure to Azer- baijan Railways’ (ADY’s) debt. ADY is mulling a restructuring of its debt. It stood at AZN288mn
in mid-2015. ADY is “paying the loan, they are
a quasi-sovereign entity and we have good dia- logue”, VTB said.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is to finance a bypass road around the Georgian beach resort of Batumi with $114mn. It is the China-led multilateral lender’s first project in Georgia and the South Caucasus.