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The Regions This Week
March 30, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eurasia
Rothschild recommended that Kazakhstan’s privatisation programme include pre-sales to strategic investors prior to IPOs. Kazakhstan plans to sell stakes of at least 25% in 45 large state companies, with at least seven IPOs. Kazakhtelecom, Air Astana and the world’s second largest uranium miner Kazatomprom may list.
Tajik and Russian aviation authorities are locked in a new dispute over flight scheduling issues involving Russian Ural Air and Tajik Somon Air. Rows centre on how to grant Tajik and Russian airlines an equal number of flights between Russia and Tajikistan.
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are enjoying a welcome injection of revenues from the annual influx of Iranians enjoying their long Nowruz Persian new year holiday. Anecdotal evidence indicates the number of Iranians heading to the South Caucasus for part of the two-week long festive break is on the rise.
The Kazakh central bank launched a block- chain-based mobile securities trading applica- tion, Invest Online. The move is aimed at getting locals more involved in the capital markets via simplified access. Kazakhstan’s stock and bond markets have only a few institutional investors and 109,000 retail investors.
Azerbaijan and Iran signed eight cooperation agreements during a meeting between presidents Hassan Rouhani and Ilham Aliyev. Their two Shi'a-majority countries have lately left some historical animosities aside. A recently built railway connection unites the Azerbaijani and Iranian railway networks and Rouhani and Aliyev presented a common front when it came to the Caspian Sea map.
The UAE’s global port operator Dubai Ports World signed two framework agreements to acquire stakes in Kazakhstan’s two Special
Economic Zones (SEZs). The stakes would be 51% in the SEZ on the Kazakh side of the Kazakh-Chi- nese Khorgos free trade zone and 49% in Aktau Port’s SEZ on the Caspian Sea. DP World has been providing management services to Aktau.
Armenia's indicator for economic activity rose by 7.3% y/y in February. Growth of the index, a narrower gauge for growth, showed from 10.2% y/y in January and 12.6% y/y in December.
Azerbaijan’s defence minister reportedly held talks on acquiring secretly modified paramilitary aircraft with Erik Prince, the US founder of Black- water private security firm (renamed Academi). Prince's past dealings with Baku, in 2015-2016, have resurfaced since Chris Wray was made FBI director in January. While a private attorney, Wray led lawyers investigating Prince.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) vice-president Wencai Zhang met with Kyrgyz President Sooron- bai Zheenbekov and inaugurated the ADB’s new resident mission office in Kyrgyzstan.
Mongolia’s central bank said it is to relax mon- etary policy to support a 900-day economic expan- sion programme aimed at creating 263,000 jobs by stimulating the private sector. The regulator last week cut its policy interest rate by 1 pp to 10%.
The notorious 130-year-old Tashtyurma prison in the Uzbek capital will make way for a park, the justice ministry said . Built in Tashkent on the orders of Imperial Russian Governor-General Aleksandr Vrevsky, it was known as one of Central Asia’s oldest prisons and for extremely poor conditions.
Vienna-based petrochemical producer Borealis and Kazakh state-owned United Chemical Company (UCC) have signed a deal to jointly develop a world-scale polyethylene (PE) project in Kazakhstan. It will include a cracker to process feedstock from natural gas and two PE units with a total capacity of 1.25mn t/yr.