Page 8 - bne_newspaper_June_29_2018

The Regions This Week
June 29, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eurasia
China plans to utilise over 93% of the Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline (CACGP) system’s capacity in 2018 leading to increased supplies from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, RFA reported. The pipeline system risks running out of capacity as China struggles with natural gas shortages.
Kazakh police detained dozens of people at
an anti-government rally in downtown Almaty organised by an exiled Kazakh tycoon and opponent of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan movement and its leader, fugitive Kazakh banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, had made internet appeals for mass anti-government rallies across the country.
Chinese and other East Asian automakers assembling vehicles in Iran slowed or ceased sales because of the stark devaluation of the Iranian rial by more than 100% since early April to weaker than 80,000 to the dollar, several industry insiders disclosed. Such manufacturers previously saw Iran as a cash cow for their vehicles as
the market is heavily controlled by government pricing.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev described the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region as "primordially Azerbaijani territory" and said Baku will never accept its "occupation", RFE/RL reported. His tough talk came at a military parade marking what the government considers the 100th anniversary of Azerbaijan's armed forces.
Mongolia launched its largest solar power plant to date. The 15 MW plant in the Economic Development Zone of Zamyn-Uud was built
by a Japanese consortium formed by Sharp Corporation and Shigemitsu Shoji trading company in partnership with Mongolia’s Solar Tech.
China’s Tibet Huayu Mining and Tajik state-owned aluminium smelter Talco launched
a new $200mn gold and antimony mining venture in Tajikistan. The mine is expected to produce its first gold and antimony in 2020 — the annual output will amount to 1.5 tonnes of gold and 16,000 tonnes of antimony.
Switzerland-based rolling stock manufacturer Stadler signed an agreement to build a new factory in Georgia. The Swiss company already has experience in Georgia, having provided four double-decker Stadler KISS trans for the Tbilisi- Batumi route.
The Kyrgyz central bank aims to raise the share of gold in international reserves to 50%. As of June 12, the share of gold in the bank’s $2bn international reserves stood at just 16.4%.
The Central Bank of Armenia left the refinancing rate unchanged at 6.0%. The central bank cited the low inflation environment, but said it expects greater external inflation risks going forward.
Tajikistan and Turkmenistan are
mulling working on a joint “Asian rail corridor” project. It appears that their two countries are attempting to claim their piece of China’s huge Belt and Road Initiative by establishing a direct route spanning the nations from China to the Caspian seaport in Turkmenbashi.
Uzbek migrants working abroad sent home $949.4mn in the first quarter of 2018, state- run UzDaily news agency reported. The news came six months after Uzbekistan published
a copy of a draft law “on external labour migration” aimed at supporting Uzbek migrant workers abroad.
Azerbaijan’s supreme court upheld the two-year prison sentence handed down to anti-corruption blogger Mehman Huseynov at a hearing in Baku. Huseynov, who says the sentence he received for libel last year was politically motivated, refused to take part in the hearing.