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The Regions This Week
November 23, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eurasia
Iran has started issuing petrol rationing cards
following excessive smuggling abroad of fuel made cheap by the collapse in value of the rial, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported. With the rial 65% weaker against the dollar since April, many items produced in Iran, including petrol, have been smuggled out of the country by profiteers to Iraq, Armenia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Power company Electric Networks of Armenia is planning an IPO on an international stock ex- change, the company’s CEO Karen Harutyunyan said. Harutyunyan talked of the difficulties com- panies such as Electric Networks face in raising funds because of legislative omissions that make it impossible for them to use innovative financial instruments offered by international donors.
Kazakhstan’s largest lender, Halyk Bank, ex- pects to exceed its 2018 profit guidance of more than KZT214bn (€510.5mn), Halyk’s chief execu- tive, Umut Shayakhmetova, said. Shayakhmetova said in August the bank expected faster loan book growth this year combined with higher interest in- come and a positive impact from loan recoveries.
Russia’s Gazprom will resume gas imports from Turkmenistan in 2019. The Russian gas giant stopped importing gas from the Central Asian nation in 2016 after Ashgabat refused to lower prices, leaving China to increase its influ- ence within Turkmenistan as its sole buyer of natural gas.
MP Damdin Khayankhyarvaa submitted a pro- posal for the dismissal of the Mongolian gov- ernment due to allegations that senior govern- ment officials and parliamentarians channelled over $1mn in government money to their families and friends. Mongolia’s anti-corruption authority is investigating the allegations.
Bribing and pressuring of voters ahead of the second round of Georgia’s presidential elec-
tions, as well as the wrongful use of administra- tive resources for electoral campaign purposes were identified by the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED).
Iran’s top anti-money laundering negotiator was barred from leaving the country after claims of US citizenship discussions. Iranian intelligence services reportedly concluded that Maysam Nasiri Ahmadabadi, Iran’s top negotiator with the inter- governmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF), met with US consular staff in Abu Dhabi to dis- cuss the possibility of obtaining a residency visa.
The ADB approved a $35mn grant to reconnect Tajikistan’s electricity system to the Central Asian Power System (CAPS) via the Uzbek grid. CAPS is a USSR-era regional electricity transmis- sion network operated and coordinated by Uzbeki- stan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Uzbekistan set itself the goal of expanding the number of tourists fourfold by 2025. Tashkent wants to attract 9.09mn visitors by 2025 up from the 2.69mn recorded in 2017.
Turnover on the Baku Stock Exchange (BFB) de- clined to AZN1.9bn (€984mn) in October, down from AZN2.4bn the previous month, data posted on the bourse’s website showed. In annual terms, turnover was up slightly from AZN1.6bn in October 2017.
Kyrgyzstan’s total foreign trade turnover grew by 7.3% y/y to $4.81bn in the first nine months of 2018. Trade expanded on the back of an ongo- ing recovery seen in Kyrgyzstan’s imports thanks to the modest 1H economic stabilisation of trade partners including Russia and Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan’s state-run pension fund bought one-third of the 15% stake floated by Kaz- atomprom, the world’s largest uranium miner,
in the $450mn initial public offering (IPO) held
in London and Astana. The listing was the first IPO made by a Kazakh company in over a decade.