Dec
14
2014
Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park
Eurasian Business Briefing
Investment opportunities and business news from Russia, Central Asia and around the Caspian Sea
Dec
14
2014
Kazakh prison construction programme: Kazakhstan is going to invite foreign companies to bid for the right to build of a number of new prisons across the country, the deputy chairman of the State Penitentiary Committee at Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs Zhanat Keshubayev said last week. The tender process is expected to run over the next two years, with the successful bidders being allowed to employ inmates to help build the new facilities. In the past, Kazakhstan has been heavily criticised for the conditions in its prisons and pretrial detention facilities for many years and the prisoners themselves have both rioted and self-harmed in protest. There are about 42,000 prisoners in Kazakhstan, according to its Prosecutor-General’s Office. Times of Central Asia
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Dec
13
2014
Lexus car sales: Sales of Lexus and Porsche cars soared by 63% and 55% respectively in October as Russians flocked to protect their savings from the effects of inflation and the falling rouble. Total car sales also enjoyed a recovery, returning to 2013 levels. Almost almost all overseas car manufacturers had a good month, with Toyota sales up 32% sales followed by KIA (19%), Mitsubishi (11%). Russia’s leading domestic car manufacturer AvtoVaz, on the other hands saw sales drop by 17% last month. rbthDec
13
2014
Medvedev urges Russia to diversify: Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev used a syndicated broadcast across Russia’s TV stations earlier this week to urge the Russian business community to reduce its exposure to oil prices by diversifying into high-tech commodities, amid predictions that the ailing Russian economy could slip into recession in 2015. rbth
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Dec
12
2014
Customs Union dispute over EU food import ban: Less than a month before the launch of the Eurasian Economic Union, a row between customs officials from Russian and Belarus has erupted over the implementation of the ban on EU food imports. The dispute has been simmering since August when Russia imposed a ban on food imports from Europe in retaliation for the sanctions imposed by the West because of the crisis in Ukraine. This most recent row began last week when Russia had 77 tons of plums and apples at Russia’s border because they arrived with sanitation clearance documents indicating that the fruit came from Chile while in reality the documents originated in Holland. The Moscow Times
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Dec
11
2014
Russian military expenditure is set to rise by 30% next year to hit a record post-Soviet high of RUB 3.3trn ($62bn). Most of it will be used to buy more aircraft, submarines, missiles and weapons. The increase, which takes Russia’s spending on defence to 4.2%of GDP and is part of a $375bn rearmament drive that aims to supply 70% of the country’s armed forces with modern equipment by the end of the decade. St Petersburg Times
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Dec
11
2014
Almatay Ring Road: Kazakhstan’s Economic Minister Yerbolat Dossayev came to London this week at the head of a delegation looking to raise investment for the Big Almaty Ring Road (BAKAD) project. Designed to ease congestion in Kazakhstan’s capital, BAKAD is one of Kazakhstan’s largest ever non-oil PPP proposals and needs around $700m of private-sector funding to get it off the ground. (more…)
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Dec
11
2014
Lukoil to invest $5bn in Uzbekistan: Vladimir Putin this week pledged that, by 2039, Russia’s largest private-sector oil company Lukoil will have invested $5bn developing gas and condensate fields in Uzbekistan’s Bukhara province. “It is planned to complete the implementation of the project by 2039,” he said during extended discussions in Tashkent. A gas processing complex with the capacity of 8bn m³ would also be built, he added. TREND
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Dec
10
2014
Russia writes off Uzbek debt: Russia today wrote off $865m owed to it by Uzbekistan as President Vladimir Putin sought to bolster ties with the former Soviet republic during a one-day visit to Tashkent. Presidential aide Yury Ushakov said that the settling of the debt would enable Russia to increase sales of arms and military equipment to Uzbekistan, (more…)
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Dec
10
2014
Tajikistan gas transit revenues: Tajikistan could earn as much as $3.5 billion from the Central Asia-China gas pipeline which will be laid on its sovereign territory, according to Tajiktransgaz chairman Saidakhmad Shamsiddinzoda. “A Tajik-Chinese joint venture, the Trans-Tajik Gas Pipeline Company, has been established for the project’s implementation, with each side contributing $300 million to the company,” he told the Tajik parliament on Tuesday. (more…)
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