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EBRD Invested More Than €1.2bn In Central Asian Economies In 2023

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says it invested more than €1.2bn ($1.3bn) in projects across Central Asia in 2023 to stimulate the region’s sustainable growth. Uzbekistan remained the leading recipient of EBRD funding in the region for the fourth year running, attracting more than €700m ($760m). The remaining €518m ($560m) were channeled to support projects in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Tajikistan. In Uzbekistan, the EBRD continued investing in renewable energy power generation and low-carbon technologies. It financed the construction of three greenfield solar power plants with a total installed capacity of nearly 900 MW. The bank provided funds to ACWA Power Wind Karatau to finance the construction of a 100 MW wind power plant in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan. It also provided a sovereign loan to modernise 118 pumping stations and improve the sustainability of water supply for irrigation in the densely populated Fergana Valley. Samarkand became the first city in the country to join the EBRD Green Cities programme, and is planning to deploy ecologically friendly electric buses as part of this engagement. In the financial sector, the bank continued working with local financial intermediaries such as SQB, Hamkorbank and Ipak Yuli Bank to support SMEs and promote green lending. Highlights of the EBRD’s work in Kazakhstan include the launch of the GEFF Kazakhstan II and an investment in a local currency bond issued by the country’s transmission system operator, KEGOC. The funds will help make the country’s electrical grid more sustainable and reliable. The bank’s loan to China Power International Holding and Visor International will be used to build, operate and connect the 100 MW Shokpar wind power plant to the transmission grid. The EBRD’s loan to Kazakhstan’s largest private rolling stock operator, Eastcomtrans, will help expand container-handling capacity at one of the most congested junctions near Almaty and address the issue of bottlenecks along the Trans-Caspian corridor. Last year marked the completion of the street lighting system in Ust-Kamenogorsk (Oskemen), which allowed energy-efficient LED street lights to be installed on 150 streets. In the financial sector, the bank extended a new loan to the country’s leading microlender KMF to support green lending and women’s entrepreneurship. In Kyrgyzstan, the EBRD supported the modernisation of water supply services in the Batken and Jalal-Abad oblasts. The bank signed a number of sovereign projects aimed at modernising key transport and energy infrastructure, which will help improve the country’s connectivity and climate resilience. These projects included loans to upgrade a 30km section of the Issyk-Kul Lake ring road, increase the reliability of the national electricity transmission and distribution grid, and rehabilitate and modernise the Lebedinovskaya hydropower plant. The EBRD also completed the Bishkek landfill project last year, which will provide major environmental benefits for the more than one million people living in the country’s capital. The completion of three infrastructure projects in Tajikistan allowed more than 400,000 people in 13 municipalities across the country to enjoy better access to clean and safe drinking water. Last year the EBRD launched the GEFF Tajikistan II and extended new GEFF loans to Bank...

Central Asia Environment Kazakhstan Environment Home Kazakhstan Features Kazakhstan Featurees

Aral Sea Parallels Loom Over Lake Balkhash

Located 175 miles north-west of the country’s largest city, Almaty, Kazakhstan’s Lake Balkhash is the fifteenth largest lake in the world. The remains of an ancient sea which once covered vast tracts of land, on its shores in the city of Balkhash, a mixture of around 68,000 mostly ethnic Kazakhs and Russians eke out a living, predominantly through fishing and mining. But like its’ sister body of water, the Aral Sea, Lake Balkhash is under threat with its inflow sources diminishing. Fed by glaciers in Xinjiang, China, the Ili River has traditionally accounted for the vast majority of Lake Balkhash’s inflow, but according to research, as of 2021 China was blocking 40% of the river’s inflow, leading to a rise in anti-Chinese sentiments in Kazakhstan. In 1910, Lake Balkhash had an estimated surface area of 23,464 km². As recently as the 1960s, fishermen were netting a catch of over 30,000 tons annually, but by the 1990s, this had fallen to 6,600 tons of significantly less sought-after types of fish. Between 1970 and 1987 alone, the water level fell by 2.2 meters, with projects aimed at halting this decline abandoned as the Soviet Union fell into stagnation before dissolving. Currently, the lake covers a surface area of between 16,400 and 17,000 km². Falling water levels have also led to the appearance of new islands and impacted biodiversity, with 12 types of bird and 22 vertebrates indigenous to the region listed in the Red Book of Kazakhstan as endangered, whilst the Caspian tiger is, in all likelihood, extinct. Meanwhile, contamination from mining, both local and upstream in China, have led to the lake being classified as “very dirty.”[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image="12326" img_size="full" el_class="scond-image" parallax_scroll="no" woodmart_inline="no"][vc_column_text woodmart_inline="no" text_larger="no"]With desertification now affecting one-third of the Balkhash-Alakol Basin, which includes Almaty, the resultant dust storms are leading to an increase in the lake’s salinity, with silt from these storms further affecting inflow. Parallels to the Aral Sea – arguably the worst man-made environmental disaster in modern history – are all too apparent. Spanning across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea was once the fourth largest inland body of water in the world, covering 68,000 km². The destruction of the Aral Sea first dates back as far as the U.S. Civil War, when, finding his supply of American cotton under threat, the Russian tsar decided to use the sea’s tributaries to irrigate Central Asia and create his own cotton bowl. With 1.8 million liters of water needed for every bale of cotton, the water soon began to run out. By 2007, the Aral had shrunk to one-tenth its original size. Up until the late-1990s, the land surrounding the Aral Sea was still cotton fields; today, it’s largely an expanse of salinized grey emptiness. The desiccation of the landscape has led to vast toxic dust-storms that ravage around 1.5 million square kilometers. Spreading nitrates and carcinogens, these storms - visible from space - used to occur once every five years, but now strike ten times a year.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image="13441" img_size="full"...

Central Asia Uzbekistan Uzbekistan Business & Economy

Mirziyoyev Speaks At Uzbek-Chinese Investment Forum

On January 25th, as part of his state visit to China, Uzbekistan's president Shavkat Mirziyoyev addressed the Uzbek-Chinese Investment Forum in the city of Shenzhen. The forum brought together heads of government agencies and regions in the two countries, and more than 600 representatives of large Chinese companies. Mr Mirziyoyev outlined priorities and promising areas for Uzbek-Chinese cooperation. These included simplifying the procedure for attracting funds from Chinese financial institutions for infrastructure development projects, industrial cooperation in priority sectors of the economy, and processing of strategic raw materials. Mirziyoyev stressed the need to adopt Chinese technologies in sustainable agriculture, and to introduce scientific approaches to land rehabilitation.

Central Asia Uzbekistan Uzbekistan Business & Economy

Chinese Company Launches Assembly Of Electric Vehicles In Uzbekistan

On January 25th, as part of his state visit to China, Uzbekistan's president Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited the headquarters of the Chinese company BYD in Shenzhen. The company is a leading global producer of new energy vehicles and next-generation batteries. Mr Mirziyoyev and BYD's president Wang Chuanfu took part in the launch ceremony of a project for the assembly of hybrid and electric vehicles in Uzbekistan’s Jizzakh region, with a capacity of 50,000 vehicles per year. Mr Mirziyoyev expressed hopes to expand the model range in the future, and increase the production capacity to 300,000 vehicles per year, his press service reported. He also supported the Chinese company’s plans to establish the assembly of BYD electric buses in Uzbekistan with the localization of spare parts production and creation of engineering and service centers.

Environment Uzbekistan Environment Central Asia Kazakhstan Environment Kyrgyzstan Environment Uzbekistan Turkmenistan Kyrgyzstan Kazakhstan Turkmenistan Environment

Italy Proposes Project To Mitigate Climate Change Consequences In Aral Sea

On January 24th Italy’s deputy minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, Edmondo Cirielli, and deputy minister for the environment and energy security, Vannia Gava, held a meeting with the ambassadors of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in Italy. At the meeting, the top management of SOGESID SPA, an engineering and specialized technical support company wholly owned by the Italian state, presented a project proposal to mitigate the consequences of climate change in the Aral Sea, an area of Central Asia at high risk of desertification. The project idea, which envisages targeted interventions for the integrated environmental regeneration of the Aral Sea basin, also falls within the framework of the Italian presidency of the EU-Central Asia High-Level Conference on Environment and Water, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said. During the meeting, it was also proposed to consider the involvement of the Italian Climate Fund, the main national public instrument for pursuing the objectives undertaken by Italy in the context of international agreements on climate and environment. The meeting also discussed issues of content for the upcoming meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs in the “Italy + Central Asia” format, which will be held in 2024 in Rome, the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said.

Central Asia Tajikistan Business Economy Business & Economy

Tajikistan Sums Up Economic Results For 2023

On January 24th Tajikistan's president Emomali Rahmon chaired a government meeting to review the country's socio-economic results in 2023, and outline the main tasks for 2024. Prime minister Qohir Rasulzoda reported that despite the impact of current global problems on the Tajik economy, the economic results for 2023 were positive. According to Mr Rasulzoda, the country’s gross domestic product grew by 8.3% and inflation was 3.8%, 0.4% lower than in 2022. A total of 729 new industrial enterprises were put into operation in the country and 230,000 new jobs were created. Electricity generation increased by 461 million kW/h compared to 2022. Agricultural production increased by 9%. In 2023 the country received US $2.6 billion of foreign investment, 4.4% more than in 2022. President Rahmon has outlined strategic goals for the government for 2024 — the rapid industrialization of the country through the introduction of new production capacities and activation of stagnant capacities, increasing the production of competitive import-substituting and export-oriented goods, and raising the number of small production enterprises and workshops in cities and districts.