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BISHKEK (TCA) — A logistics centre has been opened in northern Kyrgyzstan’s Kemin district to aid in supplying local schools with fresh agricultural produce. An initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the centre should improve the quality of school meals and secure a sustainable market for local producers.
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ASTANA (TCA) — British CPL Industries Group Ltd. has expressed interest in the business development of smokeless fuels in Kazakhstan and is considering investing in the construction of a plant to manufacture fuel briquettes in the territory of Kazakhstan. This was discussed at a meeting of Saparbek Tuyakbaev, the Chairman of the Board of Kazakh Invest national investment support and promotion company, and Rob Kendall, the CEO of CPL Industries Group Ltd., on October 9 in Astana. During the meeting British businessmen presented advanced technologies in the sphere of renewable fuels, Kazakh Invest reported.
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KABUL (TCA) — The United Nations says that civilian deaths in Afghanistan remain at “extreme levels,” with the highest number recorded in the first nine months of 2018 since the same period in 2017, RFE/RL reported.
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ASTANA (TCA) — On October 9 in Astana, Kazakhstan Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev and President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic held a bilateral meeting, after which they participated in the Kazakh-Serbian business forum, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.
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ASHGABAT (TCA) — Next year, Russia’s natural-gas giant Gazprom is going to resume imports of natural gas from Turkmenistan, the company’s chief executive has said.
In an interview with Turkmenistan’s state television channel during a visit to Ashgabat on October 9, Gazprom’s Chief Executive Aleksey Miller said he expects purchases which had been suspended three years ago due to price disputes to resume starting from January 1, 2019.
“We are talking about the resumption of purchases of Turkmen gas by Gazprom in the very near future — from January 1, 2019,” Miller said, adding that details of the new deal still must be finalized.
Russia was once the leading importer of Turkmen gas until it was displaced by China around the beginning of the decade, RFE/RL reported.
Relatively cheap imports of gas from Turkmenistan and other Central Asian countries enabled Russia to boost its exports to Europe.
In 2015, Gazprom announced its intention to cut imports of Turkmen gas to 4 billion cubic meters per year, down from the 10 billion level that it had been importing since 2010.
The move was followed by a complete cessation of purchases announced at the beginning of 2016, putting significant pressure on Turkmenistan’s economy, which is highly dependent on hydrocarbons as a source of hard currency.
Gas deliveries to China from Turkmenistan along the Central Asia-China pipeline are currently between 30 and 40 billion cubic meters a year.
A large part of the revenues from Turkmenistan’s sales to China are believed to be used to pay off debt on the pipeline link, which also traverses neighboring Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and was financed by Beijing.
Turkmenistan sits on the world’s fourth largest reserves of natural gas.
TCA
ASTANA (TCA) — Within the framework of the Kazakh-British intergovernmental commission, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Kazakh Invest national investment support and promotion agency and UK Export Finance British Export Credit Agency on October 8. The document was signed by Saparbek Tuyakbayev, Chairman of the Board of Kazakh Invest, and UK’s Minister of State for Trade Policy George Hollingbery.
