Page 812 – The Times Of Central Asia

20 Mar 2024

Central Asia, Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan Business & Economy, Uzbekistan International Affairs

AIIB Allocates $670 Million for Uzbekistan’s Economic Transition

June 28, 2024
By Times of Central Asia

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved the allocation of $670 million to Uzbekistan to support reforms and its ongoing transition to a market economy. The project is supported by the special fund for Covid-19 crisis recovery and is co-financed by the World Bank.

The borrower will be Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, who will use the funds to finance reforms in such areas as improving fiscal risk management, supporting social inclusion, improving environmental sustainability, and market formation.

The project will improve the energy, railroad and chemical sectors, as well as agriculture. In addition, funds will be used to create environmentally friendly markets, improve Uzbekistan’s fiscal management and procurement system, and develop a more socially adapted economy. Planned reforms will serve to improve the efficiency of health care and public services.

“We are pleased to continue to support Uzbekistan’s journey towards a sustainable market economy. By strengthening social safety nets and helping to mitigate climate risks, we aim to improve the effectiveness of social assistance initiatives and facilitate Uzbekistan’s transition to a green economy, which is in line with AIIB’s mission to finance promising infrastructure,” said Konstantin Limitovsky, Vice President for Investment Operations at AIIB.

In late January 2024, Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev met with AIIB President Jin Liqiong in Beijing. During the meeting, the two sides signed a three-year investment program for further support of Uzbekistan’s development in a number of sectors. To date, the bank has approved 14 projects in Uzbekistan worth $3.1 billion, making it the seventh-largest portfolio among its membership. The AIIB’s annual meeting in Samarkand is scheduled for September 2024, which will be the bank’s first such event in Central Asia.

20 Mar 2024

Central Asia, Turkmenistan International Affairs, Turkmenistan, Turkmenistan Business & Economy

Turkmenistan and EU Discuss New Projects

June 28, 2024
By Times of Central Asia

A roundtable discussion called Turkmenistan and the European Union: Towards a New Economic Partnership took place in Brussels, Belgium on Monday.

The event featured business meetings between Turkmen representatives and members of EU business circles. Turkmenistan’s minister of foreign affairs, Rashid Meredov, held meetings with the leaders of the Walloon Export and Investment Agency, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the vice-presidents of Picanol and Philips.

The director of the country’s Transport and Communications Agency Mammetkhan Chakiyev met with the management of Cargolux, Exagon Global BV, Royal IHC, and the Dredging, Environmental and Marine Engineering NV (DEME Group), in addition to executives from the Port of Antwerp.

The parties talked about Turkmenistan’s production of equipment logistics, digitalization, industrial technologies, and service centers. Discussions touched upon prospective projects and investment activities.

20 Mar 2024

Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Business & Economy

Kazakhstan Bank Deposits Decline by $1.1 Billion

June 28, 2024
By Times of Central Asia

Bank deposits by Kazakhstani citizens have declined by 2.5%, according to data from January of this year. Analysts from Ranking.kz say that the portfolio “lost weight” by $1.1 billion and amounted to $44 billion at the end of January 2024. Experts say that it’s a common seasonal occurrence, when after December inflows, there’s an outflow of money from second-tier banks, which is called a “calendar pit.”

Correspondingly, according to analysts’ data, there’s only one financial institution among the largest banks of Kazakhstan that had an inflow of deposits in January — Home Credit Bank’s $725 million (+1.2%). Experts say that was expected, considering the bank has kept rates on its retail deposit products above the average level on the market. Currently the bank’s offered rates on savings products range from 14.5% to 16.7% per annum.

All other large Kazakh banks showed reductions in their portfolios of individual deposits. However, at Bereke Bank, the volume of savings deposits barely changed (-0.02%) and remained at $951 million. By year-on-year measure, Bereke Bank’s portfolio of retail deposits has doubled.

Out of 21 Kazakhstani banks and four foreign financial institutions, Russia’s VTB Bank saw an increase of 36.6% to $128 million, and two Islamic banks — Al Hilal, whose deposits rose 1.5 times to $8.1 million, and Zaman Bank, up 8.5 times to $2.4 million — showed strong deposit growth.

In total, the volume of all bank deposits in Kazakhstan at the end of January 2024 amounted to $76.5 billion — which is 1.4% less than at the end of 2023.

20 Mar 2024

Central Asia, Kazakhstan Life & Culture, Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan Home

Drug Dealing in Kazakhstan Continues to Gain Momentum

June 28, 2024
By Times of Central Asia

Over the past six years the volume of seized synthetic drugs in Kazakhstan has almost doubled, Finprom.kz reports. In 2023 law enforcement agencies in Kazakhstan interdicted and confiscated 41.1 tons of illicit substances, up from 20.3 tons in 2018.

In 2023 the number of drug laboratories destroyed increased to 75 from 68, and Kazakhstani officials called the increase in the distribution of banned substances an outbreak of drug trafficking. Because of the increase in drug usage, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has said that new types of synthetics will be included in the national list of narcotic drugs before they are brought into Kazakhstan. As soon as the drugs are on the national list, they’ll immediately be registered on Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and UN International Committee lists. Until 2019 in Kazakhstan, the procedure for inclusion of new drugs in the national list took about a year — now it takes no more than a month.

Over the past few years in Kazakhstan, the volume of seizures of all sorts of so-called “salts,” “ecstasy” and various synthetic cannabinoids has increased 143.4 times — rising to 1.1 tons from 7.7 kilograms. At the same time, the share of synthetics out of the total number of confiscated drugs in 2023 was insignificant, at 2.7 percent. It’s difficult to obtain accurate data on the market volume of modern illicit substances — often because new types of drugs are distributed mainly among young people through messenger apps and crypto-wallets, with the use of bots for publishing advertisements. According to the Interior Ministry, more than 3,000 different drug-dealing sites and 1,300 online stores on encrypted messaging app Telegram were blocked by Kazakhstan last year. Finprom.kz analysts report that they themselves managed to independently find several such channels operating in the country.

At the end of 2023, Kazakhstani Interior Minister Yerzhan Sadenov named some of the main barriers in the fight against the spread of synthetic drugs. He said the issue is complicated by the fact that the drugs are made in clandestine labs in the country from substances that are not considered illegal in Kazakhstan — and can only legally be brought to the attention of police after they are used to make a drug. Last year the Ministry of Internal Affairs seized more than 100 tons of these ingredients — which could have turned into eight tons of finished drugs. Therefore, the Ministry of Internal Affairs proposes increasing criminal liability for trafficking in precursor chemicals. Today the country punishes only the smuggling of these substances.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Kazakhstan, last year drug crime in the country increased by 9%. In 2023, 7,500 drug crimes and criminal offenses were recorded. The police detained about 4,500 people, including minors, on suspicion of distribution, manufacture or sale of illegal substances.

20 Mar 2024

Central Asia, Uzbekistan Environment, Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan Local Politics

Uzbek Environmentalists Propose Harnessing Rainwater to Combat Water Crisis

June 28, 2024
By Times of Central Asia

The Ecological Party of Uzbekistan has proposed using collected rainwater as a groundwater supply for the population. The activists plan to develop a corresponding program and submit it to the government for consideration.

Rainwater, after appropriate treatment, can be reused for certain purposes. The average person uses about 150 liters of water per day for drinking, bathing, and cleaning, and the party claims that each person can save up to 71 liters of clean drinking water per day by this method.

In the context of water scarcity in Central Asia, this sounds more than relevant. After all, over the past 50 years, glaciers in Central Asia have shrunk by about 30%, putting Uzbekistan in 25th place among the 164 countries suffering from “water stress.”

The population of the five countries in the Central Asian region totals more than 78 million, and by 2050 that number will have grown to 90-100 million people. Water shortages may rise to affect 25-30% of the population.

At a meeting of the Uzbek government at the end of 2023, officials said that the country’s economy loses $5 billion annually due to inefficient use of water resources. Climate change, shrinking water sources and growing water consumption could lead to a water deficit of 15 billion cubic meters by 2030.

20 Mar 2024

Central Asia, Home, Uzbekistan, Business & Economy, Uzbekistan Business & Economy, Features, Uzbekistan Life & Culture

South Korea to Supply Uzbekistan With High-Speed Trains

June 28, 2024
By Times of Central Asia

Six Hyundai Rotem high-speed trains made in South Korea will soon be launched between Tashkent and Khiva. The electric trains will have seven carriages, and will be able to carry 350 passengers at speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour.

To purchase the trains, Uzbekistan will use a $200 million, 35-year loan from the Economic Development and Cooperation Fund (EDCF) of the Republic of Korea. A feasibility study for the project is currently being drawn up.

Uzbekistan had originally planned to purchase high-speed trains from Hyundai back in 2018, with the project estimated at $1 million. But the national rail company Uzbekistan Temir Yollari ended up instead signing a contract with the Spanish company Talgo, which manufactured the Afrosiyob trains currently in use in the country.

A $162 million loan for electrification of the 465km Bukhara-Miskin-Urgench-Khiva railway line was approved by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) back in 2021. High-speed trains that will connect these cities will shorten the journey by two hours. The project was planned as part of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Corridor 2 program. It will link China and Europe through Central Asia and aims to boost the countries’ cross-border trade.

Uzbekistan is actively developing its tourism potential. Because of this, Uzbekistan Temir Yollari and the Italian company Arsenale Group are planning a luxury tourism train project. The train will have all the accoutrements for comfortable, five-star travel along the Silk Road along the Tashkent-Samarkand-Bukhara-Khiva-Tashkent route.