The Ukrainian government has decided to liquidate its unprofitable coal mines, closing down 107 of them in 2010.
“The government funds which was use to spent on unprofitable mining enterprises support will be going to modernization of those mines, which can be successfully privatized in the near future,” a government official explained. Read the rest of this entry »
The Ukrainian parliament is moving to ratify the pro-EU natural gas market liberalization law in all three required readings.
According to the law, state-run NJSC Naftogaz in order to give an equal access to gas pipelines for each market participant, will be divided to three different enterprises by type of activity: marketing, extracting and transportation. Read the rest of this entry »
The Ukrainian market for mortgage loans has been continuing to decline from the beginning of 2010. Since then national banks portfolios have reduced by 3.5 percent to 3.6 billions grivnas. In the first quote of this year, credits volume, guaranteed by real estates reduced to 3.64 billion grivnas, the national Ukrainian Mortgage Association (UMA) reported yesterday. Throughout last year credit volume reduced by 3.8 percent.
“During the pre-crisis years real estate markets were overheated due to very trite reason like greediness”, UMA chairman of board Igor Yushko said to Kommersant-Ukraine daily. Read the rest of this entry »
According to Tajik Ministry of Finance over US$186 million was transferred to the accounts of the Rogun hydroelectric power plant project through the sale of stocks and shares certificates of OJSC Rogun as well as financial donations, fergana.ru reports.
The shares of construction company with total value of US$1.37 billion were issued on January 6, 2010. US$3.2 billion is required for the project achievement.
Construction on the Rogun Dam began back in 1976, and continued in starts and stops for the past 30 years. In 2004, the Tajik government formed a partnership with Russia’s Rusal to complete the project. Despite Rusal’s US$2 billion commitment to the project, Tajikistan authorities had canceled their contract in 2007. Read the rest of this entry »
Venezuela and China may become new strategic partners of Belarus. Lukashenko’s delegation visited Caracas while the vice-chairman of the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China, Xi Jinping paid an official visit to Minsk.
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has asked the government to look for new commodity markets. “There are other fish in the sea besides Russia and Europe — it is necessary to reach out to the new regions”, he told Interfax. According to Lukashenko, Belarus is being pushed to embrace new partners because of unfair trade conditions with Russia and evasion of arrangements. Read the rest of this entry »
Mongolia and Laos signed an agreement to boost cooperation in agriculture, especially in food production, livestock, veterinary care, forestry and light industry, the Laotian newspaper Vientiane Times reported last week..
The agreement was signed in Vientiane on March 22 by the Laotian Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sitaheng Rasphone and T. Badamjunai, the Mongolian Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry.
“We are interested in trading agricultural and forestry products with Laos”, said Mongolian Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Mr. Badamjunia during his official visit to the country. He told local media, “this cooperation would increase relations between the two countries in the future.” Read the rest of this entry »
Russian energy giant Gazprom has confirmed intentions on acquiring control over Belarusian gas pipeline operator, Beltransgaz.
Andrei Kruglov, Gazprom’s deputy CEO, discussed his company’s interest in boosting its stake in the company. This comes a few years after the company purchased 50 percent of Beltrangaz’s shares in 2007 indicating Gazproms’s intention to increase their control over the Belarusian pipeline. Read the rest of this entry »
During the Parliament-session of deputy group ‘Onir’ on Tuesday, Kazakhstan announced that it would begin exporting grain to China.
“I can report that 20 thousand tons of wheat has been exported to the Peoples Republic of China for the first time,” said Kazakhstan’s Vice-Premier Umirzak Shukeev during the meeting. Read the rest of this entry »
By Edith Balazs
Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) — Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said countries in central and eastern Europe should join together and create a “triangle” of supply points for natural gas to reduce dependence on fuel from Russia.
“I’m proposing that countries in the region set up a gas supply triangle to boost the diversity and security,” Bajnai said at an energy summit in Budapest today, which was attended by heads of government from countries in the region. “We need to increase the number of independent suppliers.” Read the rest of this entry »
Taiwan’s Defense Minister Kao Hua-chu said over the weekend that Taiwan would continue to try and procure weapons from countries like the United States in an effort to stabilize the region.
“The United States has kept providing Taiwan with defensive weapons according to the Taiwan Relations Act, enabling Taiwan to be more confident in pressing for reconciliation with the Chinese mainland,” Minister Kao said.
“In the future, Taiwan will continue purchasing more weaponry from the United States… so as to build a smaller and leaner deterrent force.” Read the rest of this entry »
