Category: Economy & Foreign Trade

Large-Scale Privatization Planned in Ukraine

Post author By The Proletariat
Post date January 13, 2011
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Ukraine hopes to gain from privatization of US$1.3 billion in 2011 by selling at least 25 percent in 162 enterprises this year, Interfax reports.

The draft list of enterprises includes stakes that have been offered multiple times in the past but never sold.

“We continue to campaign, that the electricity should go for privatization. And it will be privatized. This will be the main event of the privatization of the year,” Alexander Ryabchenko, Ukrainian State Property Fund (SPF) chairman said earlier in December 2010.

Central Asia Economy & Foreign Trade Issue

Azerbaijan to Supply Crude Oil to Belarus

Post author By The Proletariat
Post date January 1, 2011
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Azerbaijan has agreed to supply crude oil to Belarus on behalf of Venezuela and, in return, the Latin American country will meet Azerbaijan’s oil export commitments to the United States, state-run energy company SOCAR said.

“We signed swap deals between Azerbaijan, Belarus and Venezuela on oil supplies in the amount of 5 million tons of oil per year from 2011,” the head of SOCAR, Rovnag Abdullayev, said Monday.

Culture & History Current Events Economy & Foreign Trade Issue Politics

Lukashenko Wins His Fourth Election

Post author By The Proletariat
Post date December 20, 2010
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Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko won a fourth term on Monday after a landslide victory marred by a violent police crackdown on mass protests and the arrest of opposition challengers.

Early Monday the state electoral commission said Lukashenko had won 79.7 percent with Sannikov, his closest rival, garnering only 1.6 percent.

Belarus police Monday arrested hundreds of protestors. The numbers of demonstrators at a rally in central Minsk swelled to tens of thousands at one point, AFP correspondents reported, with some of them trying to storm government buildings and smashing the glass doors.

Central Asia Current Events Economy & Foreign Trade

Mongolia to Sort-Out Gold Mining Licenses

Post author By The Proletariat
Post date December 8, 2010
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Mongolia’s government is reviewing a list of more than 1,700 mining licenses for possible termination under regulations aimed at environment protection, a senior official told reporters.

The suspended gold projects were said to contravene the country’s new Water and Forest Law, which bans mining activities in water basins and forest areas of the landlocked country, where water is in scarce supply.

Central Asia Eastern Europe Economy & Foreign Trade International Relations Issue Russia

Turkmenistan to Pledge Gas for the Nabucco Project

Post author By The Proletariat
Post date November 23, 2010
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Turkmenistan is ready to provide the European Union with some 40 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually for the Nabucco gas pipeline project.

“Given the domestic consumption in the west of the country and gas supplies from there to Iran, we will have 40 billion cubic meters of gas annually for export, so that European countries do not have to worry,” Turkmenistan’s Deputy PM Baymurad Khodzhamukhamedov said at the Oil and Gas Turkmenistan-2010 Forum in Ashgabat.

Central Asia China Economy & Foreign Trade Russia

Mongolian Industrial Output and Foreign Trade to Increase

Post author By The Proletariat
Post date November 18, 2010
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Mongolia’s aggregate industrial output and external trade turnover have increased remarkably over the first 10 months of 2010, official statistics show.

From January through October, the total industrial output increased by 177.2 bln.tog or 13.2 percent to 1.517.4 bln.tog compared to the same period the previous year.

Eastern Europe Economy & Foreign Trade

Ukraine to Reduce Russian Gas Dependence

Post author By The Proletariat
Post date November 3, 2010
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Ukraine wants to build its first liquefied natural gas terminal on the Black Sea by the end of 2016 as it seeks to reduce dependence on Russian gas imports.

The terminal will cost US$1.21 billion to US$1.38 billion and will reduce dependence on Russia by around one-third, Petro Miroshnikov from Ukraine’s National Project state body, the manager of the project, said in handout given to reporters in Kiev on Tuesday.

Central Asia Economy & Foreign Trade Issue Russia

Kazakhstan to Manufacture Freight and Passenger Locomotives

Post author By The Proletariat
Post date November 1, 2010
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French Alstom together with Kazakh Railways Temir Zholy (KTZ) and Russian Transmashholding (TMH) set up a joint venture that will supply 295 electric locomotives to the Kazakh railway company.

Earlier this year, the memorandum of cooperation was signed in Almaty. Kazakh Railways confirmed their electric locomotive order for a total of €1.3 billion. Alstom evaluates its share of the contract at approximately €800 million. The contract will take effect March 11, 2011.

Eastern Europe Economy & Foreign Trade International Relations Politics Russia

Estonia to Reduce Russian Energy Dependence

Post author By The Proletariat
Post date October 26, 2010
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Estonia’s Parliament will accept a bill allowing the separation of AS Eesti Gaas’s natural gas sales and transmission divisions in two years to reduce dependence on Russia’s Gazprom.

A draft bill requiring Eesti Gaas AS, an Estonian natural gas company which imports and sells natural gas, to split the ownership of sales and networks by Jan. 1, 2013 is “90 percent ready,” said Igor Grazin, a lawmaker with Prime Minister Andrus Ansip’s Reform Party, in a interview with Bloomberg.

Current Events Eastern Europe Economy & Foreign Trade Russia

Russia, Poland Agree to Gas Supply Deal

Post author By The Proletariat
Post date October 18, 2010
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Reuters is reporting that Russia and Poland have agreed a new gas supply deal conforming to EU rules.

The deal should ease worries that Europe, which takes gas through the Polish pipeline, will face shortages during the coming winter.

Russia and Poland agreed on to increase gas delivery to Poland and its transit to Germany through the Yamal pipeline last year but was not signed due to worries that it was incompatible with European Union laws.