“According to our business plan, capital accumulation should be completed within 9 months” – said Geybatov, who added that US$1 million is needed to provide the bureau with the required software.

The International Finance Corporation estimates that the first independent credit bureau may appear in Azerbaijan 2 years after the related bill has been accepted.

The present Central Credits Register, which is controlled by the country’s central bank, offers credit information which is more individuals-orientated than firms. Credit information is very general, only dividing debtors into positive and negative.

Moreover, Azerbaijan might also accept a law on credit stories, a government official said to the local media.

Both laws are due to help financial institutions make faster and more accurate credit decisions, thereby increasing the availability and affordability of the financial services provided to the country’s individual consumers, and also micro, small, and medium enterprises.

Azerbaijan joined the IFC in 1995. As of December 2008, the IFC committed nearly US$289 million via its own fund, while gathering nearly US$104 million through syndications. IFC’s investments in Azerbaijan were mainly in oil and gas, financial, general manufacturing, and agribusiness sectors.

Last week Minister of Gas and Oil Sauat Mynbaev confirmed government plan to reconsider contracts with foreign mining companies with the exception of the Kashagar deposit which is being developed by joint efforts of Italy’s Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, U.S. Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil, Japanese Inpex and Kazakhstan’s Kazmunaigaz (KMG). KMG is the state-owned oil and gas company responsible for operating state oil and gas interests and pipelines.

The fifth largest in the world in terms of reserves, the Kashagar deposit lies off the northern shore of the Caspian Sea near the city of Atyrau. It’s being explored according to conditions of a special contract known as North Caspian Sea Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). Experts estimate that the field will start production in 2014. According to EIA data, initial production is projected at 450,000 bbl/d with peak production of 1.5 million bbl/d projected for the end of the next decade.

Another project to which the preferential taxation rule extends is Tengiz deposit which produced 377,000 bbl/d of crude oil and 38,000 bbl/d of condensate in 2008, and is the world’s deepest operating giant field at 12,000 feet deep.

The field has been developed since 1993 by the Tengizchevroil (TCO) joint venture, a 40-year US$20 billion agreement between Chevron (50 percent), ExxonMobil (25 percent), Kazmunaigas (20 percent) and LUKArco (5 percent), signed with the Kazakh government in 1993. Capacity is increasing and production is expected to peak at between 750,000 bbl/d and 1 million bbl/d by 2012. The Tengiz field is located along the northeast shore of the Caspian Sea and is the largest source of oil production in the country. Recoverable crude oil reserves have been estimated at 6-9 billion barrels by consortium member Chevron.

The minister Sauat Mynbaev refused to make comments on the situation connected with Tengiz, while noting that a negotiation on Karachaganak is in progress.

According to several reports, Kazakhstan’s economic crimes and corruption agency is now probing “illegal earnings” of 104 billion tenge ($708 million) at Karachaganak, saying that the end of the March the venture profited in 2008 from oil output that wasn’t approved by the state. In response, representatives of the consortium asserted that the venture is confident its business practices comply with Kazakhstani law.

Kazakhstan is cracking down on the Karachaganak Petroleum Operating BV venture while seeking to enter the country’s only major oil development without state participation. The government wants a stake to boost profit from the project, Kairgeldy Kabyldin, the head of state-run energy producer Kazmunaigaz National Co., said earlier to Bloomberg.

The field is operated by Karachaganak Petroleum (KPO) consortium under a production sharing agreement (PSA) which includes Agip and BG (who each own 32.5 percent), Chevron (20 percent), and Lukoil (15 percent). The PSA was signed in 1997 to develop the field for 40 years.

The Karachaganak deposit which lies close to the Russian Border produced 233,000 bbl/d of condensate in 2008 and is one of the world’s largest oil and gas condensate reserves. According to KPO data, the field holds reserves of around 8-9 billion barrels of oil and gas condensate and 47 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Kazakhstan’s law on subsoil and subsoil use governs the transfer of subsoil use rights and was amended in 2005 to give the state the basis to exercise pre-emption rights on any oil assets put up for sale in the country. The law was amended again in 2007 to allow the state to force retrospective changes to any existing oil contracts or even break the contracts if they are deemed a threat to the country’s security. Joint ventures are the most common type of investment; the government announced in early 2008 that no more PSAs will be awarded.

As such, the humble 1 tugrik banknote – the smallest currency denomination in Mongolia, worth roughly US$0.0007 – has re-entered the daily lives of Mongolia’s citizens after being virtually unusable in recent years.

In addition, an end to the impasse between the Mongolian government and the worlds mining corporations looms on the horizon, which would likely ensure that the country comes out of the recession in better shape than it went in.

Mining is crucial to the success of an economy that depends largely on livestock and cashmere wool. Yet the exploitation of international mining companies, coupled with the naivety of Mongolia’s previous government, has led to a ban on mining in Mongolia.

To shed some light on the story, Mongolia’s government had previously allowed foreign mining companies a five-year grace period to set up operations, in an effort to minimize start up costs in their country.

At the end of five years, however, Mongolia found its valuable deposits significantly depleted and some nearly bare. The result being no tax revenues for the Mongolians and free minerals for the world’s mining corporations.

After instilling a long term ban on mining, the situation between the Mongolians and the miners has recently been renegotiated.

Miners, when they do return, are at least likely to find a reasonable economy where a bottle of beer costs the equivalent of 50 cents, and a cashmere lined leather coat is as little as US$250.

How long the 1 tugrik note will stick around as the Mongolian economy expands will be interesting to witness.

The sale could occur as early as this week with a coupon rate of not greater than seven percent, according to Vietnam’s central bank.

“The new issue should have an absolute yield of around 6.85 percent to 7 percent,” said Sergey Dergachev of Frankfurt-based Union Investments. “Vietnam is economically much weaker, with significant twin deficits and a highly managed exchange rate.”

The proceeds of the sale will help fund Vietnam Oil & Gas Group, Vietnam National Shipping Lines, Song Da Corp., and Vietnam Machinery Installation Corp., the State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement on their website.

The sale may also help the floundering Vietnamese dong which depreciated 5.4 percent last year against the dollar and is currently trading at VND18,420 to USD1.

According to a report from Galaxy Securities on Wednesday, monthly new yuan-dominated loans over the next four month are expected to reach 450 billion yuan (USD65.9 billion).

Data from the National Bureau of Statistic showed that fixed-asset investment in China’s urban areas rose to 11.3 trillion yuan, up 33 percent in the first eight months of 2009.

New loans in the first eight months stood at 8.15 trillion yuan, far exceeding the year end target of five trillion yuan, according to the People’s Bank of China.

US$5.2 billion of the funds will go towards infrastructure and development projects, US$1.6 will come in the form of tax breaks for enterprises and individuals, and a further US$400 million will serve welfare purposes.

During the meeting, Minister Phuc also downgraded Vietnam’s expected yearly growth in gross domestic product (GDP) to 5 percent from the original forecast of 6.5 percent.

The Nuevo Tribune newspaper has speculated that this surprise move has come as an attempt to cut down on illegal financial activities, such as money laundering, which have become a problem in the country.

Other sources believe that the move is in response to liquidity problems in the economy following a disappointing 2008.

The news regarding the changing banking policy was sent out via mail by state-owned Banco Metropolitano to foreign establishments and associations.

In the future, withdrawals will be restricted to those required to pay salaries to Cuban employees and special authorization from bank officials will be required for other bank transactions.

In the ancient city of Hue in Thua Thien-Hue Province, a dozen projects involving residential areas and tourist and greenery parks are left only half-complete after several years of construction. Examples include the 199-ha urban area in An Dong Ward, the 32-ha urban area in An Tay Ward, the 84-ha Xuan Phu Urban Area and the 31-ha Dong Nam Thuy An.

Moreover, none of the 31 hotel and entertainment park projects licensed since 2003 along the Hoi An-Dien Ban coastline in Quang Nam Province has been finished.