At a meeting with officials from the London Stock Exchange and Barclays, a representative of the Kazakh Central Bank, Maria Khajiyeva, outlined the bank’s strategy of relaxing regulations, such as the requirement to set up an office in Kazakhstan, and offering stakes in some of its biggest companies in order to attract international stock investors. Meanwhile, in a visit to Moscow, Iran signed $40 billion worth of deals for projects including nuclear power construction and railways, as European banks discuss establishing branches in Tehran. In Kyrgyzstan, the government is planning to offer its shares of Alpha Telecom CJSC for sale through an auction.

Kazakhstan hopes to lure stock investors with relaxed rules and privatisations

Kazakhstan hopes to attract foreign investors to its stock market by relaxing regulations and offering stakes in some of its biggest companies.

The Central Asian nation has long struggled to create a liquid and efficient stock market that could provide Kazakhs with additional investment opportunities and help local companies raise capital.

“Over the last few months the National (central) Bank has adopted a series of regulations aimed at liberalising the stock market rules and creating favourable conditions for investors and issuers,” said Maria Khajiyeva, director of the securities market supervision department at the central bank.

Khajiyeva was speaking at a meeting with officials from the London Stock Exchange and the investment banking arm of Barclays, and explained that the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange now allows foreign investors to trade on its platform without setting up offices in Kazakhstan.

She added that the bourse also hoped foreigners would be attracted by public offers of stakes in Kazakhstan’s biggest companies.

The Kazakh government, whose finances have been hit hard by the oil price crash, plans to float companies such as state oil firm KazMunayGaz, its flagship air carrier Air Astana, leading telecommunications operator Kazakhtelecom and railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, within the next four years.

Uzbektelecom to purchase equipment from Chinese companies

Uzbektelecom will sign over $204 million worth of agreements with Chinese companies, following permission from the shareholders of the national telecommunication operator.

In particular, Uzbektelecom will sign a $118.533 million agreement with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and an $86.334 million agreement with ZTE Corporation.

Under these agreements, Uzbektelecom will purchase equipment for investment projects in order to develop the telecommunications network.

Iran signs $40 billion worth of deals in Moscow

Iran and Russia have signed contracts worth around $40 billion for nuclear power construction, railways, and other projects, according to Ali Akbar Velayat, a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

At the end of a visit to Moscow, Velayat said that he discussed some projects with President Vladimir Putin, explaining that Tehran was interested in obtaining a loan from Russia for railways and nuclear power projects.

Iran is also discussing purchasing additional weapons from Russia and selling oil to Russia’s biggest state-owned oil company, Rosneft.

“On the Iranian side, there is a willingness to supply this company corresponding volumes of oil daily,” he said, adding that such sales “may become an additional source of financing” for joint projects.

Uzpakhtasanoatexport to place shares for 604.2 billion soums

The new holding company Uzpakhtasanoatexport has registered an emission prospectus worth 604.2 billion soums. The Center for Coordination and Development of Securities Market registered the issue of the company’s shares.

The company will issue shares worth 604,232,548,000 soums, with the nominal value of each share being 1,000 soums. The shares will be placed through closed subscription to the Government of Uzbekistan.

Uzpakhtasanoatexport was created on 27 October 2015 in line with the decree of President Islam Karimov and will accept, process and export cotton-fibre.

Kazakhstan to commission new ferry terminal

A new ferry terminal will be commissioned in Kazakhstan in the port of Kuryk on the Caspian Sea in 2016.

It is expected that the construction of the ferry complex will triple Kazakhstan’s existing capacity for the transhipment of ferry cargo and strengthen the Kazakh section of the international China-Europe transport corridor.

Currently, cargo transportation by ferry from Kazakhstan to the ports of the Caspian littoral states is only possible through the port of Aktau, where the ferry terminal has been working at full capacity in recent years.

German company MKM to invest €1 billion in Iran’s copper industry

Germany’s copper producing company Mansfelder Kupfer und Messing GmbH (MKM) has signed a €1 billion memorandum of understanding to invest in a number of mineral projects, including in the downstream copper industry in Iran.

According to the MOU, signed on Tuesday with the National Iranian Copper Industries Company (NICICO), MKM would help Iran develop its downstream industries to obtain copper from copper cathodes. Furthermore, MKM offered to purchase 70,000 tonnes of produced copper cathodes from NICICO per year.

Iran is believed to hold more than 7% of the world’s total mineral reserves, ranking 10th in terms of the variety of its mineral resources. Key large deposits that still remain underdeveloped are zinc, copper, iron, uranium and lead.

Tajikistan seeks support for interest-free banking from Qatar

Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) says it wants to open a branch in Tehran “as quickly as possible,” becoming the first foreign lender to set up shop in Iran after the lifting of sanctions.

RBI is in “intensive talks” with Iranian banks as Tehran is re-joining the international banking system, according to RBI board member Peter Lennkh.

“We are already working on the preparations and want to offer our customers everything the sanctions relief allows,” he said.

International lenders are linking up, albeit slowly, with their Iranian counterparts using the SWIFT global transaction network. As of this week, Iran is able to use the worldwide transaction network that handles cash transfers and letters of credit between financial institutions.

Central bank officials have said that banks from European countries including Germany, France, UK and Italy have been in talks to open branches following the lifting of sanctions.

Uzbekistan may attract ADB loan for highway construction

The government of Uzbekistan plans to attract a $405 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2016 to complete the construction of a road corridor linking the Central Asian countries with Russia and China.

The new highway, with short access to Russia and Eastern European countries via the Osh-Kashgar highway, will be connected to another high-speed highway, which is being constructed in China along the “Silk Road” route.

The highway lending package was previously agreed with the ADB, and will be included in the financial cooperation programme between Uzbekistan and the ADB for the next three years.

It is expected that the loan will be allocated in several tranches between 2016 and 2018.

Kyrgyzstan to privatise major mobile operator

The Kyrgyz Government plans to offer its shares in a major player in the country’s telecommunication market, Alpha Telecom CJSC (MegaCom brand), for sale through auction. The state currently owns 100% of the company’s shares. The company covers 98% of the country with mobile communication and has more than 3 million subscribers.

Kazakhstan mulls dollar-linked subsidies for green energy

Kazakhstan is considering pegging the subsidies it pays for renewable energy to the dollar in a bid to attract foreign investors after its currency plunged over the past year.

The country subsidises renewable energy production to encourage investment in clean energy. Solar power generators get 34.61 tenge ($0.09) per kilowatt-hour of electricity, which was worth the equivalent of $0.19/kWh when the tariff was originally set in June 2014. The rates can currently only be changed once every three years.

The Kazakh Ministry for Energy is assessing how the programme may increase domestic electricity prices and will publish more details once it gets government approval for the programme.