Monthly review for April 2009: Central Asia & Caspian Region

In this issue:

3 Laws & Legislations
3-4 Politics and Economics
3 Central Asia fails in water talks
3 Armenia approves $54 million credit for construction sector
3 Turkmen president receives heads of Russian companies
3 IMF predicts 12 percent inflation in Kyrgyzstan
4 Azerbaijan far outperforms Armenia in terms of GDP and state budget
4 Putin gets to work on Turkmenistan
5 Banking
5 WB can allocate extra $20 million to Armenia
5 New banknotes replace 80% of old cash in circulation in Turkmenistan
5 Interbank transactions grow by 20.7 percent
5 Azerbaijan’s Access Bank received a $15 million IFC loan for
expansion of services to micro and small enterprises
5 HR News
6-7 Corporate News
6 South Korean KNOC company willing to participate in diversification of Turkmen fuel and energy sector
6 SOCAR starts collecting waste metal after offshore oil and gas
production works
6 Azercell Telecom investments for 2008 exceeded $72 million
6 Dragon Oil boosts production by 19%
7 Gazprom considers privatization of Kyrgyzgas
7 LUKOIL again recruited Azerbaijan oil fleet for exploration in the Caspian
7 IPO and M&A news
7 Last month gainers / losers
8 Market Spotlight: Centerra Gold Inc