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Mint
2 days ago
- Business
- Mint
The surging gold price is boosting Central Asia's economies
Tian Shan—the name for the mountains that cross Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan—roughly translates as 'Mountains of Heaven". It is fitting for a range that is dotted with gold mines, including Kumtor, one of Central Asia's largest and a symbol of Kyrgyz national pride. Moreover, it is not just the mountains of Central Asia that hold big reserves. Hundreds of kilometres to the west, in Uzbekistan's Kyzylkum Desert, sits Muruntau, the world's largest open-pit gold mine. Now the good times are rolling. The price of gold has more than doubled since 2019. In March it breached $3,000 per troy ounce for the first time. That is good news for both governments and miners in the poor but mineral-rich Central Asian states. The yellow metal is the biggest export for Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and one of the biggest in Kazakhstan, the region's largest and richest economy. Indeed, the Uzbek Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Company (NMMC), which operates the Muruntau mine, is the world's fourth-largest gold producer. It accounted for almost one-sixth of the Uzbek state's revenue in 2023, when prices were significantly lower than they are today. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development forecasts average economic growth of 5.7% for Central Asia this year—well above its forecast of 3.2% for emerging markets in general. The gold boom has made life easier for the region's central bankers. After the Kazakh tenge struck a record low against the dollar in January, the country's policymakers sold some of their gold reserves—the value of which had soared to a record $25.9bn in October—to prop up the currency. Little surprise, then, that the region's leaders are eager to mine still more gold. Under his 'Uzbekistan 2030" strategy, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the country's president, seeks 50% more production by the end of the decade. Mr Mirziyoyev wants to reduce the government's role in the economy and entice foreign capital. To that end, the state-owned NMMC is reportedly planning an initial public offering (in London, with a rumoured valuation of more than £4bn, or $5.2bn). China has also invested in Central Asian gold-mining as part of its Belt and Road Initiative, focusing on Tajikistan, the region's poorest country. In 2018 it agreed to build a power station in return for the right to develop the Upper Kumarg gold mine. Foreign investors have not always had an easy time in the region. Kyrgyzstan's Kumtor mine had for decades been run by Centerra Gold, a Canadian company. In 2021, amid tax disputes and allegations of environmental damage, it was taken over by the government of Sadyr Japarov, Kyrgyzstan's nationalist president. In ordinary times, that might give overseas investors pause. But gold is alluring, especially when prices are this high. Correction (May 30th 2025): An earlier version of this article wrongly stated that central banks in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan had used gold to settle their own transactions. Sorry.
Observer
5 days ago
- Business
- Observer
Ukraine eyes billions in investment from US deal
Ukraine is overhauling its minerals sector, which has been pounded by three years of war, in the hope of unlocking potential and attracting billions of dollars of investment from a minerals deal with the US, its ecology minister said. The country has deposits of 22 of 34 minerals deemed as critical by the European Union for industries such as defence, high-tech appliances and green energy, as well as ferro alloy, precious and non-ferrous metals used in construction and some rare earth elements. However, much of the sector is underdeveloped, weighed down by Soviet-era bureaucracy and lack of investment. After months of fraught negotiations, Kyiv and the United States agreed a minerals deal in April that was heavily promoted by US President Donald Trump. It created a fund, which became active on May 23, that will receive money from new mining licences in Ukraine and invest in minerals projects. Ecology Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said in an interview that Ukraine hoped the fund would significantly increase the mineral industry's potential, noting extraction was a capital-intensive and long-term task. "Currently, our natural resources sector's share of gross domestic product is 4 per cent, but the potential is much greater," she said late on Monday, without giving projections. "We really hope the agreement will draw more attention to this sector and make foreign investment more understandable and more attractive." With the conflict still ongoing, about half of the country's mineral wealth and a fifth of its territory are now under Russian occupation. Ukraine has lost most of its coal deposits, as well as some lithium and manganese deposits and other minerals. Hrynchuk estimated that the sector had suffered losses of about 70 trillion hryvnias ($1.7 trillion) due to the occupation of Ukrainian territory and combat action along a more than 1,000 km frontline. Ukraine updated its strategy for its resources sector at the end of last year and was now focusing on improving access to information and data on geological exploration, reducing bureaucracy and finalising the lists of critical and strategic minerals crucial for the economy, she said. The work is also part of Ukraine's push to move closer to the European Union, which Kyiv hopes to join in 2030. Hrynchuk said the government was working with the European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on a multi-year project to digitise up to 80 per cent of Soviet-era geological data. That task is about 40 per cent complete, she said. The government was also working to review an existing 3,000 mining licenses. Hrynchuk estimated that about 10 per cent of them could be dormant. "We are not interested in taking away assets if there is a potential for them to work," she said. "We are interested for those assets which are... valuable for the state and have not been working for 10 years or more, to make appropriate managerial decisions about them. And to launch them back into circulation." The licence review will be done this year and next, she said. Despite wartime challenges, the government continued to auction mining licenses and last year raised 2.4 billion hryvnias from auctioning 120 mining licenses. It hopes to get a similar amount into the state coffers this year and has already awarded 32 licenses, with the majority for building sector materials, including clay, sand, marble, granite, but also amber. Investors, who at present are predominantly domestic, were mostly interested in licenses for oil and gas exploration, as well as minerals such as titanium, graphite and manganese, she said. The US minerals deal was agreed despite a clash between President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Trump during their meeting in the White House in February. Final documents to enable the joint investment fund to operate were exchanged last week, but projects will take time to materialise, Ukrainian officials said. The minerals deal, which US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent termed as a full economic partnership, hands the United States preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals accords and will help to fund Ukraine's reconstruction. Olena Harmash The writer is Ukraine economics and finance correspondent for Reuters
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
UK employees work from home more than most global peers, study finds
UK workers continue to work from home more than nearly any of their global counterparts more than five years after the pandemic first disrupted traditional office life, a study has found. UK employees now average 1.8 days a week of remote working, above the international average of 1.3 days, according to the Global Survey of Working Arrangements (G-SWA), a worldwide poll of more than 16,000 full-time, university-educated workers across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa that began in July 2021. Hybrid working patterns – in which the week is split between the office and another remote location such as home – have become established as the dominant model in advanced economies for staff who are able to carry out their roles remotely. This is particularly true in English-speaking countries including the UK, US, Canada and Australia, according to the most recent G-SWA, which was conducted between November 2024 and February 2025. Conversely, such arrangements are rare in east Asia, where office-centric culture prevails, and most full-time workers in Japan and South Korea still commute daily to the office. The popularity of home working in the UK has previously been attributed to the cost and length of commuting, particularly in London and south-east England. 'This isn't just a post-pandemic hangover – British workers have clearly decided they're not going back to the old ways. Remote work has moved from being an emergency response to becoming a defining feature of the UK labour market,' said Dr Cevat Giray Aksoy, a G-SWA co-founder and associate professor at King's College London. 'This shift is forcing businesses, policymakers, and city planners to reimagine everything from office space to transport to regional growth,' added Aksoy, who is also an associate research director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Despite the introduction of strict return-to-office mandates at a handful of large companies, including the retail company Amazon and the asset management firm BlackRock, home working levels have stabilised in the UK since 2023, in what the researchers called a 'labour market equilibrium'. Men and women work from home at similar rates in every leading region of the world, the study found, although the desire for home working is strongest among women with children. Parents surveyed said they were more likely to adopt hybrid work, while those without children prefer either fully office-based or fully remote working models. Younger respondents showed a stronger preference for working from the office, as a way to get noticed by senior colleagues, or to learn informally from their peers. 'Hybrid work is no longer the exception, it's the expectation,' Aksoy said, adding that the research had not found any strong evidence that remote work came at the cost of productivity for organisations. This could not, however, be said for fully remote roles. 'Its impact on productivity varies dramatically depending on the type of job and how it's managed,' Aksoy said. 'In many cases, fully remote roles are concentrated in call centres or data entry, jobs that are already under pressure from automation and AI.' The findings came as a separate poll from King's College found less than half (42%) of workers would comply with an employer's requirement for them to return to the office full-time, compared with 54% in early 2022. Women and parents were most likely to resist strict return mandates, researchers at the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at King's and its business school found. By late 2024, 55% of women said they would seek a new job if required to return to the office full-time. Researchers have previously suggested that some companies have issued strict return-to-office mandates as a way to shed excess staff hired under fully remote arrangements during the pandemic. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Straits Times
23-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Slovak court to rule on May 29 in central bank chief's corruption case
Slovakia's Finance Minister Peter Kazimir attends the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) 2017 Annual Meeting and Business Forum in Nicosia, Cyprus May 10,2017. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou/ File Photo Slovak court to rule on May 29 in central bank chief's corruption case A Slovak court will rule on May 29 whether Slovak National Bank governor and European Central Bank policymaker Peter Kazimir is guilty of corruption, the court's spokeswoman said on Friday. The case dates back to Kazimir's previous position as finance minister before he became the central bank's chief in 2019. Kazimir, who is a member of ECB's rate-setting governing council, denies any wrongdoing. Prosecutors have proposed a jail sentence in the middle of the applicable one to five range, Slovak media reported. A guilty verdict by the Specialised Criminal Court would not force Kazimir out of office, as it could still be appealed to a higher court. Kazimir was on a foreign trip on Friday and the central bank had no immediate comment. Kazimir's current six-year term at the head of the central bank will end just days after the planned ruling, on June 1, but he is expected to overstay the period in line with the law until a decision on whether he will be granted another term or replaced. Slovak central bank governors are nominated by the government, approved by parliament and appointed by the president. Prosecutors allege that, while Kazimir was finance minister in 2012-2019, he delivered a 48,000 euro bribe to the then-head of national tax administration to influence tax proceedings. The defence, apart from denying any bribery, has argued that the case should be thrown out due to statutes of limitation that were shortened by a criminal law reform enacted last year. But the judge reclassified the case in a way that allowed it to continue. Kazimir was originally found guilty and given a 100,000 euro fine in 2023, but appealed the verdict, sending the case to full trial. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Business Mayor
17-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Six Bulgarian Startups Secure EBRD Support for Growth and Expansion
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has introduced its Star Venture programme in Bulgaria, aiming to provide strategic support to high-potential startups. After a competitive selection process, 15 startups presented their business concepts at the Planet Schwarz Tech Theatre in Sofia, with six emerging as the final winners. The selected startups – THE NOLD, True Insights, Predicto, Ethermind, and PharmaWorks – will each receive business advisory services valued at €40,000. Additionally, they will gain access to a 24-month intensive programme focused on accelerating their growth and expanding their market reach. The programme offers strategic workshops conducted by Cambridge University, mentorship from a network of over 1,500 expert mentors via the Dosen platform, as well as cloud credits and e-learning resources from platforms like Coursera, Amazon, and Microsoft. The judging panel, which included prominent figures such as Manuela Naessl, EBRD's Head of Bulgaria, Dobromir Ivanov of BESCO, Momchil Vassilev of Endeavor Bulgaria, Valeri Petrov of Eleven, and Daniel Shopov of Barin Sports, evaluated the pitches and selected the winners based on innovation and potential for growth. The chosen startups operate in diverse sectors, including circular fashion, artificial intelligence, predictive maintenance, cybersecurity, AI-based education, and healthcare digitalisation. A notable highlight of the event was a fireside chat titled 'Scaling Startups – Challenges and Opportunities,' which offered attendees valuable insights into overcoming common obstacles in scaling their businesses. The session fostered constructive dialogue among entrepreneurs, investors, and industry experts. The Star Venture programme, now active in 26 countries, has already provided support to over 550 startups, aiming to strengthen local entrepreneurial ecosystems through targeted mentorship, strategic planning assistance, and access to global markets. The programme is funded by the EBRD's Small Business Impact Fund, which receives backing from international donors, including Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund, and the United States. Manuela Naessl expressed optimism about the programme's impact, emphasising its success in other countries and the potential for Bulgarian startups to achieve substantial growth. Meanwhile, Calvin Ho from Taipei China's Representative Office in Greece highlighted Taiwan's contribution to the initiative, noting the synergies between Taiwanese technological expertise and Bulgaria's emerging startup scene. Source: EBRD press release
