Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Study: Austria Gives Pills, Kazakhstan Oil

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Study: Austria Gives Pills, Kazakhstan Oil

    STUDY: AUSTRIA GIVES PILLS, KAZAKHSTAN OIL
    by Jil

    Die Presse
    Sept 27 2012
    Austria

    Vienna - The region around the Caspian Sea has much to offer: young
    nations on the way up, democratic progress, and economic growth of
    about 5 per cent annually. The approximately 81 million people in
    Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
    Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan (affectionately called the "Stans"),
    however, suffer under corruption, authoritarian regimes, and the fact
    that the interests of China, Russia, Europe, and the United States
    clash on the Caspian Sea.

    The Austrian Government would nevertheless like to double the trading
    volume with the region by 2015. This goal was issued by Minister for
    Economics Reinhold Mitterlehner (OeVP) [Austrian People's Party] at a
    conference with about 100 Austrian entrepreneurs and representatives
    from Central Asia and the South Caucasus on Wednesday [ 26 September]
    in Vienna. The region has a "considerable potential for the future,"
    but one cannot yet speak of a flourishing market, Mitterlehner says.

    The legal framework and access to financing could at least be improved,
    added Wilhelm Molterer, former vice chancellor from the OeVP and
    now vice president of the European Investment Bank (EIB). Austria
    and the region around the "Stans" had a trading volume in 2011 of
    about 2 billion euros. "In globalization, anything less than 2,000
    km away is naturally a local market," says WIFO [Austrian Institute
    of Economic Research] chief Karl Aiginger.

    Russia Is Only Number Two

    Almost 1.5 billion of the trading volume flowed from Austria to the
    east, mostly in exchange for raw materials and above all for oil.

    Kazakhstan is not just a group opponent of Austria in the qualification
    for the 2014 Soccer World Cup but also the most important supplier
    of oil. In 2011, Austria imported oil valued at 4.4 billion euros
    altogether. Oil for almost 1.4 billion came from Kazakhstan. Nigeria
    is in second place and delivers about half as much oil as Kazakhstan.

    These statistics also put the rest of the trade with Armenia,
    Azerbaijan, and Georgia in the shade. That is the result of a WIFO
    study on behalf of the Ministry for Economics. Austria imports
    goods valued at just a little more than 100 million euros from these
    countries.

    Kazakhstan also plays the main role in exports: in 2011, goods valued
    at almost 200 million euros were exported from Austria to Kazakhstan.

    The structure of the exports, however, is exemplary for all of the
    countries of the region except Armenia. "The exports are concentrated
    very much on high-value industrial goods," WIFO writes. They, in
    turn, are divided into "machinery and vehicles" as well as "chemical
    products." "Machinery and vehicles" include primarily high-value
    technical products such as aircraft and trucks. "Chemical products"
    stand mainly for medicines. The popularity of domestic pharmaceuticals
    in Central Asia and in the South Caucasus also surprised WIFO. Thus,
    almost 50 per cent of the exports to Kazakhstan are for medicines.

    WIFO presumes that above all the Linz firm Nycomed, very active in
    the region, could be behind that.

    Armenian Gold Mystery

    Armenia is a special case. Last year gold with a total value of 20.7
    billion euros was obviously exported from Austria. Only no one knows
    by whom or where to. The number is much too large for the "normal"
    demand for domestic coins such as those of the Philharmonic Orchestra,
    but neither the Austrian Mint nor WIFO nor the Chamber of Commerce can
    explain the high export volume. One possibility is that the Armenian
    Central Bank could have secretly increased its reserves and drawn
    gold from Austrian banks.

    Political stability remains a very big question mark in the region.

    The former Soviet republics had shifted in the past years to a kind of
    "authoritarian modernization," according to WIFO. Moreover, conflicts
    of interests of the big powers were continually destabilizing the
    region.

    [Translated from German]



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X