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Mongolia’s finance minister splits the 3 trillion tugrik Oyu Tolgoi dividend before it arrives: 1 trillion to citizens’ accounts, 2 trillion to the budget, by a one-off law
Finance minister Z. Mendsaikhan told a briefing at the State Palace on Thursday that the 3 trillion tugrik dividend expected from Oyu Tolgoi in 2027 will be spent under a one-off law, since the dividend is not a permanent budget revenue: 1 trillion into citizens’ named accounts in the accumulation fund and 2 trillion into current budget spending, on pensions, civil servants’ pay, loans to small business at 10%, mortgages and infrastructure, Ikon reported at 14:48 Ulaanbaatar time. MP G. Ganbaatar had said in the same building at 12:05 that the National Wealth Fund law of 19 April 2024 sends the dividend to citizens’ accounts, about 835,000 tugrik a person, and that “assorted thieving projects” cannot be financed from it.
Kazakhstan mourns 12 servicemen from the Caspian exercise, with 2 still sought and the count of the swept-away revised from 19 to 17
Friday is a national day of mourning in Kazakhstan, by President Tokayev’s order, for the servicemen lost in the Caspian on Thursday: the defence ministry’s count on Friday morning is 17 swept into the sea during the Khazar Korgany-2026 exercise, 12 dead, 3 rescued and 2 still being searched for, against the 19 and 9 of its first statement. Round the clock the search runs with 252 personnel, 37 military divers, 14 ships and boats, more than 20 aircraft including 4 helicopters and 34 units of ground equipment, the ministry said, and the Prosecutor General’s office is investigating under article 453 part 2 of the Criminal Code, a negligent attitude to service with grave consequences, and article 465, violation of the rules of navigation.
The EU Council adopts 2 years of duty-free entry for about 80% of Armenia’s exports, the only such regime for a country with neither candidate status nor a free-trade area with the EU
The Council of the European Union formally adopted on Thursday the temporary trade-liberalisation measures for Armenian goods, suspending import duties on about 80% of Armenia’s exports to the EU for 2 years from the day after the regulation’s publication in the Official Journal, Armenpress reported at 14:34. Ireland’s foreign minister Helen McEntee, for the presidency: “We are stepping up our support for Armenia and its people, who have clearly chosen a pro-European path in spite of foreign pressures. Today’s decision will help Armenia’s economy hit by trade restrictions”. Ani Badalyan, the foreign ministry’s spokeswoman, said Armenia becomes the only country that, “without EU candidate status or a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area agreement with the EU, receives such an economic benefit”.
Tajikistan’s industry grows 13.8% in 8 months to 45.37 billion somoni and its trade 37.2%, with imports running at 3.7 times exports
Industrial output in Tajikistan reached 45.37 billion somoni in January to August, 13.8% more than a year earlier, the Statistics Agency under the President reported on Thursday through Avesta: processing up 23%, electricity, gas and steam up 19.3%, water and waste up 17.2%. Foreign trade rose 37.2% to $9.23 billion, exports of $1.97 billion against imports of $7.26 billion; freight carried rose 15.2% to 113.7 million tonnes; retail trade grew 30.6% and the services of restaurants, cafes and canteens 61.2%.
Three governments spend 3 days in Almaty on the Kambar-Ata-1 agreement: the World Bank watches and the only sum on the table is Kazakhstan’s plan to borrow $500 million for its third of the dam
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan held the third round of talks on the intergovernmental agreement on Kambar-Ata-1 in Almaty from 21 to 23 September, the Kyrgyz energy ministry said on Thursday through Economist.kg: deputy energy minister Salaat Sadyrakunov for Bishkek, first vice-minister of water resources and irrigation Nurlan Aldamzharov for Astana, first deputy energy minister Umid Mamadaminov for Tashkent, with the World Bank’s representatives in the room as observers. That document is to define the joint construction and management of the plant, the approach to financing it and the coordination between the 3 states, and the sum in the room is Kazakhstan’s plan, first reported by Economist.kg in March, to borrow about $500 million from the bank’s structures for the construction.
Mirziyoyev’s Andijan day: 500,000 sum a tonne for cotton sold through the exchange and a crossing to Kyrgyzstan twice the size of Dustlik
President Mirziyoyev, at a meeting in Andijan on Thursday, ordered a subsidy of 500,000 sum for every tonne of cotton that farmers sell through the commodity exchange, paid also to the clusters that buy it there, and 1.5 million sum a hectare for clusters growing cotton on their own land, Gazeta.uz reported at 14:55; the interest on textile exporters’ loans is proposed to be compensated above 5% in foreign currency and above 14% in sum for 3 years, and the government is to draft a refund of 3% of the value of goods sold through marketplaces. Out of the same day in Andijan came a border post: Keskanyor, agreed with the Kyrgyz side, twice the size of Dustlik, to be designed and started within 3 months.
Bad weather sweeps 19 Kazakh servicemen into the Caspian during the Khazar Korgany-2026 naval exercise: 9 dead, 3 rescued, 7 missing
Nineteen servicemen of Kazakhstan’s naval forces were swept into the Caspian Sea off Mangystau on Thursday when the weather turned and the wind rose during the Khazar Korgany-2026 exercise, the defence ministry said; 9 died, 3 were rescued, one of them in hospital, and the search for the other 7 was still running when the government’s statement went out at 15:12 Astana time. Prime minister Olzhas Bektenov put a government commission under deputy prime minister Kanat Bozumbaev and ordered him to the site; the Prosecutor General’s office opened a criminal case.
Erdoğan receives Pashinyan at Türkevi in New York, backs normalisation in trade and transport and invites him to the COP31 leaders’ summit
President Erdoğan received Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at Türkevi in New York on Wednesday, with foreign minister Hakan Fidan beside him, and told him Türkiye supported “the normalisation process in bilateral trade and transport”, welcomed “reciprocal steps in the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia” and invited him to the COP31 leaders’ summit Türkiye will host, Hürriyet reported at 20:27 Istanbul time. Armenia’s side went into the meeting saying it “looks forward to border opening, launch of rail connectivity with Türkiye”, Armenpress reported at midday, and came out of it, in Arka’s headline, with both sides seeing a need to “stimulate trade and economic ties”.
Mongolia’s cabinet orders a coal pyrolysis plant at Baganuur for 600,000 tonnes of semi-coke a year, 67% owned by the sovereign fund, to be running by early 2028
The government decided at its regular meeting on Wednesday to build a coal pyrolysis plant on the Baganuur mine through a public-private partnership: 600,000 tonnes of semi-coke a year, a 40 MW power unit and 400 jobs, with construction starting in the fourth quarter of 2026 and commissioning in the first quarter of 2028, Montsame reported. Chinggis Khaan Sovereign Wealth Fund Holding is to hold 67% of the operating company, Baganuur Coal-Chemical Plant LLC, and the capital city 33%; the stated purpose is to cut Ulaanbaatar’s air pollution with a smokeless fuel.
Berdimuhamedov gives the Halk Maslahaty a 6.3% year, 41.2 billion manat of investment and 5,300 jobs and asks it for an industrial strategy to 2045
President Serdar Berdimuhamedov told the Halk Maslahaty’s session in Ashgabat that Turkmenistan’s growth “will amount to 6.3 percent” by the end of the year, that capital investment “will amount to over 41 billion 200 million manat” and that the jobs created by the year’s end “will amount to about 5 thousand 300”, the state portal’s text of the speech published late on Wednesday shows. The grain harvest delivered “over 1 million 400 thousand tonnes”, the cotton growers “will deliver 1 million 250 thousand tonnes”, the silk farms produced “over 2 thousand 100 tonnes of cocoons”, and the independence holiday will run 3 days, “27, 28 and 29 September”. He asked the session to adopt a National Strategy of Industrial Development for 2030 to 2045.
Kazakhstan’s Kurultai ratifies a framework with the AIIB for about $6 billion of concessional money over 5 years, at 1 to 1.5% a year, for 3 roads and a railway
The Kurultai adopted in 2 readings on Wednesday the law ratifying Kazakhstan’s framework partnership agreement with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, signed in February during the visit of the bank’s president Zou Jiayi, Kazinform and Zakon.kz reported. Deputy prime minister and national economy minister Serik Zhumangarin told the deputies the agreement lets the government draw “long money” on concessional terms of about $6 billion in the first 5 years after ratification, at 1 to 1.5% a year, for 17 projects worth $5.3 billion in transport, energy, health and green finance: the Zhezkazgan-Karaganda, Aktobe-Karabutak-Ulgaisyn and Atyrau-Dossor roads and the Moyynty-Kyzylzhar railway among them.
Pashinyan says Armenia is talking to 5 countries about a new nuclear plant, with Rosatom’s 1,200 MW study already in Yerevan and Metsamor’s life running to 2026
Armenia is negotiating with the United States, Russia, China, France and South Korea over a new nuclear power plant and “is looking for the best offer to start construction”, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a panel of the Concordia summit in New York, Arka reported on Wednesday at 14:27. Metsamor supplies up to 40% of the country’s electricity, its operating life has been extended to 2026 and work is under way on a further extension of 10 years; a preliminary feasibility study by Rosatom for a new 1,200 MW unit is already before the Armenian side, and the plan is to build the new plant within 8 to 10 years.
Remittances to Kyrgyzstan fall to $279.5 million in July, 12% below a year earlier, with Russia sending 9 dollars in 10
Individuals sent $279.5 million to Kyrgyzstan in July, the National Bank’s figures show: $262.1 million from CIS countries, $253.9 million of it from Russia, and $17.4 million from further abroad. The month is $12.6 million below June’s record of $292.1 million and $38.2 million below the $317.7 million of July 2025, a fall of 12% on the year; money sent out of the country fell to $24.4 million from $35.5 million in June, $21.8 million of it to the CIS.
Diesel in Dushanbe falls 6% as Russian deliveries triple, while petrol rises 7.4% and liquefied gas 18% in 3 weeks
AI-92 petrol in Dushanbe costs about 14.50 somoni a litre against 13.50 at the end of August, liquefied gas 6.70 against 5.70 and diesel 15.50 against 16.50, Asia-Plus reported on Wednesday: petrol up about 7.4% in under a month, gas up about 18%, diesel down about 6%. The diesel fall follows Russia’s August deliveries of more than 56,000 tonnes against about 16,000 in July, a 3.5-fold rise; the reasons the authorities have given for the petrol rise are the world market, export restrictions in producing countries and transport costs.
Georgia and China discuss a joint transport working group with Anaklia as the cornerstone and $7 billion of Georgian infrastructure money to 2032
Economy minister Mariam Kvrivishvili met China’s transport minister Liu Wei to discuss a joint working group across rail, sea, road and civil aviation, with the Anaklia deep-sea port placed “as a cornerstone infrastructure project for the Middle Corridor”, the ministry said in an account bm.ge carried on Wednesday at 13:15. Kvrivishvili put about $7 billion on Georgia’s infrastructure through 2032, and the ministry names the targets: to double the capacity of the maritime and rail networks and to triple airport throughput. The sides discussed direct routes from Tbilisi to Beijing and Guangzhou and cited the initiative adopted at the Global Sustainable Transport Forum in Beijing to raise the capacity, reliability and competitiveness of the Trans-Caspian route.
Mongolia’s new justice minister declares 3 apartments worth 2.2 billion tugrik and shares in at least 6 companies, the anti-corruption agency’s register shows
G. Temuulen, sworn in as justice and home affairs minister on Tuesday, holds 3 apartments with a combined declared value of 2.2 billion tugrik and shares in at least 6 companies, gogo.mn reported from the Anti-Corruption Agency’s declaration register in the first hour of Wednesday, naming TTEM, Euroconstruction, Harte Gold Corp, Khanburgedei, Yarlag and Taobao Mongol among them. Dorgio.mn’s reading of the same register when the ruling party nominated him on 17 September lists the first 5 with Chemostemics as the sixth, and adds vehicles at 1.2 billion tugrik, livestock at 523 million, deposits of 94 million, loans of 303 million, his own annual income of 75 million and his family’s of 134 million.
Kyrgyzstan signs 3 export protocols with China’s customs chief and gets Torugart opened to its grain as it thanks Beijing for fuel
Deputy cabinet chairman Erlist Akunbekov and the head of China’s General Administration of Customs, Sun Meijun, signed 3 protocols on quarantine, sanitary and phytosanitary requirements for Kyrgyz exports at a working meeting during Akunbekov’s visit to China, and agreed that Kyrgyz grain will go to China through the Torugart crossing, open.kg reported on Tuesday night in the account 24.kg carried on Wednesday morning. Akunbekov also thanked the Chinese side for its support in keeping fuel supplies from China to Kyrgyzstan stable, and raised longer working hours at Torugart.
Ashgabat sets the CIS summit and a Caspian ecological summit for Avaza on 9 October with Putin confirmed, as the Halk Maslahaty gathers 4 days before the 35th anniversary
Turkmenistan will host the CIS Council of Heads of State and a Caspian Ecological Summit in the Avaza national tourist zone on 9 October, and President Putin “again confirmed his participation” in both, the state news agency’s account of the 2 presidents’ telephone call on Tuesday says. The call came on Serdar Berdimuhamedov’s birthday; the same account has him congratulating Putin on the conduct of Russia’s State Duma election and wishing “the new composition of the Russian parliament fruitful work”. On Wednesday the Halk Maslahaty, the country’s supreme representative body, holds its regular session in Ashgabat’s Maslahat köşgi palace, with the velayat delegations in the capital since Monday, 4 days before the 35th anniversary of independence on Sunday.
Mongolia’s parliament committee backs a 158 billion yen Japanese loan at 1.1% to expand the Chinggis Khaan airport by 2034
The State Great Khural’s economic standing committee voted on Wednesday to support the government’s request to negotiate an exchange of notes with Japan and a loan agreement of up to 158,284,000,000 yen at 1.1% a year, with the principal free of repayment for the first 10 years, for the expansion of the Chinggis Khaan International Airport, the parliament’s site reported. It adds 81,900 square metres to the airport and is timed for operation in 2034; finance minister Z. Mendsaikhan presented it, and 59.4% of the members present supported it. From the committee its opinion goes to the budget committee and to the security and foreign policy committee.
Uzbekistan’s statement to the UN General Assembly goes to Saida Mirziyoyeva, the head of the presidential administration, a year after the president gave it himself
Saida Mirziyoyeva, head of the Presidential Administration, will speak for Uzbekistan in the general debate of the 81st General Assembly, which runs from Tuesday to Saturday and on Monday 28 September, Gazeta.uz reported on Tuesday, citing its sources. She met the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, on the session’s sidelines on Monday, the state daily Yangi O’zbekiston reported at 08:15 on Tuesday; a year ago the 80th session’s debate heard President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.