Citizens of Azerbaijan and foreigners, as well as local and foreign entities, will be able to subscribe to the bonds, although the priority will be given to individual investors, the company said in a statement.  Foreigners and foreign legal entities will also be able to buy from bondholders in the secondary market.

The agency said that the rating was support-driven, but was one notch below Uzbekistan’s ‘BB-’ long-term local-currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR).

KazTransOil JSC said it had carried out work to connect the newly built sections of the Russia-bound Uzen-Atyrau-Samara main oil pipeline after reconstruction.

The country’s economy, which relies heavily on oil and gas production, took a serious hit from a decline in global oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first quarter, the economy shrank by 1.3 percent.

In fact, delimitation and change of sovereign states’ boundaries in general is always a painful process which has a serious impact on the concerned parties. 

The agreements were touted by officials as measures to boost industry and improve living standards and focused on efforts to diversify sources of supply, including the purchase of 130 electric locomotives by rolling stock manufacturer Alsthom to Ukrzaliznytsia – the national rail network - for a total of 900 million euros.