The EBRD is boosting its support to the financial sector in the Kyrgyz Republic with a 270 million Kyrgyz som loan (US$ 6 million equivalent) to Bai Tushum and Partners, one of the country’s leading non-bank microfinance institutions, to provide more affordable som loans to small businesses.

• July 9, 2011

Mongolia has announced the winners of a long-fought contest to develop part of Tavan Tolgoi, one of the largest coking coal deposits in the world.

• July 9, 2011

The United States will look to enhance the scope of counter-terrorism cooperation with India during the second US-India Strategic Dialogue to be held in New Delhi in the third week of July.

• July 9, 2011

Kyiv and Chisinau will coordinate their efforts on joining the European Union. Such an agreement was reached at a meeting between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryshchenko and Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Iurie Leanca, which was held during the Ukrainian minister's visit to Moldova.

• July 8, 2011

The proposed merger of the electricity assets of state-run Russian gas giant Gazprom and the privately owned Renova Group is likely to face a stern regulatory challenge as the deal would effectively roll back recent efforts to privatise the country's electricity generation sector.

• July 8, 2011

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov and his visiting Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu signed on July 7 2011 a declaration pledging co-operation between the two countries’ governments in a wide range of areas.

• July 7, 2011

A major battle between Slovakia’s environmentalists and the government is emerging as Greenpeace charges that the country’s recently completed nuclear power plant at Mochovce in Nitra has in fact violated the public’s rights.

• July 6, 2011

On March 26, the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant's No. 1 reactor would have celebrated its 40th birthday, making it a senior citizen, where once, utilities estimated reactors' life spans to be 30 to 40 years.

• July 6, 2011