Author Archives: admin

Uzbek mayor talks on anti-divorce measures

OCT. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Rakhmonbek Usmanov, the mayor of Tashkent, has said that he will name and shame couples who are seeking a divorce, Voice of America reported on its website. Quoting local media, VOA said that Mr Usmanov had become so exasperated with the growing number of divorces in Tashkent that he has drawn up a plan to name divorcing couples on a popular radio station and also in a local evening newspaper.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Turkmenistan introduces new banking law

OCT. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to reassure nervous savers that the Turkmen banking sector was safe, Turkmenistan has introduced a new law which forces banks to guarantee saving deposits. Poor regional economic conditions have hit Turkmenistan hard with reports leaking out of the country of shortages and of the government running out of cash to pay its thousands of workers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Kazakh economy minister says the worst is past

ALMATY, OCT. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s economy minister Kuandyk Bishimbayev said that the worst of an economic downturn linked to a drop in oil prices and a recession in Russia had passed, the most significant upbeat statement from the Kazakh government in two years.

Specifically, Mr Bishimbayev said that the free float of the tenge last year, which triggered a collapse in its value, had been painful but was now driving the economy and making business more competitive.

“We believe that the most difficult period has been passed for Kazakhstan’s economy. We estimate that the period was in the first quarter of this year, it was the time of the lowest oil prices,” he said.

“There has been steady growth in the economy since June this year.”

Despite Mr Bishimbayev’s upbeat message, the data points to a still sluggish economy.

Economists have predicted that Kazakhstan’s GDP growth will contract this year to nearly zero. But with oil prices pushing back up to $55/barrel, double their value from the start of the year, officials have adopted a more upbeat narrative, even if caveats are dropped in.

Talking to parliament the following day, Mr Bishimbayev said that a more efficient tax collection system was needed to increase revenues from smaller businesses which had grown used to avoiding paying VAT and other taxes.

“If we want to continue to develop our systems, of course, a certain increase in the tax burden is needed, but not at the expense of those companies which already pay full taxes but at the expense of those who work outside the system,” media quoted him as saying.

Specifically, he said a third of small businesses don’t pay their full taxes.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Georgian soldiers shoot man

OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Soldiers guarding a Georgian army base shot dead a man, named as Giorgi Shengelia, who they said had tried to break into the camp, media reported. Details of the incident at the Krtsanisi base near Tbilisi are thin. Media did not report whether the apparent attempted break-in was linked to crime or to Islamic extremism. The dead man’s family have accused the military of accidentally shooting Shengelia and then trying to cover it up.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Acting Uzbek President wants court strengthened

OCT. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Continuing his apparent charm offensive ahead of a presidential election on Dec. 4, acting Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree to improve and strengthen the country’s judicial system. Media reported that the decree should strengthen the rights of the defendants and the independence of the courts. Human rights groups have said that the Uzbek state uses the courts to impose its political will.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Petrol prices rise by 35% in Uzbekistan

OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan increased the price of petrol by nearly 35%, underscoring the inflationary pressure built into its economy. State energy company Uzbekneftegaz said it was rising the price of a litre of AI-80 petrol to 2,800 soum from 2,075 soum. Other grades of petrol were given a similar price rise. Uzbekistan has been steadily increasingly the price of key items such as gas, electricity and petrol as the value of its soum currency falls, angering and frustrating ordinary people.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Japan’s Mitsubishi to build new thermal power station in Uzbekistan

OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation signed a contract with state-owned Uzbekenergo for the construction of a second co-generation station at the Navoi thermal power plant which will significantly increase the plant’s capacity.

Navoi, in central Uzbekistan, is one of the country’s main industrial hubs.

Mitsubishi had participated in the construction of a 478 megawatt co- generation station that the Uzbek government commissioned in 2009.

Electricity generation is a major issue in the region with governments scrambling to replace aging Soviet- era technology.

Mitsubishi will work together with Turkey’s Calik Enerji. The two companies said construction of the new, 450 megawatt station will be completed by 2019.

Mitsubishi and Uzbekenergo had agreed on the feasibility of the new station in 2014. Like several other major infrastructure projects, the expansion of Navoi had been questioned due to the regional economic slump.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Kazakh businessman buys Turkish companies

OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nurlan Saurambayev, CEO of SAT & Co, a Kazakh industrial conglomerate, bought two of the company’s Turkish subsidiaries, SAT&Co Holding A.S. and SAT&Co Madencilik A.S. for an undisclosed amount. Powerful businessman Kenes Rakishev owns 77.7% in SAT & Co. Mr Rakishev had increased his stake in late 2015, after forcing former CEO Rollan Mussinov to step down. Mr Saurambayev was appointed CEO in October 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Azerbaijan jails for 10 years activist who graffitied Heydar Aliyev statue

OCT. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Baku sentenced a 22-year- old activist to 10 years in jail after he sprayed anti-government slogans on a statue of former president, Heydar Aliyev.

Giyas Ibrahimov was arrested with fellow activist Bayram Mammadov in May 2016, hours after a photo of the graffiti was posted on Facebook. Both were later charged with drug possession although the men said that these were bogus and were politically motivated.

Opposition groups have said that the authorities wanted a particularly heavy sentence against Ibrahimov because of the sensitivity of defacing a state of Heydar Aliye, father of current president Ilham Aliyev.

Before he was led away at the end of his trial, Ibrahimov was defiant “We didn’t violate any law, we violated the rules of a corrupt system,” he said.

Mr Mammadov, who was arrested with Ibrahimov, is still waiting for his case to be heard.

Erkin Gadirli, academic and member of the opposition REAL movement told The Conway Bulletin that President Aliyev would have taken the defacing of the statue personally.

“The punishment was so severe in order to teach a lesson to other activists,” he said.

The court’s verdict was also rare because the judge handed out a longer jail sentence than the prosecution had asked for. The prosecutor had asked for nine years but Ibrahimov was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Just hours after the verdict was passed, slogans of solidarity and support for the jailed activist started appearing on Baku’s streets. Importantly for the authorities, though, none of the many symbols and statues of Heydar Aliyev were defaced.

Others, though, thought the sentence was justified.

“I am against random street graffiti. As far as I know Giyas has been arrested on a drug charge,” Seda Huseyn wrote on a blog. “Anyway, what’s the point of slogan-scribbling? It works for the interests of human rights defenders. They use Giyas for their filthy ambitions like receiving grants from abroad.”

Europe and the US have criticised Azerbaijan during the past few years over its treatment of opposition activists. It’s likely that Ibrahimov’s case will generate more criticism of the Azerbaijani authorities

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

GDP growth slows in Turkmenistan

OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s GDP annualised growth slowed to 6.2% in the first nine months of the year, down from 7.5% during the same period in 2015, the Turkmen state news agency said. Turkmen official statistics are considered unreliable and the information leaking out of the country points to severe economic hardship. The data is valuable in highlighting the economic slow- down that Turkmenistan and its neighbours are dealing with.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)