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Georgia Healthcare Group posts strong Q1 results

MAY 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s largest healthcare company, Georgia Healthcare Group (GHG), posted a 33% rise in revenue in the first quarter of 2016, highlighting rising demand from Georgians for private medical services.

Revenues increased to 71.7m lari (around $33m) in the first quarter of 2016, a jump of a third from 2015. The company attributed the positive results to its ability to grab market share in the healthcare sector.

And this is set to grow, according to GHG, which bought Georgian pharmaceutical retailer and wholesaler GPC earlier in May.

“We are clearly on track to deliver our target of more than doubling 2015 healthcare services revenues by 2018,” CEO Nikoloz Gamkrelidze said in a statement.

GHG also positively reviewed the recent tax reforms that the Georgian government put in place for next year. Under the new rules, undistributed profits will no longer be subject to a 15% profit tax. The government has said that the new tax rules are designed to encourage companies to invest, giving the economy a boost. In the short-term, though, the new tax code will reduce government income.

“We expect this amendment to take effect for our healthcare services earnings on 1 January 2017, and this is expected to significantly reduce the Group’s effective tax rate from 2017 onwards,” Mr Gamkrelidze said.

The healthcare sector in Georgia has proven resilient during the current economic downturn. This economic slowdown, which has hit the entire Central Asia and South Caucasus region, forced Georgia’s lari currency to fall by 30% in the past 18 months and has slowed GDP growth.

Last November, GHG listed its shares on the London Stock Exchange.

BGEO Group, a London-based holding company that owns Bank of Georgia, owns a 65.07% stake in GHG.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Turkmen President dishes out reprimands

MAY 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov rounded up and publicly shamed several government officials, in another televised show of strength. Most notably, Mr Berdymukhamedov targeted the minister of public utilities and the vice-minister of transport. Myratniyaz Abilov, mayor of Ashgabat, received his second reprimand in three months. Mr Berdymukhamedov said he is unhappy with the progress of construction work on the upcoming Asian Indoor Games. Mr Berdymukhamedov generally dishes out reprimands when Turkmenistan’s economy has tightened.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Uzbekistan opens language studies

MAY 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek government opened the first state university devoted entirely to the study of Uzbek language and literature. The new university, named after Alisher Navoi, a 15th century linguist and poet, is located in Tashkent. The Uzbek government considers Uzbek language as part of its national brand and an important part of its nation building.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Uzbek and Bulgarian oil companies open recycling plant

MAY 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bulgarian oil company Prista and Uzbekistan’s Uzneftprodukt opened a new oil recycling plant in Angren, eastern Uzbekistan. The new plant will process 43,000 tonnes of used oil and produce 30,000 tonnes of fuel per year. The venture spent around $15m building the plant. Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov travelled to Tashkent to take part in the inauguration ceremony.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Tajik migration slows by 10%

MAY 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik ministry of labour said that outbound migration decreased by 10% in the first four months of 2016, compared to the same period last year. Around 200,000 Tajik labour migrants left the country in Jan.-April 2016. Around 87% of the migrants are men. Most of them head to Russia for work. Remittances from migrants are an important part of Tajikistan’s economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Germany to vote on Armenian genocide

MAY 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – German lawmakers scheduled for June a vote on whether to label the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 as a “genocide”, a move that will score a major victory for Armenian lobby groups. In a 2005 resolution, the German parliament fell short of calling the deaths a genocide. France, Italy and a handful of other European countries recognise the 1915 events as a genocide, which irritates Turkey.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Afghan protest shows sensitivity of power line routes from Turkmenistan

MAY 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Thousands of Hazara, a minority group in Afghanistan, marched through Kabul to protest against the re-routing of a section of a power line that will transmit electricity from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The protests shows just how sensitive the issue of routing various power lines and pipelines through Afghanistan has become as they generate income for communities. As well as this power line, Afghanistan will also host a power line dubbed

CASA-1000 which will send power to Pakistan from Tajikistan and the TAPI pipeline which will pump Turkmen gas to India

The government has said a route change for the Turkmenistan-Pakistan power line would cut costs.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Kyrgyz President reshuffles government

MAY 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev appointed Abdikarim Alimbayev as the new chairman of the State Border Service. His predecessor, Raimberdi Duyshenbiyev, was appointed Chief of Staff. The Border Service is an important office in Kyrgyzstan. Unresolved border disputes with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have triggered clashes in the past months.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Azerbaijani cargo plane crashes

MAY 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – An Antonov-12 cargo plane operated by Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines crashed on take-off at Dwyer airport in south Afghanistan on Wednesday evening, media reported. Seven of the nine crew members were killed in the crash. The authorities later identified the dead as the Uzbek pilot, five Azerbaijani crew members and one Ukrainian technician. Two Ukrainians survived.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Total wants to sell stake in Azerbaijani project

MAY 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — French energy company Total asked for help from the Azerbaijani government with selling its share of gas from the Absheron field in the Caspian Sea, a source close to the deal told Natural Gas Europe. Total has not commented. Total said it will start production at the Absheron field in 2021 and has yet to sign export contracts for its gas.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)