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Western Uzbekistan faces salary problems

MAY 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Last year, teachers in Nukus, in western Uzbekistan, received chickens, potatoes and carrots in lieu of their salaries because the authorities had run out of cash to pay them, RFE/RL reported. Wage arrears and liquidity shortages have become commonplace in Uzbekistan. Last week, teachers in Tashkent complained that they had not received salaries for two months. An economic downturn has hit Uzbekistan and its neighbours in Central Asia hard.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Iran swaps oil plans with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan

MAY 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran’s deputy oil minister, Amir Hossein Zamaninia said his country plans to swap oil and gas with Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Currently, Iran relies solely on Turkmen supplies for its northern provinces. In the past few years, Iran has signed short-term swaps with Kazakhstan and Russia. The new plan aims to turn these short-term deals into long-term agreements. Central Asian states, especially Kazakhstan, have been keen to pull Iran into their sphere of economic influence since most sanctions were lifted earlier this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Editorial: NGOs in Kyrgyzstan

MAY 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Liberal, Western forces in Kyrgyzstan have scored a major victory by defeating a bill that had the Kremlin’s fingerprints all over it.

Essentially, the so called foreign agents bill aimed to blacklist NGOs which had links with foreign governments and organisations.

This blacklist would have meant more surveillance, checks and interference. It would have put many NGOs, which operate on tight margins and may not be pushing the preferred Kyrgyz government line, into liquidation.

Instead, by mounting a serious-minded campaign and targeting MPs who had a vote on the issue, those against the law were able to at first get it watered down and then scrapped altogether.

This is good news too for Kyrgyzstan’s fledgling parliamentary democracy, only five-years-old last year. It shows resilience and that the system is working. This was democracy in action in Central Asia.

The result of the MPs’ vote may also show that this term’s MPs, voted in last year, are more liberal bunch.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Russia complains about Georgian military exercises

MAY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia complained about a military exercise in Georgia involving US and British forces, saying that it was a destabilising influence.

The exercise is the biggest joint NATO-Georgia exercise ever run in Georgia and, for the first time involves heavy US tanks. Georgia has made clear its desire to join NATO and views these exercises as important milestones. Reuters reported that 650 US soldiers were involved in the exercise, 500 Georgian soldiers and 150 British soldiers.

Russia and Georgia fought a war in 2008 over the rebel region of South Ossetia. Relations have improved but both sides are wary.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

GM Uzbekistan’s car sales to Russia fall in April

MAY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Sales of GM Uzbekistan’s cars to Russia fell 5% in April compared to the same month last year, dashing hopes raised last month that sales were starting to improve.

Russia is GM Uzbekistan’s biggest market, leaving it badly exposed to a Russian economic recession.

Car sales to Russia had started to pick up in February and March for GM Uzbekistan, a joint venture between US-based GM and state owned UzAvtosanoat, raising hopes that the worst of the economic down- turn had been weathered.

But data from the Moscow-based Association of European Businesses (AEB), which publishes monthly sales numbers in Russia, said GM Uzbekistan had sold just 1,571 units in April, down from 1,677 in March. As a comparison, this is around a third of the sales number of the same month in 2012.

Joerg Schreiber, AEB chairman said, that the outlook wasn’t any better.

“The volume of absolute sales [in Russia] has fallen to the lowest level in 10 years,” he said in a statement.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Huawei and Uzbek telecom start JV

MAY 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – China’s Huawei Technologies and Uztelecom, Uzbekistan’s state owned telecoms company, said they will start a joint venture, called Broadband Solutions, to produce telecoms kits. The new company will be based in the Jizzak special economic zone, around 100km northeast of Samarkand. Uztelecom will take a 51% stake in the joint venture, Huawei will own the rest. The deal valued the company at around $6m.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Editorial: Uzbek state salaries

MAY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Paying salaries on time to its armies of state employees is one of the Uzbek government’s central tasks. If it doesn’t, it means there are some serious cracks in the system.

According to news reports, arrears for salaries in Uzbekistan now extend to a couple of months for teachers in schools and colleges.

There is a heavy economic crisis blowing through Central Asia and the South Caucasus, but where is the government’s money in Uzbekistan?

Some sources say it is being funnelled into short-term construction and renovation projects ahead of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation coming up in June.

Last year, a leaked letter sent from the Central Bank said that the budget was short of around $620m.

Reports from Turkmenistan, another reclusive country, said that the government had been paying salaries in kind or with vouchers to some of its employees for months.

These are tough times for many Central Asians.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Glencore to sell Kazakh mine

MAY 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Switzerland-based miner Glencore said it is considering selling its share in the Vasilkovskoye gold mine in Kazakhstan for around $2b. Glencore owns 70% of Kazzinc, the company that operates Vasilkovskoye which is located 300 km north-west of Astana. According to unnamed sources quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the buyers could be Chinese investors. China has been looking to buy Kazakh gold.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Kazakhstan explains power nexus

APRIL 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan has sold 218m kWh of electricity to Kyrgyzstan in 2016 at a price of 9 tenge ($0.03) per kWh from the Ekibastuz power station, the Kazakh government said. Kazakhstan earned around $6m from the sale. Kyrgyzstan is a net importer of electricity from neighbouring countries due to chronic water shortages in recent years. Last year, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan exported around 400m kWh to Kyrgyzstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Editorial: Nazarbayev and protests

MAY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a choreographed government meeting, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev blamed everyone but himself for the turmoil that proposed amendments to the land code have brought to the country.

The presidential press service posted parts of the government meeting on Facebook showing an angry Mr Nazarbayev.

He dressed down the ministers of economy and agriculture for having failed to explain the land reform to the population. With a patronising tone, Mr Nazarbayev said the population had been unable to understand the reform and needed to be spoon-fed details.

Once more, Mr Nazarbayev wanted to portray himself as the strong leader, the one who understands the people.

Nobody should be fooled. These were, and still are, Mr Nazarbayev’s reforms.

Everyone in Kazakhstan knows that for a bill to pass, especially an important one such as the land code, Mr Nazarbayev’s input is crucial.

He misjudged the appetite of the people to accept the land reforms.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)