NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s trade with Russia, its most important partner, has fallen sharply this year compared to the same period in 2014, official data showed. Exports to Russia were down 28% to $158.5m and imports were down over 10% to $712.7m between Jan-Sept. A recession in Russia has hit Central Asia and South Caucasus.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Inflation in Georgia hit 5.8% for the 12 months to the end of October, the Geostat statistics agency said, the highest rate of price increases since 2011. Geostat said that health care, electricity and various house- hold goods and furnishings had pushed up prices.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 3/4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev flew to Britain and France to sign a series of headline grabbing deals and pose for useful photo-ops.
In London, Mr Nazarbayev met with PM David Cameron and the Queen. The two sides signed 40 deals for £3b ($4.6b).
Importantly, Mr Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter Dariga, a deputy PM, accompanied him on the trip and was part of the official photo with the Queen. In Soviet and post-Soviet iconography, featuring in official photographs sends a strong signal and being photographed next to her father at an official engagement with the Queen will have boosted any presidential ambitions that Ms Nazarbayeva harbours.
In Paris, Mr Nazarbayev met with President Françoise Hollande and signed another set of deals worth over $5b, according to state media in Kazakhstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz PM Temir Sariyev inaugurated the second phase of a modernisation programme for the country’s biggest power plant outside Bishkek, a project considered vital for boosting the country’s decrepit power-generating infrastructure.
China agreed to fund the power plant upgrade, that will double capacity back to Soviet-era levels, in 2013 with a $386m loan from its Import-Export Bank. It handed the contract to strip out old Soviet-era kit and replace them with two new power producing units to China TBEA, a private company.
And Mr Sariyev was quick to praise China for its help in overhauling Kyrgyzstan’s power sector.
“I want to note the successful cooperation with China on the implementation of energy projects in the country and to express gratitude for the contribution to the economy of Kyrgyzstan,” he said according to media.
Earlier this year Kyrgyzstan opened a new power line that will transmit electricity from hyrdo- electric stations in the south of the country to its main population centres in the north without having to cross over Uzbek territory, as it had previously.
China has been investing heavily in infrastructure across Central Asia. It views this strategy as important for winning political influence.
Bishkek’s population is growing but its infrastructure has not been upgraded.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Norway arrested Jo Lunder, the former CEO of Russian telecoms company VimpelCom, in connection with alleged bribe paying in Uzbekistan, further damaging the reputation of foreign telecoms companies operating in Central Asia.
A few days earlier, Norway’s industry minister, Monica Maeland, sacked Svein Aaser as Telenor’s chairman over the corruption probe. She said that Telenor had been handling an internal investigation into the case badly.
“I no longer have confidence in Telenor’s chairman,” Ms Maeland said in a statement.
VimpelCom is alleged to have paid millions of dollars in bribes to Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of President Islam Karimov, for mobile licences in Uzbekistan. Swedish TeliaSonera is also being investigated for bribe-paying.
In October, Telenor said it wanted to sell its 33% stake in VimpelCom, effectively cutting the company’s operations in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — London-listed Roxi Petroleum said technical issues in one of its main new wells in the BNG area in western Kazakhstan have slowed production. It didn’t give any more details. In a trading update, Roxi also said it would drill a new well nearby for $8.5m to speed up the beginning of operations. Roxi showed stagnant operational results in H1 2015.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — French company Air Liquide will form a joint venture with Kazakhstan’s state-owned Kazmunaigas to increase production of industrial gases at the country’s refineries. The agreement, signed during President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s visit to France, will improve the performance of Kazakhstan’s three refineries at Atyrau, Pavlodar and Shymkent.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s National Wine Agency said exports of wine fell by 43% in Jan-Oct 2015, a consequence of the economic downturn in Russia and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
More positively, exports to Europe and the US increased significantly and, so far this year, Georgia has sold 1.8m bottles of wine to China – an 87% increase.
“China is one of the most strategically important markets for Georgia,” the Agency said in a statement.
Russia remains Georgia’s largest market, although compared to the same period last year, exports have shrunk by 54% to 14.6m bottles. Kazakhstan outpaced Ukraine ranking second, while China jumped to fourth place.
Earlier this year, the Georgian National Wine Agency predicted a 50% fall in exports this year, as economic and political crises bite its most important customers.
Despite the fall in sales, the growth in new markets for Georgian wine should cheer its biggest wine producers — Badagoni, TelianiValley and Tbilvino.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Georgia handed the opposition leaning Rustavi-2 television station back to a pro-government businessman who owned it in 2004- 6, drawing accusations it was clamping down on free speech.
Two days after the ruling hundreds of people took to the streets of Tbilisi to protest against what they say is a crackdown on media freedom, ramping up tension in Georgia’s increasingly polarised society.
Under the court ruling, Kibar Kha- lvashi took back control of 60% of the shares in Rustavi-2, one of the most popular TV channels in Georgia, which he said he was pressured into selling to supporters of the then president Mikheil Saaskashvili.
“I declared at the beginning that it was my battle for justice. I want justice to be restored for everyone that suffered from Saakashvili’s regime,” media quoted Mr Khalvashi as saying. “This applies not only to Rustavi-2, but also to all other personal property that has been lost or confiscated.”
The other 40% of Rustavi2 is held by Panorama ltd. The current owners, two businessmen, have appealed the court’s decision.
The row over ownership of Rus- tavi-2 is just the latest increasingly bitter row between supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition and their opponents, mainly Mr Saakashvilil’s former party — the UNM.
The Georgian Dream coalition, bankrolled by Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, won a parliamentary election in Georgian in 2012 and a presidential election in 2013. Since then public prosecutors have accused various supporters of Mr Saaskashvili of crimes when they were in power, imprisoning them or chasing them out of the country.
The US and European governments have warned the Georgian government of pursuing vendettas.
On Friday, several hundred people again gathered outside the headquarters of the TV station.
“We will not let the so-called new management enter our premises,” Rustavi2’s news anchor Zaal Udu- mashvili told the AFP news agency. “We will defend Rustavi-2 physically, using all available legal means.”
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities paid a journalist working for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty $30,000 in compensation after they admitted that police officers had beaten him in 2008. Agil Khalil was beaten by policemen when he tried to take photos in Baku.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)