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Georgia plans to boost foreign investment

OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili chaired the first session of Georgia’s Investors’ Council, a body that aims to bring local businesses and major international financial institutions together. Mr Garibashvili set up the Council in May. Foreign investment plays a significant role in Georgia’s economy. The government wants to stimulate the economy by giving potential investors a boost.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Kazakhstan issues new post codes for Astana

OCT. 29 2015, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazpochta, the Kazakh state-owned post service, signed a deal with Astana to switch to alpha- numeric post codes, evidence of the population boom in Kazakhstan’s capital city.

Post codes in Astana will now pinpoint a specific building, rather than just an area, a practice that closely resembles Britain’s custom.

The indexing system vastly increases the number of post codes available to use in Astana and will be rolled out later this year in some of the city’s new industrial developments, said Bagdat Musin, Kazpochta’s chairman.

“The new system will facilitate not only postmen, but also emergency workers,” he said.

With an official population of 860,000, doubling in the past decade, Astana has grown fast.

But it remains something of a commuter city. At the weekend Astana hollows out as the middle class head to Almaty to eat, drink, relax and party.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Kerry heads to Kyrgyzstan at start of Central Asia tour

OCT. 27 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — US State Secretary, John Kerry, was due to fly to Kyrgyzstan on Oct. 31 for the start of his first tour of Central Asia, a stopover considered vital to repair relations with an ally that has drifted towards Russia over the past couple of years.

In Bishkek, Mr Kerry will hold bilateral discussions with senior Kyrgyz officials, including President Almazbek Atambayev, and open a new campus for the American University of Central Asia.

Top of Mr Kerry’s agenda will be the growing influence of Russia as well as a draft bill banning so-called gay propaganda and a law that bans local NGOs from foreign funding.

Marat Kazakpayev, a Bishkek analyst, said US investments and security would be discussed.

“They will discuss security in the region, including situation in Afghanistan and Syria, as well what to do to counter terrorism,” he said.

The US operated an airbase from the Manas airport outside Bishkek for 13 years until 2014 when it was wound down alongside military operations in Afghanistan.

For Mr Kerry and the US, this is an important trip to Central Asia.

It has ceded influence in the region to Russia and China. Russia has the historical, political and cultural links; China has the financial firepower.

In contrast, with the scaling down of military operations in Afghanistan, the US and the West have appeared to disengage with Central Asia. Mr Kerry’s main mission will be to re- assure the region’s leaders that the US is still interested in Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Georgia investigates Saakashvili’s alleged plot

OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors in Georgia have opened an investigation into recordings of phone conversations that allegedly showed former president Mikheil Saakashvili discussing a potential revolution in Georgia. Mr Saakashvili is currently serving in Ukraine as the governor of Odessa.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Kyrgyzstan to sell paper plant

OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz government said it wants to sell a bankrupt paper mill for 300m soms ($4.3m), a fraction of its original value. The plant, built in the early 2000s through a Kyrgyz-Chinese joint venture, cost around 151m yuan, ($24m) to build. It operated for only two years, before being mothballed. Paper prices have collapsed over the past few years, forcing paper mills around the world out of business.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Turkmenistan evicts for Games

OCT. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has forcibly evicted around 50,000 people from their homes in and around Ashgabat ahead of the 2017 Asian Indoors and Martial Arts Games, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report.

Researchers at Amnesty studied satellite images which they said showed evictions and demolitions between March 2014 and April 2015 in two Ashgabat neighbourhoods.

Ashgabat will host the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, a relatively minor Olympic event. It wants to impress visitors with a $2 Olympic Village and an extensive PR campaign on its readiness to open up to the world after decades of isolation.

Denis Krivosheev of Amnesty International said: “Instead of using the Games as an opportunity to clean up Turkmenistan’s human rights record, local authorities there have only succeeded in worsening living conditions for residents.”

Amnesty’s allegation, which the authorities have not refuted, will irritate the Turkmen government and further damage its image, just as it is trying to show the world a softer and more open side.

Analysis focused on Choganly and Shor, two so-called “dacha neighbourhoods” designated for holiday houses. More recently, though, Amnesty International said evictions were taking place in a suburb of Ashagbat too.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Armenia to subsidize electricity

OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s government and Tahir Group, which bought the country’s electricity networks last month, said that they will subsidise electricity prices until the end of July 2016. Earlier this year thousands of Armenians protested against proposed electricity price rises.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Tele2 profits in Kazakhstan increase by 34%

OCT. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish mobile operator Tele2 posted a 34% increase in revenues at its Kazakh subsidiary in Q3 2015, compared to the same period last year. The increase was partly due to the fall in the value of the tenge. Earlier in September, Pietari Kivikko, chairman of Tele2’s Kazakh subsidiary, had predicted a fall in revenues for all telecoms companies in Kazakhstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Uzbekistan raises coal imports

OCT. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek government has ordered more coal imports to match growing demand, media said. According to the website fergananews.com Uzbekistan will import around 330,000 tonnes of coal this winter. Regionally, Uzbekistan is a major gas producer, but it prefers to export most of the gas to earn foreign currency.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)

Azerbaijan’s Sofaz revenues drop

OCT. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) -The value of Azerbaijan’s sovereign wealth fund Sofaz dropped by 6.4% to $34.7b between Jan 1 and Oct 1, it said, a decrease that highlights the impact of the fall in oil prices and collapse in the value of its manat currency. Sofaz earns revenues from oil and gas contracts.

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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)