OCT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s exiled former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev published an autobiography of his time in office, a move that will irritate the Kyrgyz leadership. Mr Bakiyev presented his book in Belarus, where he fled after a revolution in 2010. Kyrgyzstan has tried unsuccessfully to extradite Mr Bakiyev to face various corruption charges.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Turkmen foreign ministry complained to Kazakhstan about a statement made by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Astana last week when he alleged that there was fighting on the Turkmen-Afghan border. Media in Afghanistan reported fighting between the Taliban and government forces. Turkmenistan has refuted claims the fighting threatens its borders.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili accused the opposition UNM of being a criminal gang that didn’t deserve to exist after videos of security officers abusing prisoners during the UNM’s time in office were leaked. The West has accused Mr Garibashvili and the Georgian Dream coalition of pursuing a witch-hunt against the UNM.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uz-Kor Gas, a joint venture between South Korean and Uzbek companies, has finished building a $3.9b natural gas processing plant in Uzbekistan, a project that will improve commercial and diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Located in the Karakalpakstan region of north-western Uzbekistan, the Ustyurt Gas Chemical Complex will become the biggest petrochemical complex in Europe and Asia. Ustyurt includes a new gas field and a petrochemical plant. Its production will be mostly earmarked for the export market.
Companies from South Korea and Uzbekistan have been working on the project since 2006 through a joint- venture that includes Lotte Chemical, part of the Lotte Group, state-owned Korea Gas and Uzbekistan’s energy company Uzbekneftegaz.
Huh Soo-young, CEO of Lotte Chemical, said production would begin in 2016.
“From extracting liquefied natural gas in the upstream, to cracking and processing LNG into petrochemical products in the downstream, we have successfully built up a vertical integration system,” Mr Huh told the Korea Herald.
The plant will receive around 3.6mn tonnes of liquefied natural gas each year from a field in Surgil, around 100km away from the complex.
Lotte Chemical has predicted it will earn around 1tn won ($890mn) each year from the new project. Mr Huh said the complex would only be profitable as long as energy prices stay at current levels.
“As long as crude oil prices remain above $40, our petrochemical products based on low-cost ethane will remain competitive in the global market,” he said.
Uzbekistan and South Korea have been improving their commercial ties. In May, Uzbek president Islam Karimov used his visit foreign trip after winning re-election to travel to South Korea to close deals worth $7.7b.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 21 2015, ASTANA (The Conway Bulletin) — International human rights groups criticised Kazakhstan’s draft bill on NGOs as an attempt to seriously restrict civil society’s activities.
The new bill would hand the government control of foreign grants and also restrict the operational sphere of NGOs.
Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE representative on freedom of the media, said: “Introducing legislation that would put NGOs under strict governmental supervision, including the control of foreign grants, is worrying for civil society actors in general”.
The OSCE is Europe’s intergovernmental democracy watchdog.
The government has said that it needs clearer oversight over how NGOs operate in the country. Its detractors, though, have said it is far too similar to a bill introduced by Russia a few years ago.
Gulmira Birzhanova, a lawyer and expert in national and international media law, who works in the Legal Media Center NGO in Astana, said the bill contradicted basic constitutional rights.
“The proposed legislation violates freedom of assembly as stated in our Constitution,” Ms Birzhanova told the Bulletin in an interview.
Under the new law, the ministry of culture and sports will be in charge of assigning funds, which Ms Birzhanova said would hand it the ultimate control over NGOs’ operations.
“The ministry will act as a central operator that will distribute finances and grants to NGOs no matter if they receive it from the governmental budget or from international sources,” she said. “This creates a thorny situation because NGOs are often engaged in disputes against the government.”
Analysts have said that despite the criticism of the bill, the Kazakh parliament may be looking to turn it into law by the end of the year.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Germany will close its base in Termez, south Uzbekistan, later this year, marking the final withdrawal of Western military forces from Central Asia, media reported quoting official sources.
With operations in neighbouring Afghanistan winding down, it had only ever been a matter of time before the German base at Termez was closed, although the announcement did come just nine months after Germany said it wanted to extend the lifespan of the base.
The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted German military spokesman Dominik Wullers: “Termez right now is just a backup. We are not effectively using it right now, that’s the reason why we are closing it. Some [personnel] will be transferred to Mazar-e Sharif in Afghanistan where we have our base, while others will relocate to Germany.”
The US closed its airbase at Manas outside Bishkek last year and the French military has wound down operations in Dushanbe.
Some Uzbek analysts, though, said the withdrawal of Germany may be linked with Uzbekistan’s demand for a higher fee to rent the base. The Uzbek government had said the rental fee would double to 70m euro in 2016. In 2005, Germany had been paying Uzbekistan only 12.5 euro.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — After a lengthy legal spat, Kazakhstan’s oil pipeline company KazTransOil (KTO) liquidated Batumi Terminals Ltd, its subsidiary in Georgia. Earlier in March, a Georgian court seized Batumi Terminals’ assets on charges that it had abused its monopolistic position. The charges were eventually dropped.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia has complained to NATO about an incursion by the Turkish military into its airspace earlier this month. Turkey is a NATO member and has stepped-up activity in the east of the country to counter the IS extremist group. Armenia’s military said that on Oct. 6 and Oct. 7 a Turkish military transport helicopter strayed into its airspace.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Eurasian Economic Commission published the latest statistics on trade turnover among EEU countries. It made for interesting, if also distressing, reading.
Trade among Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan was down by a quarter in Jan.-Aug. 2015, compared to the same period last year.
By volume, Russia was the country that suffered the largest fall, amounting to over $4b. In terms of percentage, however, all other countries except for Kyrgyzstan fared worse — Kyrgyzstan acceded as a full member only in August, so its numbers could be misleading.
Curiously, Armenia increased trade turnover with non-EEU countries such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan by over 40%.
In the two periods analysed by the Commission, oil prices were significantly different. And this can be clearly seen in Kazakhstan’s statistics, which show a sharp fall in exports to Italy, China and Russia, its main trade partners by volume. In particular, the value of Kazakhstan’s exports were reduced by the double whammy of lower oil prices and the decrease in the value of the tenge after the government abandoned its peg to the US dollar.
It is undeniable that the rouble crisis and the fall in oil prices have affected the Eurasian region. And the EEU has been unabel to contain the spill-over effects on its members.
OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) —
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev will visit Qatar, Britain and France over the next two weeks, according to his official website akorda.kz. Qatar is one of Kazakhstan’s main partners in financial and infrastructure cooperation. Mr Nazarbayev has cultivated close ties with Britain and France.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)