OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Metsamor nuclear power plant will shut down in two stages in 2017-2018 as part of a planned modernisation of the plant, the Armenian government said. The ministry of energy had planned one 6- month long closure in 2017, but pressure on electricity prices have forced the government to split the period into two phases.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
BISHKEK/Kyrgyzstan, OCT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Parliamentary elections in Kyrygzstan on Oct. 4 may be being lauded around the world as a great success for democracy in a region normally more closely associated with dictatorship and the rule of the autocrat but in some circles the gloom is palpable.
And its many of Bishkek’s Western-oriented youth who are the most pessimistic. This was the group that rebelled most strongly against the edict that to register to vote you had to hand over your biometric data to the authorities.
Many decided that it was better to safeguard your personal data and lose the vote.
Sitting in a university canteen in Bishkek, a group discussed the election. None of them had voted and none of them regretted this.
“I do not regret that I did not go to elections because I knew who would win, it was the same people and parties as in the 2010 elections,” said 23-year old Syrgak Arkabayev, a student.
He also said that he would not submit his biometric data ahead of the 2016 presidential elections either.
And he’s not alone. An estimate said that up to a third of Kyrgyzstan’s population had also decided not to file their biometric data to the authorities. They said that the authorities can’t be trusted to safeguard the data.
But in any case, and this undermines the argument that democracy in Kyrgyzstan is in rude health, the dissenters said that there had been little motivation to vote in the election.
“I don’t think elections can change something in Kyrgyzstan,” said Gulzat Matisakova, 24.
Meerim Batyrkanova, 23, who helped an OSCE team to observe elections in Balykchy, a town on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul told a Bulletin correspondent that she was disappointed with the preliminary list of deputies who won seats at the election.
“Mostly, there are the same faces of deputies, ministers and state officials in the list,” she said. “There will be no big changes in politics.”
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Trade between Azerbaijan and Iran is growing, media quoted a senior official in its eastern province as saying, and it will continue to increase as Iran strengthens ties with Russia. Iran views Azerbaijan, increasingly, as a gateway to Russia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US State Department said it was disturbed by reports that opposition TV channel Rustavi2 may be forced off the air after a court seized a stake in the company, cutting off access to funds that it said it needed to survive. The US has warned the Georgian Dream coalition government about eroding democracy and media freedom in Georgia.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) presented a plan to develop four airstrips, a move that it hopes will help boost domestic air travel. The GCAA said it was looking for partners to develop the sites which is said would thrive off Georgia’s growing economy and status as a tourist destination.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — State-owned Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation said it will explore Kazakhstan for mineral deposits. Preliminary investigations will be conducted, jointly with Kazakhstan’s state-owned company Kazgeologiya, in 2016. Japan has bought large amounts of oil from Kazakhstan this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ will build two new models of its Lada brand in Kazakhstan starting in 2017. AvtoVAZ said its plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk, east Kazakhstan, will receive investments for around $840m.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Telenor, a Norwegian telecoms firm, said it is ready to sell its stake in Vimpelcom, a Russian company that also operates in Central Asia under the Beeline brand (Oct. 5). Vimpelcom is under investigation in the US and in the Netherlands for allegedly paying a bribe to enter the Uzbek market.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Banks in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are bracing themselves for tough times ahead. The currency crisis that has hit the region has, it feels, still a long way to run. Central Banks in both countries have pledged to help commercial banks in the short term to prevent falls in the values of the tenge and som from spiraling into panic and a run on the banks.
This is sensible.
The Kazakh Central Bank said it would compensate savings accounts in tenge that have so far lost 46% in US dollar terms after the regulator moved to a free-float policy. Across the border, in Bishkek, the Central Bank laid out new measures to help customers pay their dollar- denominated mortgages, which have become more expensive as the som lost value.
When people lose confidence in their currency, as is happening across Central Asia and the South
Caucasus, Central Banks intervene. In both countries, new policies were adopted to limit the amount of loans in foreign currencies, to ensure stability in the market.
These short-term measures, however, may have serious repercussions down the road. Bailouts can have an adverse effect on these countries’ sovereign ratings and they could, in any case, be insufficient to reverse the economic downturn.
Let’s see how these policies fair against a falling currency market.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 6 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia said it will station attack helicopters at its base in Tajikistan, a strong sign the Kremlin believes the threat from the Taliban in Afghanistan to Central Asia is heightening.
A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman said Mi-24P gunships, heavily used during the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and Mi-8 MTV transport-combat helicopters will be stationed at the Ayni airbase, 30km outside Dushanbe.
Over the past week, the Taliban and US-backed forces belonging to the Afghan central government have been fighting for control of Kunduz on the Tajik-Afghan border. And this has worried Central Asian governments throughout the year.
A Dushanbe-based analyst who wished not to be named said: “The occupation of Kunduz by the Taliban has shaken Dushanbe. Tajik authorities know that they cannot handle any threat, be it domestic or external, without the help of Russia. For Rakhmon, the Kremlin is the guarantee of stability in Tajikistan.”
Tajik President Emmomli Rakhmon had been in Moscow the day before the Kremlin said it would send attack helicopters to Tajikistan.
And most people in Dushanbe welcomed Moscow’s help. Olim Shirinov, a Dushanbe resident, said: “Every new unit of Russian military equipment on Tajik soil is one more brick in the wall that guarantees stability in the country.”
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)