Author Archives: Editor

China considers building $300m smelter in Armenia

AUG. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia is discussing a potential $300m investment with China to build a copper smelting plant, media quoted Armenian economic development minister Suren Karayan as saying. China has been increasingly busy in pushing its investment portfolio in Armenia. It wants to boost its presence across Central Asia and the South Caucasus as part of its “Belt and Road” trade strategy.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

CURRENCY MARKETS: Uzbek soum collapses after pegs are cut

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SEPT. 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s all eyes on the Uzbek soum after the Central Bank said last week that it would converge the dual currency exchange rate system that has been operating since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Under that system, the Black Market rate of the soum was roughly half the official rate.

And so it proved. As soon as controls over the official rate were scrapped, it fell by 48% to 8,100/$1. The unofficial rate, as measured by the uzdollar.com, remained pretty much steady at around 7,700/$1.

In reality, the economic shock of ditching support for an official exchange rate will be limited. Currency controls previously meant that the Black Market rate had been widely used. Uzbeks were used to a rate of around 7,700/$1 to 8,800/1.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Newspapers accuse Aliyev of corruption

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SEPT. 5 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A series of newspapers in Europe, including the Guardian, published reports of alleged money laundering and bribe-paying by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family through London.

The reports said that Mr Aliyev and his family had set up a series of offshore shell companies that pushed cash around the world and paid to lobby influential journalists and politicians.

This is not the first time that Mr Aliyev had been accused of laundering money and bribe-paying. He has refuted previous allegations. Human rights groups accuse Mr Aliyev of presiding over a corrupt regime.
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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Uzbek authorities scrap live TV show

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AUG. 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan scrapped broadcasting live TV shows, programming that had been considered essential for displaying the country’s new era of openness under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that PM Abdulla Aripov wrote to journalists earlier in August explaining the policy change without giving specific reasons. Uzbekistan has looked to open up under Mr Mirziyoyev and has started broadcasting a 24-hour news channel.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

BP says operations resume at Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz

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AUG. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP said that it had resumed pumping gas out of the Shah Deniz gas field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea after a two week planned maintenance period closed the operation. The Shah Deniz gas field is Azerbaijan’s main gas field and is being expanded to send gas to Europe. Its second phase expansion is seen as critical to future European gas supplies,

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

COMMENT: One year on, Mirziyoyev is opening up Uzbekistan

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— Progress can still be derailed but so far, and only one year into the job, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s reforms in Uzbekistan have looked pretty good, writes Bulletin editor James Kilner

SEPT. 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In the year that Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has been running Uzbekistan, he has done more to open up the country than even the most optimistic observer could have imagined in Sept. 2016.

On paper, at least.

Mirziyoyev has released a number of political prisoners and mended relations with neighbours but the main structural changes, other than scrapping currency controls, that should propel Uzbekistan into the 21st century, are still to come.

Under Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan had been trapped in a sort of USSR time-warp. Mirziyoyev has promised to unravel this iron casing.

He has scrapped the dual currency system that made it more expensive to buy the soum on the official market, made noises about making it easier for foreign investors to take money out of the country and signed various decrees that will ditch the hated external passports needed to leave the country.

But these remain, in the large part, promises. Still, this is a better, more open, start than many people had expected when the former PM emerged as Karimov’s successor.
He quickly shored up his power-base by demoting his main rival to the top job former economy minister Rustam Azimov.

And he has made sure that he has struck a genuinely popular note with ordinary Uzbeks, going out to the regions and promising to invest in infrastructure projects that will create jobs and trade deals with neighbours which should generate wealth for people living in Central Asia’s most populous country.

Mirziyoyev has also done something that Karimov was always too afraid to do. He has reached out to pious Muslims. While Karimov tried to drive Islam underground, Mirziyoyev was pictured breaking the Ramadan fast with religious leaders. A huge olive branch.

Mirziyoyev has promised much to many in his first year in power. In his second year he needs to deliver on his promises.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017

Tajikistan boosts intelligence sharing with China

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SEPT. 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Beijing, Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon agreed to a general boost in relations with China that included a clause to increase intelligence sharing. China has been increasing its security and diplomatic efforts across Central Asia over the past few years, part of its ‘Belt and Road’ initiative to boost trade with Europe. Last year it also agreed to build a network of security outposts along Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Senior Central Bank official named head of Kazakhstan’s Kazatomprom

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AUG. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Galymzhan Pirmatov, formerly deputy chairman of the Kazakh Central Bank, was named head of Kazatompron, Kazakhstan’s atomic energy agency, replacing Askar Zhumagaliyev who was made a deputy PM earlier in August (Aug. 31). Kazatomprom is a high profile company in Kazakhstan, with Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev pushing nuclear power and uranium mining. Mr Pirmatov has previously been a VP at Kazatomprom.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Uzbek authorities take 16,000 people off terror blacklist

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SEPT. 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan have removed 16,000 people from a blacklist of 17,000 people with alleged links to extremist groups, media reported. Analysts said the move was another attempt by Pres. Shavkat Mirziyoyev to pursue more liberal policies and to create a clear departure from Islam Karimov, who ruled the country as an authoritarian dictator.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)

Thousands of Turkmen lose homes before Games

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SEPT. 4 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch accused the Turkmen authorities of forcibly evicting people from their homes and for failing to give them adequate compensation. The allegations were made on the eve of the opening of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. Turkmenistan’s president, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has set much store by the Games. News reports have been leaking out of the country over the past year of mass evictions to make way for Games’ infrastructure. The Turkmen government has not responded.

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(News report from Issue No. 342, published on Sept. 7 2017)