Author Archives: Editor

Tajik president calls for “Year of the Glacier” to highlight Global Warming

MARCH 3 2021 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon said that a “Year of the Glacier” was needed to draw attention to the impact of global warming on glaciers. The Pamir Mountains dominate Tajikistan and hold world-renowned glaciers. One of them is the 75km-long Fedchenko Glacier, the longest glacier in the world outside the Polar regions, which Mr Rakhmon said had retreated by 1km.

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— This story was published in issue 474 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 5 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Azerbaijan to build hotel online booking site for domestic tourists

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MARCH 3 2021 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s government launched a tender to design and build the first domestic online hotel booking platform, media reported. With international travel still restricted, Azerbaijan’s government wants to focus on domestic tourists. The system will only be available to Azerbaijani citizens and foreigners with residency permits.

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— This story was published in issue 474 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 5 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Azerbaijan and Turkey in talks on Nagorno-Karabakh film

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MARCH 2 2021 (The Bulletin) — Looking to squeeze more propaganda out of its victory in a war last year for control of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijani officials said that they are already in talks with Turkey to produce a film on the war. In an interview with a Turkish TV channel, Azerbaijani culture minister Anar Kerimov said that it was important to “celebrate the courage of the soldiers”.

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— This story was published in issue 474 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 5 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Kazakhstan wants more foreign investment in its agriculture

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MARCH 2 2021 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan wants to attract investments of $9.5b in its agricultural sector by 2025, PM Askar Mamin said during a government meeting. The Kazakh government sees its agricultural sector as an underused resource that could be doing more to attract foreign investors. Some Western companies have already invested in cattle farms to sell beef across Central Asia, where it is growing in popularity, and also to China.

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— This story was published in issue 474 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 5 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Kazakhstan is nearly free of coronavirus, say authorities

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MARCH 2 2021 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Kazakhstan said that the country was effectively in a self-declared coronavirus infection green zone with no cities reporting data that placed them in the red zone and only five cities or regions — Nur-Sultan, Akmola, West Kazakhstan, Kostanay and Pavlodar — in the yellow zone. Kazakhstan has reported 2,800 deaths linked Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

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— This story was published in issue 474 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 5 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Tajik court imprisons son of opposition leader

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MARCH 1 2021 (The Bulletin) — A court in Tajikistan sentenced Shaikhmuslihiddin Rizoev, son of imprisoned opposition leader Mahmurod Odinaev, to six years in prison for hooliganism and rape, the US-funded RFE/RL reported. Supporters of Rizoev have said that his sentence is being used to pressure his father and that he was attacked by unknown men and was defending himself during the alleged fight. His trial was held in secret.

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— This story was published in issue 474 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 5 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Azebaijan’s Buta Airways to start flying to Tbilisi

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MARCH 1 2021 (The Bulletin) — Buta Airways, the government-owned Azerbaijani low cost airline, said that it would resume its flight schedule between Baku and Tbilisi on March 19, an important step towards normalising aviation routes in the South Caucasus. AZAL, the Azerbaijani flag carrier, set up Buta Airways in Sept. 2017 to fly mainly to Turkey and Russia.

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— This story was published in issue 474 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 5 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Uzbekistan restarts two power station units

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MARCH 1 2021 (The Bulletin) — Two units of one of Central Asia’s largest power stations, the Soviet-built gas-fired Syrdarya TPP in Uzbekistan, were turned back on after renovation. The firing up of units 5 and 6 will ease pressure on Central Asia’s electricity supply, especially in Uzbekistan. Russian Power Machines has been overseeing the renovation. In 2019 it repaired units 3 and 4 and later this year it expects to complete the project when units 9 and 10 are restarted.

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— This story was published in issue 474 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 5 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Manufacturing confidence in Kazakhstan is recovering

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MARCH 1 2021 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Tengri Partners/IHS Market PMI index, a measure of manufacturing confidence, increased to 48.5 in February from a nine month low of 45.6 in January. Explaining the data, Anuar Ushbayev, managing partner at Tengri Partners, said that sentiment reflected a slowing of the economic downturn linked to the coronavirus pandemic.

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— This story was published in issue 474 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 5 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Uzbekistan approves Covid-19 vaccine

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MARCH 1 2021 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan approved a Chinese Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Chinese Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical Co ltd for use under the label ZF-UZ-VAC2001. The Chinese company had been trialling its vaccine in Uzbekistan for several months.

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— This story was published in issue 474 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 5 2021