Category Archives: Uncategorised

EXPO-2017 delays start of university term in Kazakh capital

ALMATY, JAN. 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s ministry of education ordered universities in Astana to start their academic year for 2017/18 late because of EXPO- 2017 which is scheduled to run from June 10 to Sept. 10.

The education ministry has not explained why it needed students to begin their term late but long-term residents of Astana said it was likely to be to try and reduce pressure on the city’s public services and to reduce traffic on its streets.

Many students are unimpressed.

“Humanly, it is not normal,” saidGabit,a student at one of the medical universities in Astana. “It is inconvenient, for us and for the doctors who teach us since they have to work after shift. They were indignant at first butunfortunately the decree is already released.”

The education ministry was unavailable for the comments.

The organisers of EXPO-2017 have been planning the event for years. They expect thousands of visitors from all around the world to converge on Astana, the Kazakh capital that President Nursultan Nazarbayev built on the windswept steppe in the mid-1990s, for three months, testing its services to the limit.

They are also under extra pressure because Mr Nazarbayev, keen to promote Kazakhstan, has taken a personal interest in EXPO-2017.

Didar Sarsenov who lives in Astana said that he could see why the government wanted to delay tens of thousands of students from returning to the city for their studies.

“On the one side it is the right thing to do, from the other it is not,” he said. “They must cope with the flow of people. But proper organisation (of EXPO-2017) should mean that the study process starts on time.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Armenian PM flies to Moscow

JAN. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian PM Karen Karapetyan flew to Moscow for a series of meetings, including with Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev, designed to underline just how close relations between the two countries are. Armenia has been compared, by some analysts as a Russian vassal state, reliant on it for trade, military and energy cooperation. This was Mr Karapetyan’s first visit to Russia as PM. He has close personal ties with Russia and previously used to work for Gazprom Armenia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Eriell buys Uzbek subsidiary

JAN. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Eriell GmbH, an Austria-registered company whose biggest shareholder is Gazprombank, has bought a 51% stake in Sarbon-Neftegaz from the state-owned Uzbekenergo, the Tashkent stock exchange reported. The Italian-language agcnews.eu website said that Eriell had paid $3.94m for the stake. Sarbon-Neftegaz provides transport services to oil and gas companies in Uzbekistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Russian military exercises in Georgian region

JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia has said 2,000 soldiers will take part in a major military exercise in the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia later this month. The exercise will also involve tanks and artillery and will be viewed as a provocation by Georgia. South Ossetia was the focus of fighting between Georgia and Russia in a five day 2008 war. Russia held a similar military exercise in South Ossetia in 2016 too.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Kazakhstan not to regulate telecome prices

JAN. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Kazakhstan have decided not to dictate telecoms prices this year, the telecompaper.com website reported quoting Kazakh sources. The authorities had considered interfering in the competitive Kazakh market, which has been characterised by price drops. Telecompaper.com said that the decision would make Kazakh telecoms companies more competitive in the Eurasian Economic Union.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Kazakhstan not to regulate telecome prices

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Korea gives loan to Azerbaijan’s Socar

JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — South Korea’s state Export-Import bank EximBank has given Azerbaijan’s Socar a $500m loan to build a carbamide plant in Sumgait near Baku. Carbamide, also known as urea, is a chemical used either as a fertiliser or in the plastics industry. South Korea will view the loan as a way of extending relations between the two countries. The EximBank loan covers around two- third of the cost of the plant which will come online in 2018. South Korea’s Samsung Engineering is the main contractor.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)f

Korea gives loan to Azerbaijan’s Socar

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)f

Georgian lari surfs through a turbulent period of highs and lows

JAN. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Don’t be fooled by the parity rating on the percentage change for the Georgian lari.

This is a turbulent time for the Georgian currency. The graph on the right shows its recent spikes.

Just before Christmas it bottomed-out at an all time low against the US dollar of 2.81/$1. It has recovered since then, with the help of Central Bank intervention – it sold $40m on Dec. 20 totalling $280m in 2016 – but it is still working at a level that is 30% below its high of 212/$1 in June 2016.

Government ministers have blamed an overly strong US dollar for the lari woes but Georgia’s own macroeconomic data has shown up weaknesses which may be undermining confidence in it.

The Central Bank had been happy to let its currency slide. This laissez faire attitude appears to have abated now though and there have been warnings that interest rates will start to rise as the battle hardens to boost the currency. 2017 will be another turbulent year for the lari.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Ex-security chief in Turkmenistan dies in jail

JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tirkish Tyrmyev, the former head of Turkmenistan’s National Security Committee, has died in prison, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. RFE/RL said that Tyrmev had been sent to prison in 2002 for abuse of power. It also said that shortly before he was due to be released in 2012, a court extended his sentence by seven years for apparently attacking a prison guard. Turkmenistan is one of the most secretive country’s in the world and has a poor human rights record.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)