JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s trade with the rest of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) fell by 21% last year, the Kazakh Security Committee said, highlighting a general contraction in the Kremlin-led block’s economy. Most of the decrease was linked to Russia. Last week, Kyrgyzstan also reported a drop in trade with EEU members.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s defence minister said that one of its soldiers had been killed in a skirmish with Armenia- backed forces around the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Tension has been rising around Nagorno-Karabakh. Last year several dozen soldiers were killed on both sides in the worst fighting since a 1994-brokered ceasefire ended a war in which an estimated 30,000 people died.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The UAE’s DP World signed a deal to develop a special economic zone in Aktau, western Kazakhstan. The deal was signed during a trip to Dubai by Kazakh businessmen and government officials lead by President Nursultan Nazarbayev. DP World is one of the largest port operators in the world. Aktau is Kazakhstan’s main Caspian Sea port.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
BISHKEK, JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Turkish cargo aeroplane flying from Hong Kong to Istanbul overshot the runway at Manas International Airport outside Bishkek on a refuelling stop, ploughed into a village and killed at least 38 people.
Crash investigators said fog had shrouded the airport but there had been no problems reported from the flight deck.
Airports in Central Asia are competing for lucrative stop-over trade for flights, both passenger and cargo, between East Asia and Europe. Depending on the investigators’ findings, the crash may damage Manas’ credibility.
At the crash site, the village of Dacha-Suu, which took the main impact, had been destroyed. The aeroplane’s torn wing stuck up through a smashed roof. The cockpit lay smashed and broken in a front garden. Part of the undercarriage had ripped through a living room, bringing death and destruction to Kyrgyz domestic tranquility.
Residents of the village who escaped described a loud bang.
“I thought there was an earthquake, but looking out of the window, we saw the fire,” one man told television news.
A Conway Bulletin correspondent said that the military and the police had cordoned off the site.
There has also been criticism of the government’s response with many Kyrgyz saying that President Almazbek Atambayev was too slow to show his grief over what is being treated as a national disaster.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The rebel Georgian region of South Ossetia has set its upcoming presidential election for April 9. The incumbent leader of South Ossetia, which declared independence from Georgia in the early 1990s and was recognised by Russia and a handful of other countries as a separate nation in 2008 after a Russia- Georgia war, is Leonid Tibilov. He has said he will compete in the election to try to win another, and final, five year term. The election is likely to raise tension with Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Zhuhai Singyes Green Building Technology, a Chinese company, won a tender at the end of 2016 to build a solar panel field in southern Uzbekistan, state-run Uzbekenergo told the Trend news agency. Uzbekistan has been looking to boost its renewable energy capacity and has been increasingly turning to solar power.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 15/16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev led a high-level delegation to Dubai to meet with various UAE leaders. Mr Nazarbayev and the Kazakh government have increasingly said that they want to extend ties with the Gulf States. Various memorandums proclaiming strong bilateral relations were signed.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The trial for extortion of Bigeldy Gabdullin, editor of the Central Asia Monitor newspaper, began in Astana. Mr Gabdullin has admitted to charges that he blackmailed officials into paying him bribes not to publish negative stories. His supporters have said that the confession was extracted under duress and that the 61-year-old was hoping that by agreeing to the confession he will be given a light sentence.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
TBILISI, JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — China underlined its ambitions to boost its presence in the South Caucasus by signing a deal with the Georgian government that could lead it to buying up 75% of the Poti Special Industrial Zone on the Black Sea coast.
Poti is the main entry and exit points into and out of Georgia for goods. It is majority owned by APM, a unit of Maersk Group.
Owning a majority stake in the Poti Special Industrial Zone would be a massive boost for China and would give it a major presence on the Black Sea for the first time.
A memorandum of understanding was signed by the Georgian government and CEFC China Energy Company Limited at a ceremony in Tbilisi attended by Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili.
Georgian media spun the deal as part of China’s One Belt, One Road project which aims to revive the Silk Road across Central Asia between China and Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s GDP shrank by 3.8% in 2016, the country’s statistics committee said, confirming predictions of a heavy recession in the oil-dependent economy. The data means that, under pressure from low oil prices and a recession in Russia, Azerbaijan’s economy was one of the worst performing economies in the world last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)