Category Archives: Uncategorised

Georgia signs train deal with China

OCT. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – CRRC, China’s state-owned train manufacturer, signed an agreement with state-owned Georgian Railway to supply 28 new electric locomotives and jointly build a factory to produce trains in the country. The new $20m factory, located near Tbilisi, will be operated by CRRC and local companies BMI Partners and AS Group 1990. The joint venture aims to create an export hub for train parts to Europe and Turkey.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Kyrgyz court starts re-trial for Askarov

OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Kyrgyz court started a re-trial of Azimzhan Askarov, a human rights activist jailed for life after being accused of stirring ethnic hatred during the 2010 revolution that toppled former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Under pressure from international human rights lobby groups, Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court ordered a re-trial in July. At the first hearing, Askarov pleaded not guilty.

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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Tension rises ahead of Georgia election after car bomb

TBILISI, OCT. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A bomb exploded under the car of leading UNM parliamentarian Givi Targamadze in central Tbilisi, the most serious act of violence in a heated, and at times dangerous, campaign ahead of Georgia’s parliamentary election on Saturday.

Media reported that Mr Targamadze and his driver were unhurt in the blast, although four other people were injured.

The United National Movement party (UNM), backed by former President Mikheil Saakashvili, immediately accused the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, backed by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, of planning the bomb attack.

“I think he (Targamadze) was chosen as a target because he has been keeping active contacts with the law enforcement which scares Ivanishvili very much,” Mr Saakashvili said on his Facebook page.

The Georgian Dream has denied any involvement and its supporters have instead said that the UNM planted the bomb itself to destabilise the country.

Georgia’s parliamentary election campaign has become increasingly fraught as polling day approaches.

Opposing MPs have fought on live TV debates, three supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition were allegedly beaten up by a group of UNM supporters and last week two men were shot and injured at a rally being given by Irakli Okruashvili, a former Georgian defence minister.

Analysts have said that the election is too close to call.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Kazakhstan cuts interest rates

ALMATY, OCT. 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Central Bank cut interest rates by 50 basis points to 12.5%, its third rate cut this year, saying that slower inflation and a renewed confidence in the local currency were signs of economic recovery.

Most analysts were taken by surprise by the Central Bank’s decision, although Daniyar Akishev, the Bank’s chief, had hinted at possible rate reductions in recent weeks.

And the Central Bank said that another rate cut was likely at the next policy meeting in November .

“If the slowdown in inflation continues and stable growth in tenge deposits is confirmed, a reduction in the base rate before year-end isn’t excluded,” the Bank said its statement on the rate cut.

Inflation, which had reached 17% in annualised terms, has slowed to 5.6% in the first nine months of 2016, prompting the rate cut.

In the past nine months, the tenge/US dollar exchange rate improved by 14%, contributing to increased stability.

The tenge had lost half of its value overnight in August 2015, when the Central Bank ditched the peg to the US dollar. Months of uncertainty followed, sending the tenge further down and prompting successive rate increases.

Since the appointment of Mr Akishev in November last year and the stabilisation in oil prices at around $50, up from $27 at the start of the year, confidence in the country’s economy has slowly strengthened and recovered.

Oil is the cornerstone of Kazakhstan’s economy. The collapse in oil prices from around $110 per barrel in 2014 to $40 had undermined its prospects.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Behlen to build sport infrastructure in Georgia

OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Behlen Industries, a Canadian construction company, started building a new Sports Palace in Batumi, on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. The project is part of a government drive to build new sporting facilities across the country to promote healthy lifestyles and improve facilities for amateur and professional sports men and women. New complexes will also be built in Telavi and Gori, in east and central Georgia. The total cost of the three projects is $33.9m. Behlen is part of WGI Westman Group.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Average income drops in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – High inflation over the past year has brought down average income for Kazakhs, according to the Statistics Committee. Average revenues per person in Kazakhstan for the first six months of the year grew by 12% compared to the same period in 2015, but a 16.8% growth in consumer good prices meant that average purchasing power decreased.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Russia returns the skull to Kazakhstan

OCT. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia returned to Kazakhstan the skull of Keiki Batyr, one of the leaders of the 1916 Kazakh revolt against Russia. In 1923, Keiki Batyr was captured and killed by the Red Army. Kazakhstan had asked Russia to return Keiki Batyr’s skull for burial. In August, Russian PM Dmitri Medvedev agreed to return the relic to Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Kashagan to increase Kazakhstan’s oil shipments

OCT. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Natig Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s energy minister, said that, once operational, the Kashagan offshore will increase Kazakhstan’s oil shipments to Baku to 150,000 barrels of oil/day, feeding into the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Mr Aliyev’s statement relied on the assumption that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which pumps oil around the Caspian Sea to the Russian port of Novorossiysk, and the Kazakhstan-China pipeline will not be able to absorb the additional 370,000 barrels of oil/day that Kashagan will produce at its peak. Kazakhstan has slashed oil shipments from Aktau to Baku this year.

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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Azerbaijan’s Parliament passes TANAP

SEPT. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s parliament approved a deal to build the TANAP pipeline across Turkey, a long-overdue step in the development of the project to pump gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe. An initial agreement on TANAP, a $10b gas pipeline, was signed in May 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)

Uzbek court jails drug-traffickers

OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan sentenced five residents of the Tashkent region to between three and eight years in prison for drug trafficking. The court said that the group, which worked seasonally in Kyrgyzstan, repeatedly smuggled drugs into Uzbekistan. Police found around 10 kilos of opiates in their apartments.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)