SEPT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Rustam Kusainov, former adviser to the ministry of economy, was appointed managing director of the government-owned Baiterek holding. Former minister of economy Yerbolat Dossayev is Baiterek’s CEO. Mr Kusainov’s took the IT portfolio at Baiterek. The holding administers several companies in the financial and insurance sectors.
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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)f
SEPT. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released previously confidential documents detailing companies linked to offshore accounts in the Bahamas, an update to the so-called Panama Papers.
The documents, obtained from the secretive Bahamas business registry, show connections between companies and intermediaries set up in the Bahamas tax haven in the Caribbean.
“There is much evidence to suggest that where you have secrecy in the offshore world you have the potential for wrongdoing” Gerard Ryle, the director of ICIJ, said in a statement.
Among South Caucasus and Central Asia-focused companies, ExxonMobil made extensive use of Bahamas-based companies for its operations in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The law firm Harry B. Sands, Lobosky & Co., based in Nassau, was the main intermediary for these accounts.
A company called Borjomi was also listed among Harry B. Sands, Lobosky & Co.’s customers. It is unclear if this company has connections with the Georgian water producer.
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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)
SEPT. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov opened a new airport in Ashgabat, which included a bird- shaped passenger terminal, that cost $2.3b to build and is capable of serving 17m passengers a year.
The airport, which the World Record Academy has called the world’s largest bird-shaped building, spans 364m.
Mr Berdymukhamedov wants the airport to become a key hub for pas- senger and cargo transit between Europe and Asia.
“The opening of the new international airport in Ashgabat will contribute to the full integration of Turkmenistan in the system of international relations,” a Turkmen government website wrote.
To achieve these ambitious goals, the government will have to relax some of its visa rules. Last year, only 110,000 foreigners visited Turkmenistan, according to Turkmen data.
Grandiose buildings, however, also serve as photo-ops and symbols of Mr Berdymukhamedov’s attempts to mould Turkmenistan’s image onto his own.
The near empty over-sized resort town of Avaza on the Caspian Sea shore, an indoor Ferris wheel considered the largest in the world and the largest hand-woven carpet all tell a similar story to that of the newly- unveiled airport.
The Guinness World Records said in 2013 that Ashgabat was the city with the greatest density of marble- clad buildings.
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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)
SEPT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Acting Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev fired the governor of Jizzakh, his native province in the east of the country, for ‘serious shortcomings’. The phrase is a hollow formula that former President Islam Karimov used often when firing an official. Abdukahkhar Tukhtayev will now replace Asror Kobilov, who had been in charge since 2009, as the Jizzakh governor.
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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)
SEPT. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Australia-based Jupiter Energy said it received an extension from the Kazakh government for its exploration licence for Block 31, in the Mangistau region. Jupiter Energy, majority-owned by Australian finance services company Computershare Clearing, bought a licence for Block 31 from local company Zher Munai in 2008 for around $9m. The renewed licence will expire at the end of 2019.
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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)
SEPT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Heads of states of CIS countries convened in Bishkek for their annual meeting, a summit that focused on countering both the growing recruitment drive of the IS extremist group in the region and the threat from the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. Notably, this was Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s first visit to Kyrgyzstan since former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev fled to Belarus after being ousted in a revolution in 2010.
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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)
SEPT. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – KMG EP, the upstream branch of Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil and gas company Kazmunaigas, elected Igor Goncharov as its new chairman. Christopher Hopkinson, who had served as chairman since last year, resigned for family reasons. Like Mr Hopkinson, Mr Goncharov had long served in the ranks of Kazmunaigas. KMG EP has GDRs traded in London. Earlier this year, Kazmunaigas failed in its bid to take over more of the company.
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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)
SEPT. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Central Bank highlighted a growth in money transfers from abroad in August, $106m, up 25% compared to last year. Russia remains the largest country of origin of worker remittances, although transfers to Georgia declined. The US, Italy, Greece and Turkey have all grown in absolute terms, representing over 40% of all remittances in August.
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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)
SEPT. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s minister of economy Kuandyk Bishimbayev said that the country’s public debt is stable and that transfers from the sovereign wealth fund could further reduce it. Mr Bishimbayev said that debt amounted to 11 trillion tenge ($32b), or 24% of the country’s GDP as of July 1. Most of Kazakhstan’s debt is denominated in US dollars.
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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)
SEPT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Venice Commission, a panel of constitutional experts working under the Council of Europe, criticised the upcoming referendum in Azerbaijan, which calls for an extension of presidential terms from five to seven years and other laws which it said would consolidate power in the hands of President Ilham Aliyev.
In a statement, the Venice Commission said that the proposed legal amendments will effectively allow Mr Aliyev to rule indefinitely.
“Many proposed amendments would severely upset the balance of power by giving unprecedented powers to the president,” the lawyers of the Venice Commission said in a statement.
Azerbaijani officials said that the Commission was out of line in judging the proposed amendments which will be voted on in a referendum on Sept. 26.
“The referendum doesn’t expand presidential powers, this is about improving governance,” Shahin Aliyev, head the Presidential Administration’s law unit, told local media.
Mr Aliyev has already tinkered with Azerbaijan’s constitution when he scrapped a limit on presidential terms in 2009.
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(News report from Issue No. 297, published on Sept. 23 2016)