JULY 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The proportion of overdue loans held by Kazakh banks in their combined portfolio shrank from 22.8% to 8.6% at the end of May 2016, compared to a year earlier, Central Bank data showed. The main reason behind the sharp decrease, though, is that Kazkommertsbank, Kazakhstan’s biggest lender, wrote off most of its bad debt.
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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)
JULY 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov signed a bill to increase the salaries of state workers by 10% from January 2017, continuing the tradition of salary increases at the beginning of the year, official media reported. The minimum salary in Turkmenistan amounts to 650 manat (around $186 at the official exchange rate).
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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)
JULY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s flagship company Air Astana reported a loss of $6.6m in H1 2016, compared to a $8.3m profit in the same period last year. Importantly, passenger numbers decreased by 7% to 1.7m. Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna (51%) and Britain’s BAE Systems (49%) own Air Astana.
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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)
JULY 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Azerbaijan suspended the Azerbaijani News Service (ANS), a popular privately owned TV station, after it said it would broadcast an interview it had taken in the US with Fathullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused of masterminding a coup attempt.
Azerbaijan’s National Council for Television and Radio called the interview “propaganda” aimed at “undermining the strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Turkey”. It immediately suspended ANS’s licence for one month and also took action to rescind it permanently.
Western governments have previously accused the Azerbaijani authorities of cracking down on any media considered even vaguely awkward. In 2015, it expelled the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Seen as mildly pro-government, over the past few years ANS has exercised a degree of independence and, until now, it was not affected by the government-led crackdown against dissenting media outlets.
Kenan Aliyev, an Azerbaijani journalist and former director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Azerbaijani Service, called ANS’s closure despicable.
“ANS will suffer for a month and later they will be allowed to work but with less independence and more self-censorship,” Mr Aliyev told The Conway Bulletin. “There is no free press under the current regime.”
Mr Gulen is a former ally of Mr Erdogan. He has denied any link to the July 15 failed coup attempt. Azerbaijan and Turkey are close allies and, following Turkey’s lead, Azerbaijan has cracked down on institutions and officials with Gulen links, including stripping the Qafkas University in Baku of its independence.
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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)
JULY 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In his capacity as head of the Baiterek state holding, Yerbolat Dossayev, former Kazakh minister of economy, was named chairman of Zhilstroisberbank, a top-15 bank in Kazakhstan and subsidiary of Baiterek. A few days later Mr Dossayev was also named head of KazExportGarant, an export credit agency, and chairman of Kazakhstan’s Investment Fund, which are both managed by Baiterek.
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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)
JULY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev said that Uzbekistan aims to double production of fruits and vegetables by the end of 2020. Mr Mirziyoyev said that the country currently produces around 16m tonnes of produce and the government aims to boost output to at least 32m tonnes in the next three years. A word of caution, however. Statistics in Uzbekistan can be easily manipulated for political reasons.
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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)
JULY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Makhmadamin Makhmadaminov, Tajikistan’s Permanent Representatives to the United Nations, signed an agreement with his Ecuadorian counterpart to establish relations between the two countries. Establishing diplomatic relations with distant countries is a window- dressing exercise for Central Asian and South Caucasus leaders.
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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)
JULY 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Central Bank lowered its key interest rate by two percentage points to 13%, official media reported. The Central Bank cited higher oil prices, slowing inflation and the volatility in global markets after Britain’s referendum to leave the EU as the main factors leading to the rate cut. This is the second rate cut in just over two months.
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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)
JULY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Turkmen Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, a lobby group, has allegedly asked local entrepreneurs to pitch in and aid the government’s budget with donations of up to $100,000, the opposition website Chronicles of Turkmenistan said. The request apparently was outlined during a meeting by the Union’s chairman, Alexander Dadayev. Since 2012, the Union established the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, a government-linked party.
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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)
JULY 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani miner Anglo Asian said production shrank by 5.9% to 33,837 ounces in the first half of 2016, compared to the same period last year. The company, listed in London, said it will keep its production target at 73,000/77,000 ounces for 2016 as it expects a boost in the second half.
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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)