JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The value of car imports to Georgia slumped by 26%, in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2014, data from the statistics agency showed, more evidence that an economic slowdown across the region is hitting Georgian consumers. Overall, imports in H1 2015 were down 9% compared to H1 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has the lowest number of smokers per capita in the world, according to World Health Organisation’s director general, Margaret Chan, during a trip to Ashgabat.
Ms Chan was visiting Turkmenistan to attend a health conference.
“Recently a WHO overview showed that in Turkmenistan only 8% of the population smokes,” the AFP news agency quoted Ms Chan telling Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.
“This is the lowest national indicator in the world. I congratulate you on this achievement.”
But not only is it an achievement for the country, it is also an accolade of sorts for Turkmenistan’s authoritarian tendencies.
It was Mr Berdymukhamedhov’s predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov who pushed for a strict mass anti-smoking campaign.
He was a reformed heavy smoker who grew to hate the habit and pushed several campaigns to eradicate it. These were effective, much like his other, rather eccentric mass campaigns, such as outlawing ballet and banning men from having long hair.
Mr Berdymukhamedov is perhaps more restrained in his public campaigns but he too is considered an authoritarian leader.
Earlier this year officials in Ashgabat unveiled a golden statue of Mr Berdymukhamedov riding a horse. They said it symbolised his role as the protector and leader of the nation.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A photo released by Uzbek officials of President Islam Karimov’s trip to Russia earlier this month for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) appears to have been doctored to shrink Chinese president Xi Jinping, a tall man, to the same height as Mr Karimov and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Opposition groups have previously accused official Uzbek media of doctoring images of Mr Karimov, 77, to make him look younger and fitter.
The Uzbek government has not commented.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Husband and wife Arif and Leyla Yunis will go on trial, accused of financial crimes, on July 27, a year after they were arrested, media reported. Both Arif and Leyla Yunis are high profile human rights defenders and their trial is almost certain to act as a flash-point.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – BISHKEK — Dozens of people protested in central Bishkek against proposed changes to labour laws which they say will reduce the rights of temporary workers.
The main proposed changes focus on making it easier for foreign companies to hire and fire workers.
The government has argued that it needs to update labour laws to crackdown on the “shadow economy” where employers hire people for short periods but do not pay tax.
Protesters said the amendments would help foreign companies dodge paying social security and over-time.
The mood at the protest, which wound its way through central Bishkek under a cloudless blue sky, was angry but calm.
“We are against slavery,” one of the protesters’ banners said.
Many of the protesters were representatives of workers’ unions attached to mines, including the Kumtor mine in the east of the country owned by Toronto-based Centerra Gold. Kumtor is Kyrgyzstan’s single biggest industrial asset.
After the protest, the government said they would set up a working group to look at the demonstrators’ concerns.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Central Bank said inflation in Tajikistan for the first half of 2015 stood at 2.6%. In the same period in 2014, inflation measured 4.5%. Tajikistan’s economy is faltering under a drop in remittances from Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A blast at a gold mine around 90km southeast of Tashkent has killed 25 people, local media reported. The blast occurred on July 13 at the village of Kochbulak. Reports said the blast was linked to a ownership dispute.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Hundreds of people continued to protest in central Yerevan against a potential price rise for electricity, although a Bulletin correspondent at the demonstration said that the numbers and the intensity have dropped off.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — Overall money transfers to Georgia in the first half of 2015 declined by 22.7% to $538m, media reported quoting the sta- tistics agency, a heavy dent in Georgia’s overall income.
Remittances from Russia, which is suffering from a downturn in its economy, dropped by over 40% to $204m and from Greece, which is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, by 19% to $83m.
Last year, the data showed, remittances accounted for nearly 9% of Georgia’s overall GDP, a figure which highlights their importance to the country.
Georgia’s lari currency has also lost around 25% of its value since November 2014, putting more pressure on the economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ever the populist, Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berydmukhamedov increased salaries and pensions for people working in government funded companies by 10%, official media reported. In May, Mr Berdymukhamedov increased salaries of state officials by 9.5%. The Central Bank devalued the Turkmen manat by 30% on Jan. 1
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)