MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s weapons manufacturers have developed a drone, media reported. Azerbaijan, which is still officially at war with Armenia, has been increasing military spending. It has close links with the Russian and Israeli defence sectors.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik bank Bonki Rushdi Tojikiston (BRT) will switch to Islamic banking rules after striking a deal with the Saudi Arabia- based Islamic Development Bank, media reported.
BRT will be the first Islamic Bank in Tajikistan. Its conversion shows the increasing appeal of Islamic banking, after banks in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan agreed to switch.
BRT aims to complete the conversion by mid-2015.
“This will open the door to numerous other operators iden- tifying the opportunities inherent in the sharia compli- ant financial system,” Khaled Al-Aboodi, head of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector was quoted as saying. Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector is the unit within the Islamic Development Bank which helps banks convert to Islamic banking rules.
Reuters reported that Islamic banking has grown more popular across the world but has been slower in taking off in Muslim dominated countries that are officially secular. The popularity of finance raised through a sukuk, an instrument that adheres to Islamic banking rules, has also grown in popularity in the region. Earlier this year, the part state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan said it wanted to issue a sukuk worth $200m to $300m.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – China’s Export-Import Bank has agreed to give a loan of $185m to Kyrgyzstan to help it build a road and tunnel between the north and south of the country, media reported. China has been funding more and more projects in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Online reports have said that one of Tajikistan’s most senior police chiefs Gulmurod Halimov, who has been missing since April, has tried to cross into Syria to fight for the extremist group IS. These reports cannot be confirmed but, if they are true, it will embarrass the Tajik government.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – To celebrate Constitution Day on May 18, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov issued an amnesty to 1,200 people languishing in Turkmenistan’s prisons, the AFP news agency reported. Mr Berdymukhamedov is given to issuing presidential amnesties to mark official holidays.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif flew to Ashgabat to meet with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and discuss prospective energy projects.
After their meeting, Mr Sharif said Pakistan wanted to speed up regional energy projects, including the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan- India (TAPI) pipeline — a much-discussed project that could deliver Turkmen gas to South Asia.
Mr Sharif’s visit to Ashgabat highlights just how important the TAPI project is to South Asia and also reflects Turkmenistan’s burgeoning status in the region.
Turkmenistan is trying to push the TAPI project forward in order to diversify its export routes. Its main client is China although it is also in talks with the EU to supply gas.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s official Muslim group, the Assembly of Muslims of Armenia, has created the position of chief mufti for the first time, online media reported.
Importantly, it gave the top job to an Iranian trained cleric, Arsen Safaryan.
Regional analyst Paul Goble wrote in his blog that there were a handful of reasons why this was an important development.
The first reason, he said, was that the new job challenges the Baku-based Muslim Special Directorate of the Caucasus. Azerbaijan is a Muslim country and the natural location for a regional Muslim chief.
Mr Globe then wrote: “This move gives Iran an opening to expand its influence among Shiia not only in the post- Soviet space, also a direct challenge to Azerbaijan, but also among the nearly 400,000 Armenian Muslims (the Hemshins) living in the Middle East and Europe and also among the Yezidis who vastly outnumber the Shiia in Armenia.”
There were, Mr Globe explained, thousands of Muslims living in Armenia but most fled to Azerbaijan in the 1990s after war over Nagorno-Karabakh broke out. There are now only around 1,000 Muslims in Armenia.
Iran and Armenia have been steadily improving ties over the past few years. They are both short of regional allies. Now, it appears, Armenia could be quietly handing more responsibility for Armenia’s small Muslim community over to Iran.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered the Central Bank to move from Almaty to Astana by 2017.
The Central Bank is the last major government institution to move to Astana,
marking the final act of the ascendency of Mr Nazarbayev’s purpose-built capital over the far more louche Almaty.
He built up Astana, after declaring it his new capital in 1997, to reflect his status as the creator of a modern Kazakhstan. New buildings and towers dot the city’s skyline every year.
Now, it appears, Mr Nazarbayev has decided that it’s time for the economic and financial power to be transferred north. Both the Central Bank and Kazakhstan Stock Exchange had remained stubbornly based in Almaty, anchoring other commercial banks to the city. By wrenching the Bank to Astana, Mr Nazarbayev will pull other companies with it.
In 2013, Mr Nazarbayev replaced the popular and independent-minded Grigory Marchenko as Central Bank chief with the more pliant Kariat Kelimbetov.
At the time, the financial community speculated that the change would precede a move north to Astana by the Central Bank. This was denied. Now, it seems, this speculation has been borne out.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s government approved a plan to split the country’s much-loathed interior ministry in two.
The idea is to spin off the security and intelligence responsibilities of the interior ministry and unravel a merger created by former president Mikheil Saakashvili. He joined the two ministries together in the early part of his 2004-13 administration under the premise of cutting costs. Since then, though, its unpopularity has grown and opposition parties have pledged to break it up.
The most eye-catching part of the reform is placing the new State Security Service under parliamentary control to increase surveillance over it. The head of the State Security Service will be elected for one six year term only.
These reforms will, probably, prove popular with ordinary Georgians. They are also important at a former Soviet Union level too as they once again show Georgia’s ambitions.
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(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)
MAY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Central Bank said it will switch its monetary policy from targeting rigorous exchange rate stability to prioritising hitting inflation targets. Analysts have criticised the Central Bank for being too inflexible with its exchange rate controls.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 232, published on May 20 2015)