Category Archives: Uncategorised

China sells missiles to Uzbekistan

FEB. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — China has sold Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan anti-aircraft missile systems, the English-language website eurasianet.org and the Uzbek website 12news.uz both reported by quoting Chinese sources. Eurasianet.org said the sale, if confirmed, would be China’s biggest ever military deal in Central Asia.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

Kazakhs protest against falling tenge

FEB. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A handful of residents in Almaty staged another protest against the falling value of the Kazakh tenge. According to a Radio Free Europe report the protesters said they had taken out mortgages when $1 equalled 107 tenge. Now $1 equalled 186 tenge. Protests are rare in Kazakhstan but pressure on the tenge has angered people.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

Georgia cuts growth rate

>>Russian woes continue to weigh on South Caucasus region>>

FEB. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia became the latest country in the South Caucasus/Central Asia region to downgrade its economic forecast for this year.

Finance minister Nodar Khaduri said growth would measure 4% in 2015, down from an earlier prediction of 5%.
Like its neighbours, the slowdown in Russia’s economy is also impacting on Georgia.

“Economic growth in Armenia and Moldova this year was zero percent. A drop is expected in economic growth in Ukraine and Russia due to well-known reasons,” media quoted him as saying.

Georgia’s economy is slightly better sheltered from the economic storm swirling around Russia. The depressed state of the Russian economy has hit Armenia hard and the fall in the price of oil has dented Azerbaijan’s economy.

Georgia, though, is not reliant on either the Russian economy nor on oil prices. That said, both still filter through and impact Georgia.

The Georgian Central Bank has already said it will likely raise interest rates later this month to try and combat the falling value of its lari currency.

“Considering the challenges in the economy today and analysing the numbers and data it is necessary that we start to revise the 5% growth prognosis and plan macroeconomic and fiscal indicators from the beginning so they adequately reflect the economic policy, and respond to these challenges,”” Mr Khaduri said.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

Civil rights fall across the region

EDINBURGH/NEW YORK, FEB. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Civil freedoms in Central Asia and the South Caucasus took a turn for the worse in 2014 as governments moved closer to Russia and worried that street demonstrations in Ukraine may spread, Freedom House said in an interview.

The sharpest deterioration in civil rights in 2014, according to the US-based lobby group, came in Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan.

“Governments restricted freedom of assembly and speech to prevent ‘maidans’ and Russian encouragement of separatism,” Nate Schenkkan, a Eurasia Programme Officer at Freedom House, said in an interview with The Bulletin. Schenkkan’s reference to so-called maidans was to Ukrainian street demonstrations which morphed into a full scale revolution.
The interview was conducted over twitter with questions also taken from viewers.

At the end of last year Azerbaijani police raided the office of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In the interview with The Bulletin, Schenkkan said the police raid was the culmination of a tough year for media and government critics in Azerbaijan.

“There was a full-scale crackdown. Now (there are) 90 plus political prisoners, all independent media shuttered in Azerbaijan,” he said. “Sanctions for Azerbaijani officials should be on the table and EU leaders should skip the European Games.” Azerbaijan is hosting the inaugural European Games later this year.

As for Kyrgyzstan, Schenkkan said new legislation had dented Kyrgyzstan’s image.

“Kyrgyzstan is the most disappointing because it is a reversal after relative gains recently,” he said. “Copycat attempts at Russian legislation against LGBTI and NGOs nearly passed.”
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

Tajikistan needs to improve labour

>>World Bank says Tajikistan needs to adapt>>

FEB. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a report on Tajikistan, the World Bank said a third of Tajik men leave the country to find work and that the informal market employs about 60% of the population.

Adapting local labour training to a market that needs analytical skills and not just manual work is key to developing Tajikistan’s workforce, the World Bank wrote.

The migration numbers and the large informal economy mean the Tajik economy is fragile, especially when its main driver — the Russian economy is also under stress.

The Tajik Central Bank has raised interest rates and depleted its currency reserves in an attempt to defend its currency from a sharp devaluation. It has warned that it can’t sustain a long, second defence of its economy.

In its report, entitled “The Skills Road: Skills for Employability in Tajikistan”, the World Bank argued that the Tajik economy is undergoing significant changes that need a new approach from the government to develop more and better analytical skills to boost the formal sector of the economy and also reduce migration trends.

“New economy skills are strong analytical and organizational skills, including non-routine cognitive analytical and interpersonal skills,” the World Bank wrote.

“The report’s conclusion is that the government could shift the focus from providing access to educational institutions and instead focus on providing the skills (cognitive, non-cognitive, and technical) to students who need to succeed as adults.”
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)

Kyrgyz inflation hits 10%

JAN. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Inflation in Kyrgyzstan has broken through the 10% barrier, a senior official at the national statistics office was quoted by media as saying. The official, Malika Abdukadirova, said annualised inflation hit 10.4% in December mainly because of a rise in the price of foodstuffs.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Russia says to cut Uzbek/Turkmen gas purchases

FEB. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Alexander Medvedev, vice-chairman of Gazprom, Russia’s gas monopoly, said the company would cut gas it buys from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Mr Medvedev did not specify why Gazprom had cut its orders from Turkmenistan by 60% and from Uzbekistan by 75% but it may be linked to Russia’s economic downturn.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Berdy wants white cars only

JAN. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan has banned the import of any car that isn’t white, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported quoting a customs official. RFE/RL said new rules may also force all car owners to repaint their cars white. The new rules highlight the often bizarre nature of Turkmenistan.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Germany confirms Uzbek military base

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The German ambassador to Uzbekistan, Neithart Höfer-Wissing, officially confirmed that Germany was going to maintain its military base near Termez, south Uzbekistan, German media reported . A deal was made between the Uzbek and German government last year, although details were kept secret.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Azerbaijan cancels social projects

>>Fall in oil price has hit Azerbaijan hard

JAN. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s government has cancelled a $100m project to provide rural communities with vastly improved and faster internet, media reported.

The fall in the price of oil prices has hit Azerbaijan hard. It is very much a petro-dollar economy and has had to adjust its budget to account for falling revenues.

The project was supposed to be funded by the state budget but it was, instead, one of the first to be cut when the budget was re-organised earlier this year.

And the project was supposed to be a major stepping stone to build a more integrated, connected society. Research in 2013 showed that only 500 of Azerbaijan’s 4,000 villages had access to the internet, a figure the government’s programme was supposed to improve.

Another project that the government has apparently reduced funding for is the Star refinery that it was building in Turkey. Instead, media reported, the Star oil refinery will be funded by foreign-backed debt.

Oil prices are critical to Azerbaijan. Last week BP, the biggest foreign investor in Azerbaijan, said that it was making 8% of its local workforce redundant.

The next few months are going to be important. While prices remain low, there could be more project cancellations to come.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)