MAY 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Officials from Kyrgyzstan flew to Moscow to discuss joining the Russia-led Customs Union either later this year or next year, media reported. Armenia is looking to join the economic bloc, which also includes Kazakhstan and Belarus, this year but Kyrgyzstan has stalled slightly.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
MAY 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Temirtau steel plant in central Kazakhstan, owned by Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, said that it would make 1,000 workers redundant in order to cut costs.
Outside the energy sector, the Temirtau steel plant is one of Kazakhstan’s biggest industrial operations.
It’s been trying to navigate through a difficult period, though. The combination of sanctions on Iran, previously the factory’s biggest client, and the general global economic weakness combined to knock profits and it has steadily laid off workers over the past couple of years.
At the end of last year, reports surfaced that it would look to cut around 2,500 people from its workforce of about 14,500. This now appears to have been watered down.
There hasn’t been an official statement from the company but state-backed TV channel Astana quoted Dmitry Pavlov, head of human resources at the plant, saying that the work force would be cut by only 1,000 people.
Temirtau is a classic Soviet style monogorod. The plant is the heart and soul of the city and, although the job losses appear to be limited, they will still have a large trickle-down impact.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
MAY 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tension between border guards from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan once again closed the border for two days, media reported. Reports said that villages from both countries along their shared southern border blocked the road. Earlier this year a shootout between security forces killed several people.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
MAY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament passed an anti-discrimination bill it needed to implement for further integration into the EU but the conservative Orthodox Church has said it will protest against it.
Media reported that Georgia’s parliament passed the law unanimously.
The bill, its supporters and its detractors, give a good insight into the division coursing through Georgian society between modernisers and traditionalists.
The EU, which Georgia is desperate to join, has called on legislation that protects the rights of minorities. This has been generally accepted by Georgians, although the conservative Orthodox Church continues to rile against it.
And the Orthodox Church in Georgia is powerful. Patriarch Ilia II is considered a genuine power-broker, politicians cosy up to religious leaders and priests lead demonstrations. Last year, priests led a march against a gay rights parade that triggered violence. Tolerance in modern day Georgia only goes so far.
For the Church, the new laws are virtually heresy and it has promised to protest against it. Their main difficulty with the law is its protection of homosexuality.
Patriarch Ilia II was succinct. “Not a single believer will accept such law,” he said.
For NGOs pushing for the new legislation it has also been a slight disappointment. They were disappointed that the law finally adopted had been watered down from its original state.
Expect more tension between modernisers and traditionalists.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
APRIL 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The IMF has upgraded Uzbekistan’s economic growth rate to 7% in 2014 from 6.5% earlier forecast, media reported. It also said that inflation would creep up to about 11% from an earlier estimate of 10.4%. Inflation has boomed in Uzbekistan and poses a real risk to the economy..
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
MAY 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Anglo-Asian Mining, Azerbaijan’s only gold producer, signed a deal to sell its copper concentrate to Geneva trade house Industrial Minerals SA. Anglo-Asian Mining, reported to have links with the Azerbaijani elite, produces copper at its Gedabek mine.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking for more allies in Asia, Uzbekistan plans to strengthen diplomatic ties and transport links with Bangladesh.
This Uzbek-Bangladeshi alliance, though, is based fully on business. More precisely, it is based on cotton.
An Uzbek government delegation begins a three-day visit to Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, on April 30. Media reported that it will open an embassy in the country, its first new embassy for several years, and re-start direct flights. Uzbekistan Airways had flown from Tashkent to Dhaka between 1996 and 2005 but dropped the route because it was a commercial flop. It is now expanding and it suits the diplomatic discourse to re-start the route.
The root cause of all this chumminess between Uzbekistan and Bangladesh is cotton. There are no historical, cultural or religious links. This is 21st century commercial diplomacy.
Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s key exports but over the last few years it has found it increasingly hard to sell to the West. Western companies have grown more and more sensitive about Uzbekistan’s use of child labour to pick the cotton. Many Western companies imposed a boycott on Uzbek cotton, forcing Uzbekistan to look for new clients. It found these in China and Bangladesh.
Since 2012, cotton exports to both China and Bangladesh have increased enormously. Uzbekistan now supplies Bangladesh, one of the world’s biggest garment manufacturing countries, with 40% of its total cotton.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A delegation from Azerbaijan’s ministry of defence started a two-day visit to meet with their counterparts in Brazil, media reported. Azerbaijan has been looking to boost its defence sector, an area that Brazilian industry has been expanding into.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The president of Croatia, Ivo Josipovic, visited Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in Ashgabat. The two day visit by Mr Josipovic is a rare trip by the head of state of an EU member nation to Turkmenistan. It underlines Turkmenistan’s importance in the international energy market.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)
APRIL 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Under pressure from persistent delays and setbacks, the North Caspian Operating Company building the Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea sacked Pierre Offan, its chairman and managing director. Officials have said Kashagan may be closed for another two years while leaky pipes are replaced.
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(News report from Issue No. 182, published on April 30 2014)