APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch accused Kyrgyzstan of backsliding on rights and freedom of speech. It said that in the last few months the Kyrgyz authorities had drafted a bill that would criminalise spreading information about homosexuality and had banned several peaceful protests in central Bishkek.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Stubbornly high unemployment is a major problem for Armenia’s economy, media quoted the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as saying in an annual reported. Unemployment last year in Armenia measured 16.8%, the ADB said. It said GDP growth in 2013 slowed to 3.5% from 7.2% in 2012.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament officially voted in Djoomart Otorbayev as the new PM. Mr Otorbayev is a former World Bank official who served as deputy PM in the previous government.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The spectre of Kazakh police shooting dead oil workers during a strike in 2011 haunts trade union members who are now too afraid of the security forces to launch long-term industrial action.
The issue of workers’ rights in Kazakhstan surged into the public consciousness in December 2011 after police shot dead at least 15 people in the scruffy western oil town of Zhanaozen, bringing to an end a six month strike aimed at increasing oil workers’ salaries.
In an interview with The Conway Bulletin in Almaty, Aleksei Nigai, deputy head of the small Odak union, said that although conditions for workers in general had not improved since 2011, workers avoided long stand offs with the security forces.
“Since then [Zhanaozen], there have been more and more strikes but the scale has been modest because workers fear the government’s reaction,” he said.
“Nobody wants to be shot for a salary increase.”
Mr Nigai was talking just a few days after a four-day strike hit an oil services company in western Kazakhstan.
He also said the government was planning to introduce legislation that would increase the punishment for strikes not authorised and organised by the official government-linked union.
In other words, Mr Nigai said, the Kazakh state wanted a Potemkin union system that it could easily control.
“There will be only one umbrella organisation, the Federation, which is appointed by the President,” he said with a sigh and a shrug.
“Tell me how this is different to, say, Turkmenistan.”
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Russia arrested an Uzbek couple for trying to sell their two children, a newborn daughter and an 18-month-old boy, for $28,000, media reported. This is the second time this year Russian police have arrested Uzbeks trying to sell children, underlining the desperation of some people in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Annualised inflation in Georgia remained a stubbornly low 3.5% in March, the Georgian national statistics agency reported. The biggest contributor to price rises during this period was the cost of heating, fuel, water and electricity which rose by 11.4%.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tigran Sargsyan, 54, resigned as Armenia’s PM without giving a clear explanation as to why. Mr Sargsyan, no relation to Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, had been PM since 2008. He had previously been head of the Central Bank. His government had grown increasingly unpopular over pension reform.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Remittances from Russia to Tajikistan rose to $4.15b in 2013, a jump of 14%, media reported quoting the Central Bank. Remittances, especially from Russia, are vital for the Tajik economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Under gentle pressure from the World Bank, a key donor, Kyrgyzstan plans to increase the retirement age for women by two years to 60-years-old.
The idea is to both equalise the retirement age of men and women and generate revenue for the state pension plan.
But reforming Soviet-era pension plans is an emotive issue. In neighbouring Kazakhstan, a similar plan last year triggered protests and the resignation of a government minister.
Kyrgyzstan currently has a young population but with a grey economy worth 40% of GDP, payments into the government’s pension pot and other forms of social assistance are miserly.
This needs to change to support a society where life expectancies are increasing, although people in sight of retirement are unlikely to be thinking fiscally.
Varya Zirilenko, 53, said her hands ached from the repetition of sorting potatoes at the processing plant in the northern city of Tokmok where she works.
“When I come home at night they shake. Is that normal? Must I go on like this for another seven years before I can receive a full pension?” Varya expects her monthly pension to be over 6,500 Kyrgyz soms ($120). Many are even smaller.
Perhaps, though, the retirement age is just one of the issues surrounding Kyrgyzstan’s pension scheme. Another is corruption, endemic throughout the country.
Akhmatbek Keldibekov, an opposition politician from the country’s south is currently on trial for corruption. The charges relate to his time as head of the Social Fund under former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) fined Azerbaijan $500,000 after nine of its athletes tested positive for doping last year. The fines will embarrass Azerbaijan which hosts the first European Games next year.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)