Category Archives: Uncategorised

ADB boosts microfinance in rural Azerbaijan

APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s government should develop rural microfinance mechanisms to help boost its economy and wean it off its addiction to oil, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in an annual report.

The main body of the ADB’s report covers similar ground to other economic organsiations — that as oil prices relax and Azerbaijan’s own oil output slows, revenues to the government budget are likely to dip.

This, the ADB said, will probably reduce public spending.

And public spending, fuelled by oil revenues, has been driving Azerbaijan’s economic growth.

The government, therefore, has to look for other ways of generating economic growth, the ADB said. It praised the Central Bank’s move to curb lending to consumers and instead promote growth through loans to small and medium sized businesses.

“However, more is needed to promote lending in rural areas,” the ADB said.

Roughly 40% of Azerbaijan’s population live in rural areas but, the ADB said, growth was being stymied by excessive government activity swamping private enterprise and potential state revenues. What Azerbaijan needs to do in rural areas is build micro-finance options and extend bank branch networks.

“These steps should boost rural income and, eventually, revenue from rural areas, thereby reducing the budget’s current dependence on oil earnings,” the ADB said.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Kazakhstan’s KazKom posts profits

APRIL 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazkommertsbank (KazKom), Kazakhstan’s biggest lender, said it made a profit of $288m last year, turning around a loss in 2012. KazKom’s ratio of non-performing loans, though, remained a stubbornly high 32.4%. Kazakhstan has made a priority of reducing its non-performing loans.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Tajik mullahs worry about young fighters in Syria

APRIL 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Local mullahs in Tajikistan are worried about the increasing number of young men heading off to Syria to join radical Islamist groups fighting against Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad.

Officials in Tajikistan, both government and religious, fear that the young men will return from Syria radicalised and ferment anti-government feelings.

Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon speaks out regularly against the potential drift north of the Taliban once NATO leaves Afghanistan.

Media quoted one mullah in a regional town besmirching anybody who moved to Syria to fight for the rebels.

“Such behaviour is “the way of lost souls and the way of the devil,” said Haidar Sharifzoda, head of the main mosque in the city of Kulyab.

Kulyab is in Khatlon province, Mr Rakhmon’s home region and power-base. It has also previously been considered a bastion of secular thinking. Last month, a 26-year-old man from Kulyab was reported killed in Syria.

The number of Central Asians currently fighting in Syria has been placed at anywhere between several hundred and several thousand. Many are disillusioned migrants working in Russian cities.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Turkmenistan’s economy booms

APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s economy has grown 10% over the past year, media quoted the Turkmen government as saying. Turkmen government statistics can be inflated but, even so, the apparent jump in the size of the economy shows the scale of Turkmenistan’s economic growth.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Chinese interest in Georgia grows

APRIL 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The China Development Bank will send a high-level delegation to visit Tbilisi, media reported during a trip to Beijing by Georgian parliamentarians, a sign of Chinese interest in Georgia. China has been boosting links in the South Caucasus. It has opened a cultural school in Tbilisi and funded projects.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Separatism becomes a crime in Kazakhstan

APRIL 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — With Russia’s annexation of Crimea firmly in mind, Kazakhstan’s parliament is likely to pass laws that will criminalise separatist action, media reported. Kazakhstan’s north is home to a large Russian minority which it worries will follow the example of Crimea and try to join Russia.

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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Italian ambassador to Turkmenistan arrested for child abuse

APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in the Philippines detained Daniele Bosio, the Italian ambassador to Turkmenistan, for suspected child abuse, media reported. Mr Bosio was at a water slide park with three boys when he was detained. The Italian foreign ministry confirmed Mr Bosio’s detention and said he had been on a personal holiday in the Philippines.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Chemical ‘marijuana’ fuels legalisation debate in Georgia

TBILISI/Georgia, APRIL 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – – Irakli, a dreadlocked Tbilisi street artist, was in a whiney mood.

“For two years it has been impossible to get real marijuana in Tbilisi,” he said. Marijuana grows naturally across Georgia, and is widely consumed recreationally in the south and northwest. In Tbilisi, however, strict drug laws and stiff sentences make it tough to find.

For Irakli, and many other young Georgians, the solution is something they call ‘bio’, synthetic marijuana sold over the internet. Manufactured in China and the Netherlands, it consists of chemicals in powder form or sprayed over tea and dried herbs so as to be easily smoked. Sold in $20 foil sachets marked ‘Incense’, orders are delivered to a Georgian post office.

Bio has taken over the Tbilisi club and party scene. In recent months, synthetic approximations of cocaine, ecstasy and other drugs have become more widely available, all marketed under the name of ‘bio’.

The craze has not gone unnoticed by the country’s authorities, which amended the drug laws to criminalize the possession and sale of synthetic drugs. But the police have no test for it unlike for real marijuana, said Irakli.

“They can’t test you and they can’t test what you are smoking,” he said. “Nobody knows what is in it.”

Whatever is in it, it can have lethal effects. In February a man died at a central Tbilisi nightspot. He was thought to have consumed a large quantity of synthetic drugs.

“Of course it’s more dangerous, but if the law changes people will stop smoking it,” Irakli said.

That seems unlikely. Pro-legalisation protests in 2013 may have attracted more than a thousand people but the interior ministry is staunchly against any relaxing of the drug laws.

For now at least the clubbers of Tbilisi will keep taking bio, and the associated risks.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Activists protest mining in Kyrgyzstan

APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Highlighting tension in Kyrgyzstan’s mining sector, media reports said that protesters blocking a road in the Talas region of north Kyrgyzstan clashed briefly with police. The protesters were demanding compensation for alleged environmental damage from the mining company.

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)

Anti-Russia sanctions bite Kazakhstan

APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — International sanctions imposed on Russia because of its de facto annexation of Crimea will adversely affect Kazakh exports, Kazakhstan’s energy minister Uzakbai Karabalin told parliament. Mr Karabalin said that Kazakhstan may look to increase oil exports via Azerbaijan, China and Iran.

(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)