Category Archives: Uncategorised

Turkmenistan expands its airline

MARCH 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Building an airline with a bold livery and a list of international destinations is a tried and test way of boosting national prestige for emerging countries.

Turkmenistan, is appears, is embracing this tactic.

According to a report on the centralasiaonline.com website, Turkmenistan is eager to boost the presence of Turkmenistan Airlines.

Turkmenistan Airlines now flies to 17 foreign cities. This should increase to 27 by the end of the year, centralasiaonline.com quoted a Turkmenistan Airlines official as saying.

It also plans to boost domestic air travel too. It has bought 20 planes with 100 passenger capacity each to use on domestic routes and ordered five more regional airports to be built.

As well as being a useful way to improve the awareness of your country and to promote a brand, Turkmenistan’s airline extension may have a positive impact on travel for both ordinary people and also for business and investors.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Georgia supports Ukraine

MARCH 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Unsurprisingly, perhaps, both ordinary Georgians and Georgia’s government have voiced their support for Ukraine’s revolution.

Hundreds of people protested outside Russia’s embassy in Tbilisi at what they said was Russian aggression in Ukraine. A few days earlier, Georgia had been one of the first countries to apparently recognise the post-revolution government in Ukraine as the legitimate authority.

“The Georgian Foreign Ministry hopes that the new government will take effective steps to meet expectations of the Ukrainian people,” Georgian media quoted its government as saying.

Fairly unequivocal and unsurprising.

But it’s a sensitive time for Georgia to start aligning itself with Moscow’s allies. The new Georgian government is only just patching up the wounds from the war it fought with Russia in 2008. High level meetings have been scheduled between officials from both sides. These meetings may now be under threat.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Armenia joins Customs Union

MARCH 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia will join the Russia-led Customs Union by mid-April, local media quoted deputy foreign minister Shavarsh Kocharyan as saying.

His statement was a show of support from the Armenian government to Russia in its row with the West over Ukraine. Armenia has previously said it would not be ready to join the Customs Union — a loose economic bloc including Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan — until June.

The decision last year by Ukraine’s government to turn its back on the European Union in favour of closer ties with Russia, triggered demonstrations which culminated in his month’s revolution.

Armenia, though, has never wavered in its support for Russia. Its move towards the Customs Union and away from the European Union has broad public support.

Russian companies are one of the biggest investors in Armenia. Earlier this year Russian gas monopoly Gazprom completed the purchase of the Armenia gas network and oil company Rosneft has also pledged to invest $500m into a rubber plant outside Yerevan.

The Russian military also maintains one of its biggest overseas bases in Armenia which the public sees as a bulwark against potential Azerbaijani aggression. Also on March 1, one of the main opposition leaders in Armenia, former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan told his supporters at a rally in Yerevan that joining the Customs Union was the right move for Armenia.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Tajik workers go on strike for higher wages

MARCH 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Workers in Tajikistan building a road for a Chinese company have gone on strike after demanding higher wages, media reported. Looking to build influence in Central Asia, China has pledged to construct a series of roads and tunnels. Tension, though, flares with how Chinese companies treat their Tajik workers.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Turkmenistan hosts windsurfing championship

FEB. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Rather unexpectedly, Turkmenistan has been chosen to host a stage of the world windsurfing cup at a resort on the Caspian Sea coast later this year, media reported. The greats of the windsurfing world will gather at the resort of Avaza on July 1-6 for the competition.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Kazakhstan wants to open domestic airline

FEB. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government said it would buy 10 planes from Canada’s Bombardier to set up a domestic airline called Air Kazakhstan. Air Kazakhstan was the name of the Kazakh national airline in the 1990s. It was phased out with the creation of Air Astana in 2001. Kazakhstan has been investing heavily in transport infrastructure.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Russia considers buying airport in Kyrgyzstan

MARCH 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — For visitors to Kyrgyzstan’s main civilian airport, Manas, catching sight of US warplanes taking off in the distance used to be part of arriving in Bishkek. Not anymore.

As the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan continues these glimpses of the US military have become increasingly rare. It is quitting its airbase next to Manas civilian airport from where it has flown missions to Afghanistan since 2001.

Given Russian opposition to the facility, Kyrgyzstan’s leaders had few choices but to call time on the co-called Transit Center.

And this seems to suit locals.

“I have no problem with America but I don’t think we needed this base,” said Askar Bolotbayev, a Bishkek resident.

“It doesn’t provide us with electricity, it isn’t something we can export. We somehow survived before it and we will survive after it, too.”

Yet, with the centre worth roughly $200m to the anaemic Kyrgyz economy, Kyrgyzstan is keen to fill a hole by turning their main airport into something bigger and better.

Dair Tokobayev, an official at Manas airport, told local press that the government wanted to transform Manas into a regional transit hub.

But not without Russian backing, of course. Russian energy company Rosneft is reportedly considering buying a 51% stake in the airport.

(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Armenia’s external debt grows

MARCH 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s external debt grew by 4.4% in 2013 to $3.9b, media quoted the national statistics service as saying. Nearly half of this debt is owed to the World Bank, underling just how dependent Armenia is on international finance organisations.

(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Georgian GDP grows steadily

FEB. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s GDP grew by nearly 8% in the 12 months to the end of January, the Georgian statistics agency reported. It said a surge in domestic demand at the end of last year had carried over into the start of 2014. Georgia predicts full year GDP growth for 2014 of 5%.

(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Georgian president visits Armenia

FEB. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili visited his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan to reaffirm strong relations between the two countries despite their divergent foreign policy. Georgia is close to the West while Armenia is increasingly close to Russia.

(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)