MAY 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia is considering dropping visa requirements for US citizens, media quoted deputy foreign minister Sergey Manasarian as saying. Earlier this year Armenia allowed EU citizens to stay 90 days without a visa after the EU relaxed rules for Armenians.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
MAY 31 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Consumer prices in May fell by 0.8% compared to April, media reported. Food price deflation was the main driver of the overall drop, the national statistics office reported. It did not explain why food prices had dropped. Overall year-on-year inflation for end- April was 3.6%.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
MAY 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian president Vladimir Putin threw his support behind Armenia’s planned entry into the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU). Media quoted Mr Putin as saying that Armenia should become a member as soon as possible. Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are currently the only members of the EaEU. Kyrgyzstan also wants to become an EaEU member.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
MAY 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a ceremony in Astana, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed into existence the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU).
The EaEU is the successor of the Customs Union and is designed to further integrate its members’ economies. The rhetoric has been of high praise for the EaEU but the reaction on the street has been markedly different, as a correspondent for The Bulletin discovered in Almaty.
Berik, a 35-year-old office worker wasn’t even sure of the treaty. “Who are the parties involved?” he said. “Belarus and Russia. I’m not sure, with them it could go either way. It could either be a success or a failure.”
An ethnic Russian lady hurrying along the street also said she doubted the value of the group. “It would have been better if they had not signed the treaty,” she said.
Other people agreed. Most had either not heard of the EaEU or said they doubted it would be positive.
One of the few people to support the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union was Saken a 50-year-old man who worked in real estate. He said that Soviet era ties remained and that the union would be stronger than if countries pursued their own agendas.
“In the Eurasian Union we will welcome troubled countries like Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, who are not really as stable as we are, but we will definitely help them, with the same friendship we used to relate to each other during the Soviet era,” he said.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
JUNE 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s government is considering increasing electricity prices for the second year running.
Ara Simonyan, deputy minister for energy, made the omission after questions from parliamentarians who were trying to find out whether rumours of a price increase had any substance.
“The electricity tariffs are not frozen in Armenia and shall be reviewed from time to time. There is no certain decision at the moment,” he said.
Last year the state’s body for regulating electricity prices raised the cost of a kilowatt hour to 38 drams from 30 drams. Now, media has reported, the government is considering putting up prices by another 20% to around 45 drams.
This is important because rising utility prices stirs anger.
Armenians have already vented their frustration this year against proposed changes to the pension system, triggering the downfall of one government. The new government has said that it will look again at the proposed changes which would have meant that people have to put 5% of their income towards their state pension.
Mr Simonyan said hydroelectric stations were unusually dry last year meaning that less electricity was generated and that this meant prices had to rise.
Regardless, if the government does take the decision to increase electricity prices, it could generate public resentment.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
MAY 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) -Georgia has resumed supplying gas to Armenia through its north-south pipeline after a rock fall earlier this month damaged it, Gazprom- Armenia said. The pipeline from Russia through Georgia is the main supply route to Armenia. Rock falls, though, are a problem and can trigger shortages each year.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tigran Sargsyan, Armenia’s former PM, is likely to become the country’s next ambassador in the US, media reported. Mr Sargsyan resigned as PM in April after six years in the job. It had been unclear, until now, what job Mr Sargysan would take on next.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s Central Bank dropped growth rate predictions for 2014 by around a fifth mainly because of a slowdown in Russia’s economy.
All the Central Asian and South Caucasus countries are vulnerable to a slowdown in Russia’s economy but Armenia has perhaps been the first to warn publicly of the impact.
It said economic growth this year would now be between 4.1% and 4.8%, down from an earlier prediction of between 5.4% and 6.1%. Russia is by far Armenia’s biggest trading partner and Yerevan has been looking to join the Russia- led Customs Union to cement this relationship.
But sanctions imposed by the EU and US because of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine earlier this year have impacted its economic growth and the domino effect means that this has weighed on economies across the former Soviet Union.
Russia owns much of Armenia’s businesses, supplies its gas and is a magnet for seasonal labourers from Armenia who generate an important remittance flow.
Armenia’s Central Bank also said a delayed copper mine and a weak tax regime also hindered economic growth rates.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
MAY 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Throwing the gauntlet down to his Turkish counterpart, Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan invited Turkey’s president to commemorate the 100th anniversary of what Armenia calls the genocide of its people by Ottoman Turks next year. Turkey denies the charges and instead says people were killed during inter-ethnic fighting.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)
May 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin)- In 2020, Kazakhstan will probably introduce a new pension scheme that will deduct 5% of an employee’s wages and automatically place it in a government plan, the labour ministry told the Tengrinews website.
Employers will match this employee contribution.
It appears that these planned reforms haven’t been announced more widely and loudly because of a very real fear of upsetting people.
The risk for Kazakhstan is fairly obvious. In Armenia a similar plan triggered widespread demonstrations. The problem is that Kazakhstan and other former Soviet States need to reform and update their pension schemes.
Last year, the Kazakh labour sacked its ministers because of backlash over trying to make women retire at the same age as men.
Persuading Kazakhs to accept the latest plan is also likely to be a serious challenge for the Kazakh government.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)