FEB. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan will launch its second telecoms satellite in 2017, media reported quoting the state-owned Azercosmos. Azerbaijan launched its first telecoms satellite from French Guyana in February 2013. It is used by companies across the South Caucasus and Central Asia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
FEB. 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s parliament ratified a deal that will simplify visa rules for EU citizens.
From October, Azerbaijani media quoted various government officials as saying, the cost of a visa for Azerbaijan will roughly half and the time it takes to get a visa will also be reduced.
This is undoubtedly good news for Azerbaijan. Visas in Central Asia and the South Caucasus have become a geopolitical issue. A few years ago, Georgia scrapped all visa requirements for EU citizens, a move that Kyrgyzstan followed in 2012. Kazakhstan has also said that it is considering dropping or heavily reducing visa requirements for citizens from a clutch of countries.
Azerbaijan, though, had been going the other way, although it is some way off the restrictive visa regimes of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Until 2010, EU citizens travelling to Azerbaijan had been able to buy a visa on arrival at Baku airport. That was abruptly scrapped without explanation.
This new deal is an important corrective step.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
JAN. 31 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The ratings company Standard & Poor’s gave its assessment of Azerbaijan’s economy. It expected economic growth of about 5% this year but said that there were some risks, especially the high consumer lending levels and growing inflationary pressure.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
JAN. 31 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — In its 2014 assessment of Azerbaijan’s economy, the Standard & Poor’s rating agency maintained Azerbaijan’s stable status with GDP growth of around 5%.
Although the World Bank and the Azerbaijani government have already given their predictions for next year, the S&P assessment is important to pick over.
Its forecast was generally in line with others, including the Azerbaijani government and the World Bank.
Where it did differ was on inflation and on potential risks to this growth prediction.
Azerbaijani media reported that S&P said inflation would increase by 4.7% this year compared to 2.4% last year. It also said inflation would rise to 6% in 2015 and over 8% in 2016.
Azerbaijan’s economy is recovering from the shock of the global financial crisis and the government has been looking for an increase in inflation.
It doesn’t, though, want this much inflation.
S&P said there were also other risks to Azerbaijan’s upward economic trajectory. One of these was the high consumer lending rate.
Azerbaijan’s Central Bank has already tried to tackle this by giving increasingly stringent guidelines to its banks on lending to consumers.
S&P also made another positive, and important, observation.
It said that the proportion of savings kept in dollars was dropping as people have increased confidence in Azerbaijan’s own currency. The proportion of savings held in dollars now was around 40%. Compare this to Kazakhstan’s 70%.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
FEB. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A 21-year-old woman in Baku died after setting herself on fire, the fourth immolation in Azerbaijan in just over a month. Media reported that the woman had been rejected by a lover. In December, a man set himself on fire outside an Azerbaijani ministry because of an argument with officials. His death triggered an anti-government protest march.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
FEB. 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — French engineering company Thales has won a deal to upgrade equipment on Baku’s metro system, media reported quoting a senior company official. The Azerbaijani government has pledged to update and extend the Baku metro, which dates from the 1960s.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
JAN. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — So-called religious warriors who travel to Syria from Azerbaijan to fight alongside other radical Islamists are driven by cash and not beliefs, MP Govhar Bakhshaliyeva in an online debate.
The authorities in Azerbaijan have become increasingly worried by the number of radical Islamists who have made the relatively short journey to Syria to fight in the civil war.
They fear that many will return both with extremist views and battle hardened.
Ms Bakhshaliyeva, though, said the salary and not the religious cause was the main motivator for many of the men.
“In Syria, as in any other country where there is war and bloodshed, a lot of the fighting is conducted by mercenaries,” an Azerbaijani-language website quoted her as saying.
“As far as I know, the mercenaries in Syria, and these are also European and not just Muslims, are paid about $5,000 every month. People can solve financial problems, and I think this a major attraction for our people to go to Syria.”
Ms Bakhshaliyeva’s views hold more weight than others. She is also the respected head of the Baku Institute of Oriental Studies.
Estimates on the number of Azerbaijan’s who are fighting in Syria vary, but it is roughly around 200.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state oil fund, SOFAZ, increased by 5.1% in 2013 to $35.9b, media reported. SOFAZ is the rainy day fund that the Azerbaijani government uses to save cash for future generations. It invests in major infrastructure projects such as oil pipelines and railway tracks.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Azerbaijan detained Omar Mamedov, a 19-year-old opposition activist, for drug possession. Mr Mamedov has become well known in Azerbaijan for blog posts that mock President Ilham Aliyev. Rights campaigners have accused the Azerbaijani authorities of cracking down on opponents of Mr Aliyev.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)
JAN. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — French President François Hollande will visit Azerbaijan in May, media reported. France is a major investor in Azerbaijan and has played a relatively active role in the politics of the region. Mr Hollande’s predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, visited Baku in October 2011 during a tour of the Caucasus.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 169, published on Jan. 29 2014)