Tag Archives: economy

ICG says inequalities are a problem for Kazakhstan

OCT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan may look like a stable and prosperous nation, the influential Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group (ICG) wrote in a new report, but this glossy facade hides serious structural problems.

The ICG report is a rare foray into Kazakhstan. The think tank normally concentrates on Kazakhstan’s more obviously problematic southern Central Asian neighbours.

And that’s really the point that the ICG makes. Kazakhstan may look different from the rest of Central Asia but its energy wealth is hiding very similar problems.

These are, the report said, an aging autocratic leader without a proper succession plan, official corruption, spreading Islamic extremism and a yawning inequality gap.

Kazakh officials point to the country’s rise through various global indexes but the ICG was unequivocal.

“Kazakhstan risks becoming just another Central Asian authoritarian regime that squandered the advantages bestowed on it by abundant natural resources,” it said.

Perhaps the least documented of these issues is the inequality gap. Astana and Almaty are booming. It doesn’t take long, though, for the landscape to change.

“Many rural residents learn only from state television that they live in a prosperous energy-rich country,” the ICG wrote. “Residents of a small village only 60km from Astana do not have a regular supply of drinking water in the winter and say the authorities have ignored their situation for years.”

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Kazakhstan increases harvest forecast

SEPT. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has increased its grain harvest forecast for 2013 to 18.5m tonnes from around 16m tonnes, media reported quoting agriculture minister Asylzhan Mamytbekov. The grain harvest has become an increasingly important part of Kazakhstan’s economy. In 2011 it harvested a post-Soviet record of 27m tonnes of grain.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Armenians welcome the Customs Union

YEREVAN/Armenia, OCT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — President Serzh Sargsyan’s announcement last month that Armenia will join the Russia-led Customs Union was a surprise both for officials and local people.

Armenia has been negotiating to join the EU for four years and a document representing progress was expected to be signed in November in Vilnius, Lithuania. Still, 14 of the 20 people interviewed by The Conway Bulletin on a mild September evening in central Yerevan supported the move.

Importantly, though, they backed Armenia’s entry into the Customs Union, which also includes Kazakhstan and Belarus, not to improve their economic prospects but because they considered Russia the best defender of peace from perceived Azerbaijani aggression.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are still officially at war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia maintains a large military base in Armenia.

“We’re living in very dangerous times. Syria, Nagorno-Karabakh, Iran, war. We’ve no other alternative,” said 33-year-old Minasyan Levon.

Liana Gevorgyan agreed. “We’ve no choice,” she said. “It’s better than feeling insecure.”

Some also said Russia’s traditional Christian Orthodox values were important.

“The EU is not only about trade, it’s also about homosexuals, feminism and a range of Western moral norms which ruins our country and its identity,” said Davit, 40.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(Correspondent’s Notebook from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Kazakhstan changes Central Bank chief

OCT. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked the country’s long-serving Central Bank chief Grigory Marchenko in a surprise move that may sow doubt over Kazakhstan’s economic direction.

Former economy minister Kairat Kelimbetov will take over from Mr Marchenko.

Mr Nazarbayev didn’t give a clear reason for sacking Mr Marchenko, considered a favourite of investors. Mr Marchenko, 53, was brought in to head Kazakhstan’s Central Bank for a second time in 2009 to help weather the financial crisis. Under his leadership Kazakhstan nationalised a handful of banks that were teetering on the brink of collapse and devalued the tenge national currency.

Mr Marchenko won international plaudits and in 2011 was touted as a possible replacement for Dominique Strass- Kahn, the disgraced French politician, as head of the IMF.

More recently, Kazakhstan’s Central Bank has been grappling with downward pressure on the tenge and the reorganisation of the country’s pension funds.

Mr Nazarbayev may have just decided that it was time for a change and to replace the notoriously independent-minded Mr Marchenko with the more pliant Mr Kelimbetov.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Azerbaijan to increase gold reserves

SEPT. 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan plans to increase its gold reserves by a third next year, media reported quoting Shahmar Movsumov, executive director of SOFAZ, the state’s oil fund. Azerbaijan has been spending its oil wealth on gold, property, and foreign currencies.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Uzbekistan sends more cotton to China

SEPT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan has tripled cotton fibre exports to China to 300,000 tonnes, about half its total production, media reported.

The move is a snub to European and US buyers which have been lobbying to force Uzbekistan to drop its use of children to pick the cotton. It’s also another indicator of the deepening reach of China in Central Asia.

Cotton is important to Uzbekistan. It harvests around 3.3m tonnes of raw cotton a year and is the world’s second largest exporter.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s tour of Central Asia last month had focused on energy supplies and security issues. This deal, though, was apparently secured when he was in Tashkent.

After China, Bangladesh and South Korea are the biggest buyers, underlining how little leverage the West has with Uzbekistan over its cotton harvest.

The West’s push to stop Uzbekistan using children to pick cotton does, though, appear to have had some impact. Reports from Uzbekistan at the start of the cotton picking season said that the state-run plantations had now stopped employing school children to pick the cotton.

In September Uzbek authorities also allowed a team of monitors from the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) in the country to observe the cotton harvest, although human rights groups said they were still worried that the observers would only be allowed a blinkered view.

Their official report is widely anticipated.

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Kazakhstan sacks Central Bank chief

OCT. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked his Central Bank chief, Grigory Marchenko. Mr Marchenko had been head of Kazakhstan’s central bank since 2009. Mr Nazrarbayev didn’t give a clear reason for sacking Mr Marchenko. Former economy minister Kairat Kelimbetov was named as the new Central Bank chief.

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Bread price rises in Uzbekistan

SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The price of a loaf of bread in Uzbekistan has risen by nearly 10% to 600 sum ($0.3), media reported. Reports said that an increase in utility tariffs across Uzbekistan had forced bread prices to rise. Bread prices also rose by 10% in September last year.

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Utility prices rise in Uzbekistan

SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s finance ministry has approved an increase in electricity and gas prices, media reported. Reports quoted state-run Uzbekenergo saying electricity prices will rise by 6.95% from Oct. 1. Uzbekneftagaz said gas prices would rise by 8.5%. Utility prices have steadily increased in Uzbekistan, upsetting ordinary people.

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Uzbekistan invests in tourism

SEPT. 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Uzbek government will invest $78m between 2013 and 2015 in the tourist sector around Tashkent, Uzbektourism told the Trend news agency. The number of tourists visiting Uzbekistan, mainly for the ancient Silk Road towns, has steadily increased. Officials want to double the number of hotel rooms in Tashkent to 2,800.

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)