Tag Archives: government

Tajik court sentences IRPT activist

NOV. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Tajikistan handed a 9-1⁄2 year prison sentence to an activist of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) which, until September, had been the country’s only opposition party. Hasan Rahimov had been the IRPT chief in the southern Farkhor district. He is the first of two dozen IRPT activists to stand trial on various terrorism charges. The IRPT says the charges are politically motivated.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Turkmen authorities organise choir record

NOV. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in Turkmenistan organised 4,166 people to sing a song written by Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, AP news agency reported, breaking a previous world record for the largest choir. The choir sung in a giant yurt.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Kazakh government to cut oil exports

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a move designed to help oil exporters, the Kazakh government said it would cut export duty on a tonne of oil to $40 from $60. Some exporters in Kazakhstan have simply stopped production until either oil prices improved or taxes were cut.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Azerbaijan’s president prepares economy for sustained downturn

NOV. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev appeared to be preparing his country for a prolonged economic slump when he ordered the government to triple the amount of debt that it could take on.

He also told the Central Bank that it had to increase the amount of capital that it holds to 500m manat ($478m) up from 10m manat.

Both orders appear to be designed to preempt a sustained economic slowdown. The increase in the amount of debt that the Azerbaijani government can accrue to 4.5b manat and the rise in the Central Bank’s working capital should soften the impact of oil prices staying low.

Like the rest of the region Azerbaijan is trying to cope with a collapse in oil prices.

The price of a barrel of oil has more than halved in the past year. For Azerbaijan, whose economy is reliant on oil sales, the impact has been heavy. It has cut its budget and dropped various infrastructure projects to save cash.

Last week a fire at an internet data centre knocked Azerbaijan off the World Wide Web, highlighting just how fragile and investment-needy some of Azerbaijan’s infrastructure it.

In June, the IMF said Azerbaijan’s economy would grow by only 1.8% this year, a sharp fall from the rapid growth of a few years ago. It also said there would be sluggish growth until 2020. Mr Aliyev’s orders appear to confirm this view.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kazakh investment Nurly Zhol slows

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Incompetent local administrations have delayed the Kazakh government’s centrepiece $9b Nurly Zhol infrastructure investment policy, Yerbolat Dossayev, Kazakhstan’s minister of economy, said. Nurly Zhol, which means bright path, was announced last year and was supposed to transform the Kazakh economy. It has failed to have an impact.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

IMF keen on privatisations in Kazakhstan

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The IMF applauded Kazakhstan’s plans to sell off chunks of up to 50% in 43 high profile state-owned companies.

In a report, the IMF also said that ditching the tenge’s peg to the US dollar in August will push up inflation in the short term.

“The decision to float the exchange rate in August, followed by the introduction of a new policy interest rate (base rate) as the new monetary policy anchor in September, set in motion the process of modernizing the monetary policy framework,” the IMF said in its report.

Under pressure from depressed oil prices and a fall in the value of the rouble, the Kazakh Central Bank dropped its peg to the US dollar in August. The tenge plunged in value.

Strapped for cash, the Kazakh government said earlier this month that it wanted to sell off chunks of its biggest companies to private investors. The plan received a qualified endorsement from the IMF.

“We welcome these initiatives and the authorities’ objective of implementing the privatisation program competitively and in a way that ensures genuine private ownership and control,” it said.

The issue for investors is which stock market the government lists the shares on.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kyrgyz prison chief hangs

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The warden in charge of the jail from which nine prisoners escaped last month has been found hanged in his cell, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Imankul Teltaev had been in pre-trial detention waiting for this trial on charges linked to the mass escape.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Tajik president to be given title of “Leader of the Nation”

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon is about to add another title to his growing list of names. Already called “His Excellency”, he will now add the moniker “Leader of the Nation”.

A group of deputies of the lower chamber of parliament have submitted a draft law proposing that Mr Rakhmon take this title.

One of the proposers of the bill, Abdurahim Kholikzoda told local media that the draft has been prepared because of a groundswell of support from ordinary Tajiks who want to honour their president and everything he has achieved.

“This is a tribute to the merits of the outstanding son of the Tajik people, President Emomali Rakhmon, and for his services to the country and the people of the country,” media quoted Mr Kholikzoda as saying.

Mr Kholikzoda has a track record of lavishly praising Mr Rakhmon. Once head of the State Religion Committee of Tajikistan, he called Mr Rakhmon “the sun” and “the star of happiness” earlier this year.

Many ordinary Tajik are suspicious, though, and suspect that Mr Rakhmon’s new title is a crude attempt to curry favour.

A Dushanbe resident called Farhod said: “We have the lowest economic development in the post- Soviet space, our migrants are dying in Russia, our families are freezing in areas without electricity or poisoned by carbon monoxide of coal, corruption is developed, and the list can go on.

“However, what are our MPs doing? They compete to invent such laws to get the attention of the President. I am speechless.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kazakh leader signs new employment law

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev signed into law changes to the country’s employment code that make it easier for companies to sack workers. The new law also makes industrial action harder to take. Businesses have said that the law is a necessary modernising step. Trade unions have said it is designed to undermine them.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kazakh parliament approves budget cuts

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s parliament approved a budget designed to both limit spending during a period of low oil prices and target a national deficit that has crept up to a 10-year-high.

Perhaps with this in mind, the sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Ka- zyna announced plans to cap pay and close 33 of its 36 overseas offices and the Central Bank said that it would slow work on building a state-of-the- art data centre in Astana.

The government’s budget for 2016-18 acknowledged that economic growth had stalled and would measure only 1.2% this year, its lowest rate since 2009 — the height of the Global Financial Crisis.

It also specifically wanted to target a deficit which has grown to around 3% of GDP, its highest in the past decade.

Presenting the government’s budget, PM Karim Massimov acknowledged the severity of the economic challenge.

“On December 8, the government will adopt an anti-crisis programme for the next three years. We will unite all previous economic programmes under a new umbrella,” Mr Massimov told the Senate.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev later confirmed he will address the nation on Nov. 30 on plans to tackle to the growing economic malaise.

The new budget forecasts oil prices to remain within the $40- 50/barrel range and the tenge to remain stable at around 300/$1.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)