Tag Archives: government

Uzbek President signs investment programme

NOV. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Official media in Uzbekistan reported that President Islam Karimov has signed a resolution to begin a $16.6 investment programme running in 2016 and 2017. The main focus of the programme is to upgrade and modernise the country’s technology and energy sectors. Projects include part of a gas pipeline to China and the construction of both a petro-chemical plant and a thermal power station.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)

Uzbekistan releases former MP

NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan released Murod Juraev, a 63-year-old former MP, from prison after 21 years. He was jailed for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government, although human rights groups have said this is a fabrication. Observers linked Mr Juraev’s release to a visit this month to Uzbekistan by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Kazakhstan cuts food subsidies

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In what it described as a push to promote competition, the Kazakh government said it will cut subsidies for bread, petrol, and animal husbandry. In particular, the government will cut subsidies for wheat producers from 2,500 tenge/tonne ($8) to zero. The government may be looking to save money.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Kyrgyz President wants change

NOV. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Two years before he steps down as Kyrgyzstan’s president, Almazbek Atambayev, said he wants the country to fully embrace the parliamentary model of governance. Analysts interpreted this as an attempt to shore up power for his Social Democratic party.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Kyrgyzstan ditches energy ministry

NOV. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan disbanded its energy ministry and reinvented it as a holding company under the ministry of environment. It will hold all the government’s stakes in its various energy projects. The reasons for the transformation have not been made clear.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Azerbaijani President fires communications minister

NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev fired his long-serving communications minister Ali Abbasov, the second sacking of a government minister in two months.

Mr Aliyev has generally preferred to keep people in key positions for years, so the sackings have created an unusual sense of instability around the Azerbaijani government.

Mr Abbasov had been communications minister for over 11 years.

The presidential press service announced the sacking through an online statement. No reason was given for the sacking although shortly afterwards police arrested 10 senior officials in the communications ministry and charged them with corruption.

The pattern is similar to the sacking last month of national security minister Eldar Mahmudov. He had also been in the job since 2004. Similarly, after Mr Mahmudov was sacked, police arrested several senior officials in the national security ministry for corruption.

Azerbaijan is routinely criticised for its corruption levels but it is unusual for the state to purge its own ranks for alleged graft and even more unusual for an internal investigation to trigger ministerial sackings.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Kazakh president seals deals in London

NOV. 3/4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev flew to Britain and France to sign a series of headline grabbing deals and pose for useful photo-ops.

In London, Mr Nazarbayev met with PM David Cameron and the Queen. The two sides signed 40 deals for £3b ($4.6b).

Importantly, Mr Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter Dariga, a deputy PM, accompanied him on the trip and was part of the official photo with the Queen. In Soviet and post-Soviet iconography, featuring in official photographs sends a strong signal and being photographed next to her father at an official engagement with the Queen will have boosted any presidential ambitions that Ms Nazarbayeva harbours.

In Paris, Mr Nazarbayev met with President Françoise Hollande and signed another set of deals worth over $5b, according to state media in Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Azerbaijani autorirties pay journalist compensation

OCT. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities paid a journalist working for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty $30,000 in compensation after they admitted that police officers had beaten him in 2008. Agil Khalil was beaten by policemen when he tried to take photos in Baku.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Turkmenistan builds giant yurt

NOV. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan built a supersized glass and aluminium yurt to celebrate the city of Mary’s position as 2015 Culture and Arts Capital of the Turkic World, media reported. The yurt, which can hold up to 3,000 people, drew criticism. Central Asian governments are given to grandiose projects, projecting an image of being out-of-touch.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

OECD criticises Uzbek graft

NOV. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Corruption is still rife in Uzbekistan despite the introduction of the country’s first anti-corruption plan earlier this year and a so called anti-corruption coordination commission, the OECD said in a new report.

In its report, the OECD, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, said that Uzbekistan needs to criminalise corruption and promote public sector honesty and integrity.

Corruption and bribery are considered deeply embedded in Uzbekistan. The OECD, an intergovernmental organisation, report is evidence that little has changed despite some headline policies.

In effect, the OECD, said that Uzbekistan’s new laws were window dressing.

In its exhaustive 116 page report, the OECD said that Uzbekistan needed to focus on a handful of key policies if it was committed to beating corruption.

These involved conducting anti- corruption surveys regularly and publishing the results; improving the independence and integrity of the law enforcement agencies; developing e- government tools.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)