Tag Archives: government

Berdymukhamedov sacks energy chief

>>Sackings come shortly after currency devaluation>>

JAN. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s been a busy start to 2015 for Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. He ordered the devaluation by 20% of the manat on Jan. 1 and now he has sacked both the head of the state gas company Turkmengaz and the head of the Central Bank.

Mr Berdymukhamedov appears frustrated at the relative sluggish nature of recent growth in the Turkmen economy. Much of this can be attributed to the 50% fall in energy prices and the drop in the value of the Russian rouble, so important for the economies of Central Asia.

But Mr Berdymukhamedov said that Turkmengaz head Kakageldy Abdullayev was to blame.

“We could have raised production and exports of liquefied gas and other products which are in great demand on world markets,” Reuters quoted him telling a government meeting.

Mr Berdymukhamedov is fond of culling his top officials. Mr Abdullayev had only been in the job for a year. His replacement was named as Charymuhammed Hommadov.

The day before, Mr Berdymukhamedov had also sacked the head of the Central Bank, the head of the state-run Prezidentbank and also the agriculture bank Daikhanbank.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)

Kazakh President finds new role for C.Bank ex-head

DEC. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed Kairat Kelimbetov, ex head of the Kazakh Central Bank, as head of the Astana Financial Centre, media reported. Mr Kelimbetov has kept a low profile since being sacked as head of the CBank in Nov. after two years in the job. The Astana Financial Centre is a state project to promote the Kazakh capital as an international finance centre.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Azerbaijan may struggle with oil price drop

JAN. 4 2015, (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan may have serious problems making its national budget work with oil prices dropping below $50/barrel, media reported (Jan. 4). The government’s budget estimates are calculated at oil costing $90/barrel. Oil revenues directly contribute over half the government’s revenue.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 213, published on Jan. 7 2015)

Armenia’s parliament approves EaEU

DEC. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s parliament overwhelmingly passed a treaty to join the Russia- led Eurasian Economic Union in 2015. The vote rubber stamps earlier decisions taken by President Serzh Sargsyan. Alongside Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus are members of the Customs Union which will morph into the Eurasian Economic Union in 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)

NGOs row in Kyrgyzstan

DEC. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least 40 NGOs in Kyrgyzstan signed a petition urging Pres. Almazbek Atambayev to avoid signing into law a bill which will make overseas funding illegal, media reported. Mr Atambayev has previous said the law is important because it prevents foreign states from using NGOs to spy on Kyrgyzstan. The NGOs say the funding is a vital lifeline.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)

Kyrgyzstan opens embassy in Dubai

DEC. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps in a push to boost investment from the Gulf States, Kyrgyzstan will open an embassy in Dubai. President Almazbek Atamabayev announced the opening of a new embassy while on a trip to the UAE. Kyrgyzstan has slowly been increasing its international presence over the past year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)

Azerbaijan passes budget rise

NOV. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s parliament approved a government budget for 2015 that contains a 5.7% spending increase despite global oil prices continuing to fall (Nov. 28).

The Azerbaijani government agreed on its budget when oil was averaging around $90/barrel.

It is now closer to $70/barrel and some commentators said the government was taking a huge risk by not reducing its expenditure.

Economist Natig Jafarli a senior figure in Azerbaijan’s opposition group said: “The country’s economy depends on oil at $66 directly and $80 indirectly. They should have had developed non-oil sector too and they haven’t.”

Mr Jafarli’s references to direct and indirect incomes for the government’s budget is to cash paid in directly by the National Oil Fund and cash from taxes and other duties paid indirectly by oil companies and exporters.

And he may have a point. Certainly the IMF agrees.

In a report last month, the IMF said that Azerbaijan’s economy was particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in oil prices because of its excessive decency on it.

Other opposition figures said that they expected social problems next year because of a budget squeeze triggered by the falling oil prices.

If opposition and international economists’ claims that Azerbaijan is over-dependent on oil are correct then the current global oil price squeeze will leave it, and the government’s 2015 budget, exposed.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)

Thousands rally in Georgian capital against government

NOV. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An estimated 30,000 people crammed into the centre of Tbilisi for perhaps the largest anti-government rally since the Georgian Dream coalition defeated the party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili in a parliamentary election in 2012 and a presidential election in 2013.

The demonstrators waved Georgian flags and pictures of Mr Saakashvili, who now lives in New York and is wanted by Georgia’s prosecutors for various alleged crimes, and shouted anti-Russia slogans.

They blamed Russia for annexing the rebel states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Importantly they also blamed their current government for not standing up to Russia.

Mr Saakashvili addressed the crowd via a Kiev video-link.

“Let’s show Georgia’s government that the nation is united against the serious threat to its independence, its future,” he said.

The importance of the rally, though, was not the appearance of Mr Saakashvili on a video-link but its size. It hasn’t taken long for the glamour of the Georgian Dream coalition to fade.

Allies in the EU and the United States have accused Georgian Dream of petty revenge tactics in pursuing former ministers and charging them with various crimes. Earlier this month PM Irakli Garibashvili also sacked the popular defence minister, Irakli Alasania, triggering a wave of resignations.

Street politics are still a major force in Georgia and the rally could be a sign that after a relatively calm 12 months, instability is returning to Georgian politics.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)

Architect of Georgia privatisation dies

LONDON/United KIngdom, NOV. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kakha Bendukidze, one of the chief architects of Georgia’s radical privatisation drive under President Mikheil Saaskhvili, has died in London aged 58.

He had recently undergone minor heart surgery and there was no suggestion of foul play.

A biologist who became a wealthy businessman towards the end of the Soviet Union, Bendukidze is best known for being the economy minister under Mr Saakashvili. Under Bendukidze, Georgia pursued one of the most aggressive privatisation schemes in the world.

This massive privatised and tax cutting drive — dubbed Bendunomics — attracted both praise and criticise. Praise from international organisations, such as the World Bank and the IMF, which champion private ownership over state ownership but criticism from rivals who pointed out that lucrative assets which had formerly belonged to the state ended up in the hands of Mr Saakashvili’s allies.

Before he was appointed economy minister in 2004, Bendukidze was a high profile businessmen in Russia advocating a low tax regime and reduced state intervention. He had been on close terms with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was arrested and imprisoned on tax evasion charges, largely interpreted as being linked to his various challenges to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

After Mr Khodorkovsky’s arrest and imprisonment, Bendukidze decided that it was time to leave Russia and he readily accepted a position in Mr Saakashvili’s revolutionary government.

A larger than life figure, both in terms of his size and booming personality, Bendukidze left Georgia earlier this year after the current government started to arrest and prosecute high- profile members of the previous administration for various economic crimes. Over the last few months Bendukidze had been advising the new president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, and had been expected to take up a government position.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)

Kyrgyzstan’s Ata meken supports nationalising Kumtor

NOV. 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s Ata Meken party, one of three parties in the ruling government, said it supported nationalising the Kumtor gold mine. Kumtor is the focus of a row between Kyrgyzstan and its Canadian partner Centerra Gold. Ata Meken may have chosen this populist policy to bolster itself ahead of a parliamentary election next year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)