JUNE 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Continuing to expand its diplomatic reach, Kazakhstan opened its first embassy in Vietnam. Kazakhstan has been eager to spend some of its energy-generated wealth by boosting its presence overseas and has funded new embassies across the world. Asia and Africa have been priority embassy openings.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on June 11 2014)
JUNE 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek president Islam Karimov has criticised the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union as a thinly disguised effort to create a broader political group.
Mr Karimov is, perhaps, the first leader from Central Asia to offer such brazen criticism of the Eurasian Economic Union, one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pet projects.
Kyrgyz news agency 24.kg reported Mr Karimov saying that joining the Eurasian Economic Union would mean losing national independence.
“They say that they will only create an economic market and it won’t relinquish sovereignty and independence. Tell me, can political independence exist without economic independence?” Mr Karimov said according to 24.kg.
Of course, Uzbekistan is the most unilateral of the Central Asian countries and criticism from Tashkent of the Eurasian Economic Union is not unexpected but Mr Karimov’s comments are particularly barbed and the timing poignant.
Alongside Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus are also members of the Eurasian Economic Union which was signed into existence last month at a ceremony in Astana. But Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are all eager to join.
Many Western analysts have said that despite assurances from Mr Putin, the Eurasian Economic Union is little more than a thinly veiled effort by the Kremlin to extend its political power. Clearly Mr Karimov shares these views.
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(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)
JUNE 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) -Rumours of another devaluation of the tenge triggered a spike in demand for dollars, media reported. The buying of dollars forced Kazakh Central Bank chief Kairat Kelimbetov to step in and deny that another tenge devaluation was planned. Kazakhstan devalued the tenge by 20% earlier this year.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
JUNE 2 2014 (Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan intends to build a centre for Islamic finance in Almaty, Central Bank chief Kairat Kelimbetov said. Mr Kelimbetov said the centre would be modeled on the City of London and offer potential investors tax and visa benefits.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on June 4 2014)
JUNE 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan intends to build a centre for Islamic finance in Almaty, Central Bank chief Kairat Kelimbetov said. Mr Kelimbetov said the centre would be modelled on the City of London and offer potential investors tax and visa benefits.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
JUNE 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The third branch of a gas pipeline running from Turkmenistan, through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to China opened on May 31, media reported. Line C, as it is known, will double the pipeline’s capacity to 55b cubic metres of gas per year by 2015. Gas exports to China are vital to Central Asia’s economies.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
MAY 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Investors holding bonds in Kazakhstan’s Alliance Bank rejected a restructuring deal, Reuters reported. This would have been the second restructuring deal in four years for the bank that was effectively nationalised in 2009 during the global financial crisis. A new deal will have to struck to re-structure the debt.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
MAY 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian president Vladimir Putin threw his support behind Armenia’s planned entry into the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU). Media quoted Mr Putin as saying that Armenia should become a member as soon as possible. Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are currently the only members of the EaEU. Kyrgyzstan also wants to become an EaEU member.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
May 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) -Kazakhstan is considering buying Predator drones from US company General Atomics, media reported. A final deal has not yet been signed but the news is another sign that Kazakhstan is investing heavily in its military. A senior official at the ministry of defence told IHS that Kazakhstan planned to sign 30 arms deals worth $1.2b.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)
MAY 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a ceremony in Astana, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed into existence the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU).
The EaEU is the successor of the Customs Union and is designed to further integrate its members’ economies. The rhetoric has been of high praise for the EaEU but the reaction on the street has been markedly different, as a correspondent for The Bulletin discovered in Almaty.
Berik, a 35-year-old office worker wasn’t even sure of the treaty. “Who are the parties involved?” he said. “Belarus and Russia. I’m not sure, with them it could go either way. It could either be a success or a failure.”
An ethnic Russian lady hurrying along the street also said she doubted the value of the group. “It would have been better if they had not signed the treaty,” she said.
Other people agreed. Most had either not heard of the EaEU or said they doubted it would be positive.
One of the few people to support the formation of the Eurasian Economic Union was Saken a 50-year-old man who worked in real estate. He said that Soviet era ties remained and that the union would be stronger than if countries pursued their own agendas.
“In the Eurasian Union we will welcome troubled countries like Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, who are not really as stable as we are, but we will definitely help them, with the same friendship we used to relate to each other during the Soviet era,” he said.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)