Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan considers language test

JUNE 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s National Migration Service said it is considering setting up a Kyrgyz language proficiency rule for foreign workers in the country, a move that is effectively aimed at reducing the number of Chinese foreign workers in the country. According to official sources, Chinese workers represent the vast majority of foreign workers in Kyrgyzstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Kyrgyz PM changes government

JUNE 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s PM Sooronbai Jeenbekov ordered changes to the ministerial structures of the government, establishing two new committees to take over responsibilities from the National Energy Holding, formerly the energy ministry, and the ministry of transport and communications). Mr Jeenbekov justified the changes as being needed to improve efficiency. His critics have said he is wasting money.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

IMF approves loans for Kyrgyzstan and Armenia

JUNE 16/17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The IMF approved two loans to Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, part of a three-year plan to support macroeconomic reforms. It loaned $22m to Armenia, where it supported a controversial tax reform that received a first parliamentary approval on June 15. The IMF also gave a $13m loan to Kyrgyzstan and lauded the government’s measures to boost tax revenues and cut spending.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Chaarat receives extension from Kyrgyz government

JUNE 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – British Virgin Island-registered Chaarat Gold said it received a two- year extension from the Kyrgyz government to present results for a gold mine it is exploring in north-west Kyrgyzstan. Now, Chaarat has to present a detailed development proposal for the mine by the end of 2018. The company completed a feasibility study for the mine, Chaarat’s only asset, in February.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Kyrgyzaltyn changes board composition

JUNE 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz state-owned miner Kyrgyzaltyn said in a note that it had changed the composition of its board. Askar Oskombayev, adviser to the PM, will now serve as chairman, replacing Duishenbek Kamchybekov. Kyrgyzaltyn owns 32% of Canada’s Centerra Gold, which owns and operates the Kumtor gold mine in eastern Kyrgyzstan. Centerra and the government are currently embroiled in a legal battle to resolve disputes over ownership of the gold mine.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Kyrgyz MPs pass media bill

BISHKEK, JUNE 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament passed the first reading of a law that will restrict foreign funding of TV channels, a move its proponents have said is vital to protect media integrity but its detractors have said limits freedom.

The bill, which will have to be passed two more times, cuts the share of foreign financing for mass media outlets down to 35% and prohibits any foreign parties from establishing TV channels in Kyrgyzstan.

Media reported that the bill had been passed by 79 votes to 30.

Medet Tiulegenov, a political studies expert, said that the bill may have been pushed through by MPs to feed off popular mistrust of foreigners and boost their profile.

“By promoting a law against foreign investments in local media, MPs are trying to listen to that part of the population, which blames foreigners for problems here,” he said. “There are many MPs, who are not well-known among the population yet, but would like to get attention and popularity.”

This is the second major stand-off in Kyrgyzstan this year between groups of conservative, nationalist MPs and rights campaigners. Earlier this year, at the final reading, parliament rejected a bill that would have banned NGOs from directly receiving foreign funding.

Critics of the bill have said that its main aim was to close down the local office of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Begaim Usenova, a Kyrgyz media expert, said that this law is another attempt to restrict people’s freedom. “It is incorrect to say that foreign funded media sources are a threat to the state, the bill’s initiators could not prove that there has ever been such a case,” she said.

And the bill appears to have already been watered down after protests by a few dozen people in front of parliament. Restrictions on foreign funding of media were reduced to just TV, rather than including print and radio too.

Still, the bill does carry a degree of popular support in Kyrgyzstan.

Yulia, 33, a Bishkek resident, said: “This is a good law, as every foreigner has its own interests, whereas we have to care about our security.”

And Dauren, 30, another Bishkek resident, said: “I am happy that there are more Kyrgyz patriots in our parliament than western lobbyists.”

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

EEU plans single electricity market, say energy ministers after meeting in Tajikistan

JUNE 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Eurasian Economic Union, a trade bloc led by Russia but also involving Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia plans to set up a unified electricity market by 2019, EEU members’ energy ministers said after a meeting in Dushanbe. Tajikistan aspires to be part of the EEU, which critics have said is a Kremlin project to extend its control.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Kyrgyzstan accuses Centerra of corruption at Kumtor

BISHKEK, JUNE 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev instructed state prosecutors to investigate agreements signed by Canadian miner Centerra Gold in 2003-04, after corruption charges emerged against both Centerra and former officials at the state-owned Kyrgyzaltyn.

Earlier this week, the country’s security service said that Dastan Sarygulov, the 69-year-old former head of Kyrgyzaltyn from 1992 to 1999, had been charged with plotting a coup earlier this year and taking bribes in the 1990s.

The charges appear to be based on accusations made last week by Len Homeniuk, former head of Centerra and Kumtor Gold, who sent a letter to Kyrgyz prosecutors alleging corrupt practices that had involved the miner over its entire lifetime, explicitly naming Mr Sarygulov.

In the letter, Mr Homeniuk said that the companies he headed were regularly asked for bribes by Kyrgyzaltyn, which owns a 32% stake in Centerra.

“[Their requests] were sometimes very significant, more than $200,000 in a given month,” Mr Homeniuk wrote. “Dustan Sarygulov and Kamchybek Kudaibergenov always explained such requests that they were under pressure by the office of the President.”

Centerra, Kumtor Gold and Kyrgyzaltyn have not commented on the allegations.

The revelations seem to be well- timed for Kyrgyzstan.

Sarygulov was already under house arrest, accused of having participated in the coup plot.

Now, analysts say, the Homeniuk letter could be a powerful tool for Mr Atambayev to both discredit his predecessors and taint Centerra’s record in Kyrgyzstan, just as it prepares an arbitration case in Stockholm against the government for blocking its business development.

“Timing is important. Homeniuk’s revelations seem a gift to Mr Atambayev now,” Mars Sariyev of the Institute of Public Policy, a Bishkek-based think tank, told The Bulletin.

Centerra owns the Kumtor Gold Company, which operates the country’s largest gold mine, which accounts for around 7% of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP.

In March security forces raided the office of Kumtor in Bishkek looking for evidence of financial wrongdoing. Centerra has said that Kyrgyzstan is using heavy-handed tactics to try and claim more direct ownership of Kumtor.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Business comment: Gold in Central Asia

JUNE 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gold prices climbing up towards $1,300/ounce, but not everyone in the mining sector in Central Asia is happy.

In Kazakhstan, Russian miner Polymetal received a much-needed lifeline from Sberbank to push forward with its Kyzyl project in north-eastern Kazakhstan. The gold sector in Kazakhstan is enjoying a positive season, as production numbers in the country are up 3.7% to 13 tonnes of fine gold in the first five months of the year, compared to Jan.-May 2015.

The steady growth is paired with increased investment, as Polymetal is focusing its growth outside Russia on Kazakhstan and Armenia.

But this year has not brought only good news in Kazakhstan. In March, Alhambra Resources said it was seeking damages against Kazakhstan’s government, via the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, for the bankruptcy of its Kazakh subsidiary.

Recovering commodity prices, however, can do little to improve the mood in Kyrgyzstan, where Centerra Gold and the government are increasingly entangled in what could become a decisive legal battle.

Centerra sought the resolution of the continuous fines and corruption probes at the Stockholm court of arbitration.

The Kyrgyz government responded with more fines and charged a former director of Kyrgyzaltyn — which owns a stake in Centerra — of taking bribes from the Canadian miner.

These charges, fuelled by allegations from a former Centerra director, would make the Canadian company guilty of paying bribes, serving an order to the government, which is trying hard to show Centerra under a bad light.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s fund chief resigns

JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Almazbek Kadyrkulov, chairman of Kyrgyzstan’s State Property Management Fund quit abruptly after a year in the job. Mr Kadyrkulov did not explain his resignation but he had recently received harsh criticism from PM Sooronbay Jeenbekov and other MPs. The Fund is in charge of managing state assets.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)