JULY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Trade turnover between Kyrgyzstan and Russia fell by 17.3% in January-May 2015 as compared to the same period in 2014, according to the Russian Customs Service. This is more evidence of the knock on effect on Central Asia of Russia’s economic downturn.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US State Department gave a human rights award to Azimzhan Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek sent to prison in 2010 for inciting ethnic fighting earlier that year. At the time, in 2010, Askarov’s supporters said the charges had been fabricated. The Kyrgyz foreign ministry lodged a complaint to the US State department.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz police detained MP Hajimurat Korkmazov for extorting a bribe of $100,000 from the brother of Nariman Tuleyev, a jailed MP, the AKIpress agency reported. The case highlights corruption among officials in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ahead of its accession to the Eurasian Economic Union later this year, domestic producers in Kyrgyzstan have started a campaign to try and persuade more people to buy locally made products, the 24.kg news agency reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 30% of the Kyrgyz population live in poverty, media quoted the National Statistics agency as saying. People are considered living in poverty if they survive on less than $45/day. Kyrgyzstan is one of the poorest countries in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The amount of som held in Kyrgyz bank accounts has fallen by 11% since the beginning of the year, the Central Bank said, a reflection of the reduced confidence that people in Kyrgyzstan have of their national currency. The som, like other Central Asian currencies, has lost around a third of its value since November 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – BISHKEK — Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev awarded Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev the Order of Manas (First Class), Kyrgyzstan’s highest honour, for helping to create the Eurasian Economic Union.
He flew to Astana to give Mr Nazarbayev the award on his 75th birthday, five days after the Kazakh leader ratified Kyrgyzstan’s accession into the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union.
“We feel a strong fraternal support from the Republic of Kazakhstan,” Mr Atambayev said, according to media.
Toktogul Kakcheckeyev, an executive director at the Association of Political Scientists of Kyrgyzstan think tank in Bishkek, explained.
“The Manas award was given by Almazbek Atambayev to Nursultan Nazarbayev because of Nazarbayev’s efforts to develop regional cooperation in terms of Eurasian economic community,” he said. “Originally it was Nazarbayev’s idea to launch regional economic cooperation.”
In 1994, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union in a speech in Moscow, Mr Nazarbayev spoke rather nostalgically of creating a Eurasian Union. This has now materialised, or, at least a version of that vision.
Still, some observers have said that Mr Atambayev’s award to Mr Nazarbayev was a brazen attempt to curry favour with the most powerful leader in Central Asia.
And Kyrgyzstan has form with this. The Kyrgyz parliament can be relied upon, almost every year, to nominate Mr Nazarbayev for a Nobel Peace Prize for giving up the nuclear weapons that Kazakhstan inherited after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Mr Nazarbayev is only the twelfth recipient of a First Class Order of Manas in its 19 year history.
Other recipients include Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary- General.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
BISHKEK/KYRGYZSTAN, JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Timur, a car mechanic in Bishkek, was more sanguine than most about impending petrol price rises.
“I do not think the fuel price increase will bother me,” the 23-year-old said. “There are always ups and downs in fuel price.”
Analysts in Kyrgyzstan anticipate a fuel price rise of between 7-15% this year because of the introduction of an excise tax that the government has introduced to plug a hole it is finances.
It’s a price rise that is all but certain to irritate ordinary Kyrgyz who have seen the value of their som savings plummet over the past few months and inflation slowly accelerate.
Russian importers dominate Kyrgyzstan’s petrol imports and, effectively set prices. The Kyrgyz government, though, has said that it wants to bring in a tax on fuel that will make up a shortfall generated by a drop in income during the recent downturn in economic fortunes. Like the rest of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan’s economy is closely tied to Russia. The Russian economy has floundered because of a fall in oil prices and Western-imposed sanctions.
In March, the Kyrgyz government said that it was going to slap the tax on fuel and alcohol. Initially, analysts said the new tax was needed to bring the country in line with its future partners in the Eurasian Economic Union. Kyrgyzstan is set to join the economic group, which also includes Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia, this year.
And on the streets of Bishkek, other than Timur, the mechanic, people were increasingly frustrated. Taxi drivers said that whatever happened they would pay more for petrol but the same fee to rent the car.
“Of course, it is bad because we, as taxi drivers, pay for fuel on our own. Whether the fuel price is moderate or high, we pay the same percentage to the taxi service owners [to hire the taxis],” said a young man driving his car.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz Pres. Almazbek Atambayev said he would support expanding the Russia and China led Shanghai Corporation Organisation (SCO) to include Iran, Pakistan and India, local media reported. The SCO is holding a summit meeting in Ufa, Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Commercial banks in Kyrgyzstan’s need to meet a minimum capitalisation level, the Central Bank said, part of an ongoing process to professionalise the banking sector and protect it against another Global Financial Crisis. By 2017, commercial banks in Kyrgyzstan will need a working capital of nearly $10m.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)