APRIL 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The new mayor of Bishkek, Kubanychbek Kulmatov, appears to want to paint himself as a progressive. On his Facebook page, Mr Kulmatov announced that he wanted to look at introducing a permanent bicycle lane in the city. As progressive as he is, though, Mr Kulmatov will still be behind Almaty which already has a dedicated bicycle lane.
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(News report from Issue No. 181, published on April 23 2014)
APRIL 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom officially took over KyrgyzGaz, the previously state-owned gas company. Gazprom’s takeover of debt-straddled KyrgyzGaz — to be renamed Gazprom-Kyrgyzstan — gives the Kremlin increased leveraged over Bishkek.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Data from Kyrgyzstan’s state statistics committee showed that the country’s GDP grew by 5% in the 12 months to the end of March, media reported. GDP growth in Kyrgyzstan is fragile and over the past few years has depended on the level of output at the Kumtor gold mine and also the level of public discontent.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hundreds of Kyrgyz protested against the government in Bishkek and in Osh, marking the start of the now traditional spring demonstration season in Kyrgyzstan. Media reported that police detained a dozen protesters who wanted various concessions from the government. By Kyrgyz standards the protests were relatively light.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — For Kyrgyzstan membership of the Customs Union, comprising Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, is looking ever less appetising.
Negotiations between Bishkek and the Customs Union countries at the beginning of the month failed to finalise the roadmap for the country’s accession and Kyrgyz officials have now stopped talking about entry in 2015.
At a minimum the Union’s highly protective tariffs would curtail Kyrgyzstan’s trade in re-exports with fellow WTO member China, worth up to 15% of its GDP.
Kyrgyz officials had been hoping to offset this with concessions on Chinese imports and a vague CU-financed stabilisation fund to promote domestic industries but with western sanctions on the horizon, Moscow no longer looks a model guarantor of Kyrgyzstan’s economic security.
Depending on the damage the Ukraine crisis reaps on the Russian economy, Bishkek may also fear for a series of keystone infrastructure projects the Kremlin had committed to investing in such as the Hydroelectric Power facility Kambar-Ata 2 and the civilian airport, Manas.
Long-term, migrant remittances, worth around a fifth of GDP according to the World Bank could also take a hit. The government’s one-time target of entry in 2015 now looks overly optimistic.
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(News report from Issue No. 180, published on April 16 2014)
APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch accused Kyrgyzstan of backsliding on rights and freedom of speech. It said that in the last few months the Kyrgyz authorities had drafted a bill that would criminalise spreading information about homosexuality and had banned several peaceful protests in central Bishkek.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament officially voted in Djoomart Otorbayev as the new PM. Mr Otorbayev is a former World Bank official who served as deputy PM in the previous government.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Under gentle pressure from the World Bank, a key donor, Kyrgyzstan plans to increase the retirement age for women by two years to 60-years-old.
The idea is to both equalise the retirement age of men and women and generate revenue for the state pension plan.
But reforming Soviet-era pension plans is an emotive issue. In neighbouring Kazakhstan, a similar plan last year triggered protests and the resignation of a government minister.
Kyrgyzstan currently has a young population but with a grey economy worth 40% of GDP, payments into the government’s pension pot and other forms of social assistance are miserly.
This needs to change to support a society where life expectancies are increasing, although people in sight of retirement are unlikely to be thinking fiscally.
Varya Zirilenko, 53, said her hands ached from the repetition of sorting potatoes at the processing plant in the northern city of Tokmok where she works.
“When I come home at night they shake. Is that normal? Must I go on like this for another seven years before I can receive a full pension?” Varya expects her monthly pension to be over 6,500 Kyrgyz soms ($120). Many are even smaller.
Perhaps, though, the retirement age is just one of the issues surrounding Kyrgyzstan’s pension scheme. Another is corruption, endemic throughout the country.
Akhmatbek Keldibekov, an opposition politician from the country’s south is currently on trial for corruption. The charges relate to his time as head of the Social Fund under former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Highlighting tension in Kyrgyzstan’s mining sector, media reports said that protesters blocking a road in the Talas region of north Kyrgyzstan clashed briefly with police. The protesters were demanding compensation for alleged environmental damage from the mining company.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
MARCH 31 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Checkpoints along the disputed Kyrgyz-Tajik border have re-opened for the first time since a shootout between border-guards in January, media reported. The border is disputed between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, one of a number or territorial flashpoints across Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)