Tag Archives: law

Tajikistan plans new energy legislation

MARCH 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Lawmakers in Tajikistan’s lower house discussed the draft of a new law that investors hope will help them to do business in its emerging energy sector.

Tajikistan, dependent on fuel imports from Russia and unfriendly neighbour Uzbekistan, is desperate to unlock its own significant hydrocarbons potential. It hopes to both achieve energy security and earn much-needed revenue.

The problem is that the legislation appears unreformed and Byzantine even.

Although details of the law under discussion haven’t been released, it is understood that it is aimed at addressing these problems.

Russia’s Gazprom, Channel Islands-registered Tethys, France’s Total and China’s CNPC are all prospecting in Tajikistan, the latter trio joining forces to exploit the Bokhtar license area in the south-west of the republic which may hold over 3 trillion cubic metres of gas.

Neighbouring China will be the primary customer when — or perhaps at this stage that should still be an ‘if’ — Bokhtar starts gas production.

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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

French court rejects Georgian extradition request

FEB. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in France ruled against extraditing Georgia’s former defence minister, Davit Kezerashvili, because the corruption case against him is potentially politically motivated. The ruling is a blow for Georgia’s government which has been pursuing ministers who worked under former President Mikheil Saakashvili.

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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Russia law sends Armenian workers back

MARCH 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A new law in Russia means 220,000 Armenian workers will shortly have to return home, cutting remittance flows, media quoted demographic analyst Ruben Yeganyan as saying. From Jan. 1, Russia will allow casual labourers to stay only 90 days in a 180-day period. Remittances from Russia are a vital income for many Armenian families.

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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)

Maltese detained for smuggling birds from Azerbaijan

FEB. 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Customs officials in Malta detained a hunter returning from a trip to Azerbaijan after he tried to smuggle 50 dead birds into the country, media reported. Fifteen of the birds — which included bustards, tits, egrets and wildfowl — are listed as protected species.

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(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)

Uzbek company infringes copyright

JAN. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Tashkent ruled that an Uzbek company had broken copyright rules by using branding registered to the Nivea skin-care products, local media reported. German company Beiersdorf owns the Nivea brand. Protecting intellectual property is a challenge for Western companies working in Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)

Pension reform triggers protests in Armenia

JAN. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — An estimated 4,000 people protested in central Yerevan against planned changes to the pension system. The protest dispersed quietly. The change in the pension law means that people aged 40 or under will have to pay 5% of their salary into a pension. Like other states in the former Soviet Union, Armenia needs to reform a pension scheme now considered overly generous.

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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)

Azerbaijan raises standard of imported cars

JAN. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — From April 1, cars that don’t conform to the EU’s Euro-4 level of emissions will be banned from being imported into Azerbaijan, Sabig Abdullayev, director of the Azerbaijan Standardisation and Certification Institute said.

This is important because it will change the shape of Azerbaijan’s car market.

Euro-4 is part of a grading scheme the EU created to measure the amount of emissions from cars. The EU introduced Euro-4 grade in 2005. A few years later carmakers in other countries introduced a similar emissions grade.

There is now a Euro-5 grade and later this year Euro-6 will be introduced.

By jumping from the current minimum Euro-2 standard to Euro-4, Azerbaijan is playing catch up. But it is only catching up for cars being imported. Cars made in Azerbaijan can still be produced legally at a worse emissions standard.

And there is also the small issue of the quality of fuel. Refineries in Azerbaijan only currently produce fuel to meet Euro-2 grade. This is being changed to hit Euro-3 but is still off the Euro-4 benchmark.

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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)

Anti-terrorism law extended in Uzbekistan

JAN. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek President Islam Karimov has expanded the number of crimes that can be punishable under anti-terrorism laws, local media reported.

The authorities have said this move was necessary to protect the country from Islamic militants who have previously attacked government targets. Human rights defenders, though, said the expansion was an excuse to lock up more people and silence the government’s critics.

It will now be punishable by up to seven years in prison if a person is convicted of the loosely defined term of training for a terrorist act.

The expansion of the state’s anti-terrorist powers came shortly after the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its annual global report.

HRW was bleak on Uzbekistan.

“Uzbekistan’s human rights record remained abysmal across a wide spectrum of violations,” HRW said in its report.

HRW also accused the United States and the EU of ignoring these human rights violations in return for help extracting their soldiers from Afghanistan.

(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)

NGOs in Azerbaijan must hire locals

DEC. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A change in Azerbaijan’s law will mean that foreign NGOs working in the country will have to appoint a local Azerbaijani to be its deputy chief. The Azerbaijani government has become increasingly suspicious of foreign NGOs. It has blamed them for an increase in anti-government action.

(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)

Uzbek president wants more powers for NGOs

DEC. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps Uzbek President Islam Karimov plans to re-position himself as a defender of civil society. On Dec. 13 he signed a decree apparently aimed at promoting Uzbek non-government, non-profit organisations.

It’s, frankly, a curious agenda to push and the real reasons behind the drive to relax the burden on civil society are still to emerge. From Jan. 1 registration fees for local branches of NGO will be reduced.

It’s been hard for NGOs in Uzbekistan. They have routinely complained of inspections from tax officials which result in petty fines.

As for human rights groups, they’ve mainly been forced to leave. News agencies have been chased out too.

The list of problems that real NGOs and civil activists face in Uzbekistan is long, very long. This decree is likely to be window dressing. There is still a long way to go to strength civil society in Uzbekistan.

(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)