Tag Archives: remittances

Germany’s Eurowings to start flying to Tbilisi

JUNE 5 2021 (The Bulletin) — Eurowings, the low-cost airline owned by Germany’s Lufthansa, will start weekly flights from Dusseldorf to Tbilisi from July. There has been a boom in flights to Georgia over the past few years, driven mainly by tourism, led by Hungary’s Wizz Air which set up a base in Kutaisi in 2016. Seasonal workers have also pushed up demand for flights to Europe from Georgia. This year Germany has invited thousands of Georgians to pick fruit at its farms.

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— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Remittance flow into Uzbekistan rises

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MARCH 12 (The Bulletin) — Remittances in Uzbekistan were 14% higher in January and February this year, at $892m, compared to the same period in 2020, the Uzbek Central Bank said. Remittances, mainly from Russia, are a vital part of Central Asia’s economy. The various movement and work restrictions imposed to deal with the coronavirus pandemic last year dented remittances flows from the region’s migrant workers.

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— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Eurasian Economic Union wants to streamline migrant worker processes

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ALMATY/FEB. 5 2021 (The Bulletin) — The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) wants to speed up the digitalisation of labour migrants’ documents to help member states recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

At a meeting of heads of governments of EAEU member states in Almaty, Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin said that reviving labour markets, cutting down on paperwork through digital records and providing vaccines so that people can travel for work was vitally important for the bloc.

“This is a single service that you can use to find vacancies, draw up the necessary documents, including medical insurance and it will also help with the choice of housing,” he said of a digitalisation plan.

Critics of the EAEU — which has been in operation since 2015 and, alongside Russia includes Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan as members — have said that the bloc pushes the Kremlin’s agenda and that it is cumbersome, creates red tape and is slow to get things done.

They also said that the plan put forward by Mr Mishustin may be a case in point. He envisages it coming into action in 2022.

But pressure is building on the EAEU to reform and to become more nimble. At the Almaty meeting, Kyrgyz’s PM Ulubek Maripov described the need to tear down barriers that slow labour movement in the EAEU as “acute”.

Russia attracts millions of labour migrants from Central Asia each year, generating huge remittance flows. This dried up in 2020 because of the pandemic. Businesses in Russia now complain about a lack of cheap labour and in Central Asia, governments report a sharp drop in remittances.

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— This story was first published in issue 471 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Remittance flows to Kazakhstan fall

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JAN. 20 2021 (The Bulletin) — Remittance flows to Kazakhstan, an important indicator of the economic health of the entire Central Asia region, dropped by 18.5% in 2020, the ranking.kz economic website reported. It said that the flow of cash from Russia dropped by nearly 50%, highlighting the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the Russian economy. Remittances are a vital source of income for people in Central Asia. After Russia, the second most important origin of remittances to Kazakhstan last year was South Korea.

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— This story was first published in issue 469 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Thousands of Tajik workers return home

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DUSHANBE/April 5 (The Bulletin) — Thousands of Tajik workers have returned early from jobs in Russia because of a lockdown triggered by the spread of the coronavirus, threatening to undermine the Tajik economy which is one of the most remittance-reliant economies in the world.

An estimated 500,000 Tajiks work in Russia – labouring on building sites, selling roses at train stations, cleaning streets and other menial jobs – and they send home the equivalent of around a third of Tajikistan’s annual GDP. The numbers are similar for Kyrgyzstan.

Economists have said that the combined drag of the coronavirus pandemic and a crash in oil prices may tip Russia into a recession.

The last time the Russian economy contracted, in 2015, the knock-on effect to the Tajik economy was significant.

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Coronavirus worries spark panic buying in Tajikistan

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MARCH 26 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan has still not recorded any cases of the coronavirus but analysts have said that concerns about health safety have still triggered panic buying and food price spikes. Reports from Tajikistan said that staple goods, such as potatoes and meat have increased by around 60% in price.

Thousands of migrant Tajik workers in Russia have also been stranded in Moscow airports after airlines cancelled flights to Tajikistan. An impending recession in Russia, linked to the collapse in oil prices and the coronavirus, will have a knock-on effect on the Tajik economy. It is heavily reliant on remittances sent back from Russia by its migrant workers.

Rather like President Emomali Rakhmon apparently ignoring the spread of the coronavirus, the Tajik Central Bank has not issued any statement on it and on March 20 instead congratulated Tajiks on the Nowruz festival.

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— This story was first published in issue 440 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Tajikistan approves Western Union for money transfer services

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DEC. 27 2019 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s Central Bank said that money transfer provider Western Union had been approved for transactions to and from the country. At the start of the month, the Central Bank took control of the wire transfer sorting system and said that it had blocked the two most-used systems, Western Union and Golden Crown. Golden Crown, by far the most popular money transfer service, has still not been approved as a service provider.
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— This story was first published in issue 432 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 27 2019

Tajikistan blocks major Russian remittance services

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DUSHANBE/Dec. 4 (The Bulletin) –Tajikistan’s Central Bank blocked Koronapay and Western Union, two of the most popular money transfer services with Tajiks working in Russia, from sending cash into the country and instead insisted that people use two smaller services.

Earlier this year, the Tajik Central Bank took over control of the country’s transfer sorting system with, it now appears, the aim of controlling which services migrant workers use to send their cash home.

In a terse statement, the Tajik Central Bank said that it was only processing payments from the Unistream and Contact wire transfer systems.

“In future credit organisations will not consider the 9-digit code of the payment system Golden Crown,” it said.

Golden Crown is the brand name used by Koronapay which had sent an estimated 80% of Tajikistan’s remittances from Russia.

The following day the Central Bank published photos of a meeting with Unistream’s chief Kirill Palchun and said that commissions on wire transfers had been reduced from 1.5% to 0.99%.
Both Unistream and Contact are Russian money transfer systems but are far smaller than Western Union and Koronapay.

Analysts have said that the Tajik government may have wanted to take control of the wire transfer system because it is a lucrative cash generator. Tajiks working in Russia contribute up to half of the country’s GDP.

The Tajik Central Bank has previously said that it had taken over the transfer sorting system to protect customers from theft and corruption.

It also defended its decision to strip Koronapay and Western Union of permission to send cash from Russia because they had failed to comply with new legislation.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Remittances from Russia to Armenia rise

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AUG. 10 2017 (The Bulletin) — Remittances from Russia to Armenia increased by 15.5% in the first half of the year, compared to the same period in 2016, the Armenian Central Bank said, an important indicator that the economics of the region are beginning to improve. In total, flows from Russia, an important hub for Armenian migrant workers, hit $408m between January and June. The economies of the region are partly reliant on Russia to generate wealth for migrant workers.

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(News report from Issue No. 339, published on Aug. 13 2017)

Georgian economy grows

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MAY 30 2017 (The Bulletin) — A rise in remittances and exports has boosted Georgia’s economic growth, official data showed. It showed that Georgia’s GDP was 4.2% bigger in the first four months of this year compared to the same period in 2016. In the first four months of 2016, GDP grew by 2.8%. Remittance inflows and exports have increased.

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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)