Tag Archives: Tajikistan

Tajik President sets power output goal

JUNE 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon said electricity generation in his country will grow by three times by 2030. Mr Rakhmon set the power output goal at 45b kWh/year, compared to 17b kWh last year. In addition, Mr Rakhmon said the country’s export potential will grow to 10b kWh/year. Tajikistan is tasked with generating most of the electricity for the CASA-1000 power transmission line to Pakistan.

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

Skyland starts production in Tajikistan

JUNE 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Australia’s Skyland Petroleum said it started operations at its first well at the Kyzyl-Tumshuk oil and gas field in southern Tajikistan. Skyland has actively operated across Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Skyland said the Kyzyl Tumshuk project was started below budget and will be profitable despite low oil prices.

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

Tajikistan releases Rahmon rival

JUNE 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Yakub Salimov, former Tajik interiorminister and renowned warlord and smuggler, was released from jail after serving a 13-year sentence for plotting a coup in the 1990s.Mr Salimov, one of President Emomali Rakhmon’s biggest opponents, was charged in 1998 but fled the country. He was finally detained in Russia in 2003 and later extradited to Tajikistan.

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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)

Tajikistan’s TSB resumes transactions

JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tojiksodirotbonk, Tajikistan’s second largest lender, said it resumed money transfer transactions, and that it continued to operate under the administration of the Central Bank. TSB, as it is commonly known, is awaiting confirmation from the EBRD for a funding lifeline of around $165m. The investment would give the EBRD a 25% stake in the bank.

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

Sangtuda-1 rows with Tajikistan’s Barqi Tojik

JUNE 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The administration of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant said it will not pay taxes until Tajikistan’s power distribution company Barqi Tojik pays for its electricity supplies. The hydropower company, co-owned by Russian and Tajik state-companies, said Barqi Tojik has piled up a debt of 628m somoni ($79m). Barqi Tojik is one of the most indebted state-owned companies in Tajikistan.

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

Tajikistan responds to EU

DUSHANBE, JUNE 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A group of Tajik academics launched a staunch defence of the government’s crackdown on the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) after the European Parliament passed a resolution criticising it.

The authorities in Tajikistan outlawed the IRPT last year. Last month a court handed the IRPT leaders several years in prison for attempting to organise a coup. In response to the prison sentences, the European Parliament said it was concerned about freedom of expression in Tajikistan.

Tajikistan’s foreign ministry responded by criticising Europe for double standards over terrorism and a group of academics released a statement blaming the IRPT for a civil war in the 1990s and saying that it controlled the European Parliament.

A Dushanbe-based analyst, though, said that like student protests which sprung up this year to promote the government, the authorities were influencing the academics.

“These letters of support are aimed at pleasing the authorities and promoting careers,” he said.

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

Tajikistan tightens advertising ban

JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik authorities have said they would fine shop-owners in Dushanbe for violating a law that bans outdoor advertising, theAsia Plus news agency reported. The authorities claim that the law, in force since 2007, also applies to storefronts, not just billboards. Shop-owners will have to take down their signs or risk a fine up to 20,000 somoni ($2,500).

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

Russia strengthens base in Tajikistan

JUNE 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Russian army ramped up its hardware at its base in Tajikistan by delivering 100 armed personnel carriers and tanks. Russian officials did not say why they were upgrading their military kit in Tajikistan. Russia has previously warned of the threat by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The military base in Tajikistan is Russia’s largest foreign military facility.

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

EU and UN condemn Tajikistan on opposition crackdown

JUNE 3/7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Union and the United Nations both condemned the harsh sentencing of former top members of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan last week. “The court proceedings were not transparent and violated the rights of the accused to a fair trial,” the EU statement said. “The harsh sentencing reflects the steady increase of restrictions on freedom of expression in Tajikistan,” said David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)