Tag Archives: Tajikistan

Tajikistan’s TALCO makes Glencore deal

APRIL 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – TALCO, Tajikistan’s aluminium smelter, said it agreed to supply 200,000 tonnes of aluminium per year to Glencore, a Swiss-based commodities trader. This is an increase of almost 23% compared to the previous deal which expires later this year. TALCO also said it increased its aluminium production by 17% in the first quarter of 2016, compared to the same period last year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Tajik authorities introduce single phone number for police

APRIL 18 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s interior ministry introduced a single phone number to dial police in an emergency, ditching a clumsy system that had forced people to remember different numbers for each district police station.

Now, dialling 1919 in Dushanbe, in Kulob or in Khujand will connect callers to a central switchboard which will then link through to a district police station.

And the reaction on the streets of Dushanbe was positive.

“Now it’s easier to call the police. I hope the system will be effective. Before, if something had happened, God forbid, I would not have had an idea how to call the police from my mobile urgently,” Sudoba, a 54-year old social worker, said.

“In emergency situations, each second counts. Calling the police in the right moment is vital.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Chinese institution to fund road projects in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan

APRIL 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The AIIB, a China-backed international financial institution, said it would fund road projects in Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. According to unnamed sources quoted in the FT, the AIIB will join an EBRD-funded road project in Dushanbe and a World Bank and EBRD-backed ring road project in Almaty. The AIIB has said it is keen to fund infrastructure upgrades within its Silk Road project.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Tajik government approves President’s Day

APRIL 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s Parliament approved a bill to establish President’s Day on Nov. 16, official media reported. The day will mark the date that President Emomali Rakhmon assumed office in 1994. President’s Day will not be a public holiday.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Tajikistan’s TALCO lays off 607 workers

DUSHANBE, APRIL 18 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Central Asia’s largest aluminium smelter, TALCO, laid off 607 workers to cut costs, an indication of how a heavy fall in global commodity prices has hit industry in Tajikistan.

TALCO is Tajikistan’s largest factory, its biggest taxpayer and its biggest consumer of electricity. It dominates the Tajik economy so for it to lay off 607 workers cuts deep into the national conscience. TALCO now employs 8,200 workers.

According to a report by the Reuters news agency, foreign consultants had advised the company to cut around 2,000 workers from the workforce to maintain a healthy balance sheet.

The company, however, chose what it described as a “a gentle strategy to optimise costs”.

Aluminium prices, now at $1,530/tonne, are around 25% lower than in August 2014.

Besides having to cope with lower revenues, TALCO is also under the spotlight for unpaid electricity bills to the national distributor Barqi Tojik and is the focus of a parliamentary investigation in Norway over alleged corrupt practices.

The Norwegian investigation involves Norsk Hydro, a government- owned smelter that has done business with TALCO.

Norway’s MPs want to know who the beneficial owner of Talco Management, registered in the British Virgin Islands, is. Talco management controls TALCO in Tajikistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan work on border dispute

APRIL 12 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Working groups of the Tajik and Kyrgyz governments met in Dushanbe to decide on the demarcation of the disputed borders between the two countries ahead of a meeting between two two presidents in May.

Both sides have talked up the new round of negotiations as a potential breakthrough deal. Of the 970-kilometre border Tajikistan shares with Kyrgyzstan, 451km remain disputed.

Most of the contested areas are fertile lands, which are a key assets for the rural population in a region still marred with conflict.

In one of the latest clashes, last July, a Tajik civilian was killed during a shootout between Tajik and Kyrgyz border-guards.

A Dushanbe-based analyst who wished to remain anonymous said governments had only now sat down seriously to discuss the border row because of heightened tension.

“The conflict has now escalated and both sides have started using weapons. Both governments realised that they can no longer ignore the problem,” the analyst said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)

Tajikistan’s Somon Air to fly to Af-Pak

APRIL 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Somon Air, the only private carrier in Tajikistan, said it will open two new routes to Afghanistan and Pakistan, another indicator of how Central and South Asia are moving closer together. Somon Air will fly once a week to Kabul and twice a week to Lahore, in western Pakistan. The company also said it is exploring the possibility of opening a new flight to Tehran.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)

Tajik and Kyrgyz migration start to rise

APRIL 8 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Migration from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Russian cities rose in April, signalling an improvement in Russia’s economy and also, potentially, giving all-important remittance flows back to Central Asia a boost.

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan marked an increase of 0.2% and 1.8% in the number of migrants in Russia compared to the same time last year, according to official statistics from the Russian Federal Migration Service. It recorded its data on April 6.

The rise may be small but it is important as it breaks a downward trend over the past 18 months. Also, official figures only report on a portion of the total migrant population as a large part of it is illegal. When official statistics go up, analysts believe the overall number of migrants grows even faster.

Together with Uzbekistan, which recorded the same number of people living in Russia this year as 2015, people from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan represent the most important migrant populations from Central Asia. The home countries of these migrant workers depend heavily on remittances from their migrant workers.

Migrant numbers to Russia had slowed significantly in the past two years due to tougher migration policies and a sharp depreciation in the rouble at the end of 2014, linked to a fall in oil prices and a recession. The drop in the value of the rouble also depressed the value of remittances that migrants were sending home.

This year, though, the rouble has gained around 17% against the US dollar since the low point of 81/$1 in mid-January and the economic situation in Russia appears to have improved enough to attract migrants once again.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)

Coup trials start in Tajikistan

APRIL 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Tajikistan sentenced Alisher Nazarov, nephew of former deputy defence minister Abdukhalim Nazarzoda to 3-1/2 years in prison, in what marks the beginning of a series of trials of people accused of a coup attempt last September. Nazarzoda, who allegedly led the armed insurrection, was reportedly killed on Sept. 15 by the Tajik army. The apparent coup attempt lead to a crackdown on Islamists across the country and a ban on supporting religious parties.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)

Tajik MPs wish to celebrate President’s day

APRIL 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) -A group of Tajik MPs proposed a bill to establish a holiday to celebrate President Emomali Rakhmon. The new holiday, which could be called either President’s Day or the Day of the Leader of the Nation, would further entrench Mr Rakhmon’s presence in Tajikistan’s public life. Last December, the Parliament passed a law to give Mr Rakhmon the title of Leader of the Nation.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 275, published on April 8 2016)