Tag Archives: Tajikistan

China boosts Tajik gold

DEC. 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In the first eleven months of this year Tajikistan equalled its top post-independence annual production figure for gold, the country’s Asia-Plus news agency reported.

Like its record cement production figure, posted earlier this year, the increase is due to Chinese investment.

The yield of 3 metric tonnes (mt) is modest by regional standards — neighbouring Uzbekistan produces 90 mt/year and Kyrgyzstan 10-20 mt/year — but it’s still important to Tajikistan, one of the most impoverished countries in the world.

Chinese-Tajik Zeravshan Gold Company is responsible for over two thirds of Tajikistan’s total gold output. And this underlines China’s increasingly tight grip over Tajikistan’s economy. Without China, Tajikistan’s gold and cement industries would be in a far more perilous state.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)

Inflation rising in Tajikistan

NOV. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prices of basic food products are rising in Dushanbe, local media reported, because of a fall in the value of the Tajik somoni. Tajik news agency Asia-Plus reported that a bag of flour now sold at 175 somoni, up from 165 somoni a week earlier, and that vegetable oil cost 44 somoni up from 40 somoni.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)

Tajikistan to tighten NGO laws

NOV. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan is drafting legislation that will limit foreign funding to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), media reported. The laws are similar to those being passed by Kyrgyzstan and those already in place in Russia. NGOs say the laws will give the government far greater control over the NGO sector.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)

Uzbek President travels to Astana

NOV. 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov made a rare trip to Astana where he met Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev to discuss plans by Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to build extra hydropower capacity, an issue that has threatened to destabilise the region. Uzbekistan relies on water from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to feed its important cotton fields.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)

Tajik-Kuwaiti ties develop

NOV. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan and the Gulf state of Kuwait are growing closer, as a recent bilateral agreement allowing visa-free travel for state officials showed.

Diplomatic delegations have been shuffling back and forth between the two countries ever since Tajikistan’s embassy in Kuwait opened in 2013.

Kuwait wants to import fresh water from Tajikistan; Tajikistan wants Kuwait’s oil, although how the logistics of that swap would work is unclear.

Currently bilateral trade is weak, registering just over $30,000 for the first ten months of this year. But a visit by Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon last year earned a promise of Kuwaiti investment in construction as well as the reconstruction of facilities in Tajikistan’s critical hydro and tourism sectors.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)

Tajiks flock to IS

NOV. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The deputy head of Tajikistan’s National Security Council, Akram Amonov, said there were around 300 Tajiks fighting in Syria for the extremist Islamic State group, more than previously thought. Mr Amonov said that most travel to Syria through Afghanistan or Moscow.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)

Pakistan aims to import Tajik electricity

NOV. 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pakistan wants to export Tajik electricity on to other consumer countries, Pakistani media quoted a senior government official as saying. The announcement is, potentially, good news for Tajikistan which is looking for markets for its hydropower. Tajikistan and Pakistan are working on a grid system called CASA-1000.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)

Tajikistan’s somoni falls

NOV. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik somoni currency has fallen by 7% against the US dollar this year and 2% in the last week, mainly due to the falling value of the Russian rouble, threatening its economic stability. Remittances from Russia account for around half of Tajikistan’s GDP.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)

Tajik NGOs face funding problems

NOV. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Tajikistan have said a new law which means parliament has to approve all foreign funding is an attack on free speech and will force many NGOs to close, media reported. The Tajik government has said it needs the law to stop outside countries spying.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)

Tajikistan’s cotton production uses forced labour

NOV. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan claims it is on track for a cotton production target many thought unrealistic when the government announced it earlier in the year.

Avesta.tj, the Dushanbe-based news agency, quoted the country’s ministry of agriculture as saying 373,000 tonnes of its 408,000 tonne target have already been gathered.

Cotton plays a key part in Central Asia’s economy, although it is controversial as human rights campaigners have criticised all the Central Asian states of using forced labour to pick the harvest.

In 2013, the US State Department Trafficking in Persons report said: “Some Tajik children and possibly some adults were subjected to agricultural forced labor in Tajikistan — mainly during the fall 2012 cotton harvest — but this exploitation occurred to a lesser degree than in 2011.”

That may be because cotton production itself has become steadily less profitable. Typically, Tajikistan exports raw cotton to Russia, China, Turkey and Iran. Efforts to develop finished cotton products in the country’s mills have been harmed by chronic electricity shortages that tend to begin right after the season finishes.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)