Tag Archives: Tajikistan

China increases mining activities in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan

May 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon held talks in Dushanbe with Wan Zhenhua of Zijin Mining’s Zarafshon copper-gold- silver mining company in Khujand, Tajikistan (May 19).

Reports made the meeting sound rather Soviet. They listed the various social achievements which included finding work for 2,000 people since 2007 and noting that Chinese investment has reached $235m. The mine now produces half Tajikistan’s total gold production.

But the real story is elsewhere.

Typically, gold mining projects can take up to seven years to become profitable, while red tape surrounding license issuance and political unrest in Central Asia can considerably extend timeframes.

State-owned Zijin, China’s largest gold producer, also owns a gold mine in Kyrgyzstan’s Chui province. In Kyrgyzstan, Zijin had to evacuate roughly 250 employees from their operation in Orlovka village, Chui, in 2012 when one of their excavators reportedly killed a local’s horse, triggering an attack on the company’s offices.

Given the reluctance of other foreign investors to mine in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, some believe China’s interest in mining projects is about strategic control of mineral wealth in the two countries, rather than money.

“Chinese companies take on projects that in my mind are not profitable,” Valentin Bogdetski, head of the Kyrgyz Miners Association told the Conway Bulletin.

“Last year, a Chinese firm won a license for an iron ore concession in Zhetim-Too [Naryn province]. But this ore has little market value, so why do they want the license?”

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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Tajik conscript dies

May 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin)- A Tajik army conscript who died in April was beaten to death, the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) website reported. RFE/RL also reported that another army conscript has been paralysed from being beaten. Bullying and beatings are a major problem in militaries across the former Soviet Union.

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(News report from Issue No. 185, published on May 21 2014)

Floods hit south Tajikistan

MAY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Floods have heavily damaged parts of southern Tajikistan, along the border with Afghanistan, media reported. The Afghan side has been far worse effected with reports saying that a mudslide hit a village killing several hundred people. In Tajikistan, reports said that hundreds of families in remote villages had been cut off.

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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

Kyrgyzstan plots CU membership

MAY 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s government said that it had drafted a road map for its entry into the Russia-led Customs Union (CU). The economic union also includes Kazakhstan and Belarus. Armenia also plans to join this year. Kyrgyzstan’s membership of the CU should also allow Tajikistan to join.

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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

World Bank endorses Tajik hydroelectric projects

MAY 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an interview with Tajik media outlet Asia Plus, Jorg Frieden, executive director at the World Bank in charge of its projects in Central Asia, underscored the eggshells the Bank and other international organisations must tread over when dealing with large scale energy projects in the region.

The Bank’s endorsement of hydroelectric projects, whether from a technical or financial point of view, is particularly important for Tajikistan, a country full of hydro potential, but with a track record of failing to attract foreign investment.

Dushanbe is also locked in a perennial conflict over its hydropower ambitions with downstream Uzbekistan. Uzbek President Islam Karimov has said that upstream dams in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan could trigger water wars if constructed.

The World Bank has already pledged $526m towards CASA-1000, a project that aims to deliver power from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to electricity-deficient Afghanistan and Pakistan further south.

Mr Frieden reiterated the bank’s support for CASA-1000 while acknowledging that Uzbekistan strongly opposed it.

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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

Kyrgyz – Tajik border row flares

MAY 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An on-off border row between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has flared up again, according to media reports.

Around 60 people were injured in a fight between villagers on each side of the border. Various cargo and trucks were destroyed.

This is a potentially dangerous issue and could destabilise the restive southern edge of Kyrgyzstan and the wider Ferghana Valley region, the most densely populated area of Central Asia.

Talks between the two governments over the delimitation of the 300km-long disputed border have been moving, at a sluggish pace, through out the year.

In January, a shootout between opposing forces injured several soldiers. As with many parts of Central Asia, the borders around southern Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan appear to have been draw up to generate strife and problems. Communities of different nationalities intersect each other; enclaves generate flashpoints.

As well as adding to the daily inconveniences experienced by communities living close to the border, the clashes hurt big business. In March South-Kyrgyz-Cement reported that sales had fallen as a result of Kyrgyzstan’s closure of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border, which lasted over two months after the Jan. 11 shootout.

A Kyrgyz-owned gas station and containers carrying cement and coal were among the property burned during in the most recent conflict.

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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

Kazakh president snubs Moscow military meeting for US diplomat

MAY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appears to have triggered a minor international row by snubbing a meeting of a former Soviet military group in favour of talks with a senior US diplomat.

Mr Nazarbayev had been due to travel to Moscow for a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a military group that includes Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.

Instead he decided to meet with the US deputy Secretary of State, William Burns, in Astana.

Officials were quick to deny there was a problem even though all the other CSTO leaders turned up in Moscow for a meeting chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr Nazarbayev was conspicuous by his absence.

Back in Astana, to make the situation even more uncomfortable for Mr Nazarbayev, diplomats told journalists that Mr Burns had asked Mr Nazarbayev to try and use his influence with Mr Putin to relax Russia’s pressure in eastern Ukraine.

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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

Tajik aluminium production falls

MAY 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – TALCO, the aluminium plant that is at the centre of Tajikistan’s economy, cut production by 39.5% between January and March, media reported quoting the economy and trade ministry. TALCO had predicted a fall in aluminium production in February. It blamed the fall on a global crash in aluminium prices.

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(News report from Issue No. 184, published on May 14 2014)

Turkmenistan’s president visits Tajikistan

MAY 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — They may be neighbours but Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has had little time over the past four years to visit his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon.

Now though, Mr Berdymukhamedov has been in Dushanbe catching up with Mr Rakhmon and mulling various projects, particularly in the energy and transport sector.

It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to hear of Mr Berdymukhamedov’s first trip to Dushanbe since 2010. The geo-politics of gas has thrown these two countries together.

Turkmenistan has transformed itself into one of China’s biggest gas suppliers. It needs Tajikistan to help it pump gas to its client and pipelines are the main motivating factor behind Mr Berdymukhamedov’s trip to Dushanbe.

The state-owned China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) has already signed a deal with the Tajik authorities to lay part of a new pipeline that will pump gas from Turkmenistan to China. Through the Turkmen state newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan, Mr Berdymukhamedov said work on the Tajik branch of the gas pipeline to China would start shortly.

Media reported the two leaders discussed other issues during Mr Berdymukahmedov’s stay in Dushanbe, security after NATO leaves Afghanistan and regional transport issues, but energy clearly formed the basis of the meeting.

Energy, and China’s thirst for it, sets the diplomatic agenda inside Central Asia.

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)

Kuwait eyes cooperation with Tajikistan

MAY 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kuwait appears keen to improve diplomatic relations with Tajikistan. Media reported that an adviser to the Kuwaiti Emir met with Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon to discuss various ways of expanding cooperation. Kuwait and Tajikistan don’t have any historical connections.

(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)