JULY 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik Central Bank has stopped publishing monthly remittance data because it can be manipulated for political gain, media quoted its head, Abdujabbor Shirinov, as saying. Remittances account for roughly 50% of the Tajik economy, the highest proportion in the world.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 145, published on July 29 2013)
JULY 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon has officially opened the first oil refinery in Tajikistan. The refinery has the capacity to process around 100,000 tonnes of oil a year. Russia, which had supplied Tajikistan with most of its oil products, will supply oil to the new refinery.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 144, published on July 22 2013)
JULY 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tajik authorities have said they have found a body in a river that could be the leader of the minority Uzbek group in Tajikistan, Salim Shamsiddinov, who went missing in March, media reported. Analysts have said Mr Shamsiddinov’s disappearance may be linked to his business interests or to his politics.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 144, published on July 22 2013)
JULY 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sighting lower-than-expected inflation, the Tajik Central Bank cut its key interest rate to a record low of 6.1%. It had previously cut rates to 6.5% in August 2012. Inflation across Central Asia and the South Caucasus has generally slowed, although the World Bank has said food price rises may reverse this.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JUNE 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) and France’s Total agreed a deal with London and Toronto-listed Tethys Petroleum to develop an oil and gas site in Tajikistan. The deal gives each company a third stake in the Bokhtar project. Developing Bokhtar successfully could transform Tajikistan’s economic future.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 140, published on June 24 2013)
JUNE 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps responding to criticism, Tajikistan has introduced laws both strengthening legislation against money laundering and increasing punishments for people convicted of washing cash, media reported. Experts had said Tajikistan’s anti-money laundering legislation was one of the weakest in the world.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 140, published on June 24 2013)
JUNE 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The UN has decreed the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan a World Heritage Site, media reported, giving the Tajik tourist industry a boost but also potentially making development in the area more difficult. The Tajik National Park, which covers 18% of the country and most of the Pamir Mountains, is Tajikistan’s first World Heritage Site.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 140, published on June 24 2013)
JUNE 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan started construction on a new rail link that should boost trade between the three neighbours, media reported. The 400km route will run from Panj on the Tajik-Afghan border, across northern Afghanistan to Atamyrat in central Turkmenistan and cost $1.5b to build.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)
MAY 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — After flying to Beijing, Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon signed a strategic partnership with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping which is designed to enhance cooperation, media reported. China has been playing an increasingly influential role in Tajikistan, mining for metals and building roads.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
JAWSHANGOZ/Tajikistan, APRIL 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In this hamlet in the mountains of eastern Tajikistan, Firishtamo Shohnavruzov made a note in his battered jotter.
Like many poor farmers, Shohnavruzov has opened his home to international visitors.
“Two guests paid $5 each for plov (a rice and mutton dish) and chai (tea) and $14 for lodging,” he said.
The Pamirs are remote and rugged but with an increasing number of tour operators and basic B&Bs, they are attracting a growing number of intrepid travellers. In the first half of 2011, for example, the Pamir Eco Cultural Tourism Association (PECTA) noted a near 40% increase in the number of tourists to their office in Khorog, the main town in the south of the country.
Shohnavruzov Homestay is typical of the locally-based tourism PECTA, set up in 2008, wants to encourage. The main attraction is the so-called Pamir Highway, an arduous 500km Soviet-built road over soaring mountain passes that connects Khorog to Osh in Southern Kyrgyzstan.
There are still many, basic, infrastructure challenges, though.
Gulnara Akhmatbekovna, a tour guide in Murgab near the Kyrgyz border, leafed through various guides printed out in different languages.
“What I’d really like is an internet connection that doesn’t run on a generator,” she said.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)