SEPT. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway link will be opened shortly, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was quoted by media as saying. The rail link between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and Iran has been touted as a major advance for trade between Iran and Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Westport Trading, a US-company, is setting up a processing plant to process high-quality bitumen in the port city of Seidi in Turkmenistan, media reported quoting the Turkmen government newspaper.
Bitumen is a major component for tar production used in road-building and setting up a major factory that is not dominated oil and gas production would be a boost to Turkmenistan’s promise to diversify its economy.
The $78m that the plant will reportedly cost will also generate much needed jobs.
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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
AUG. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) marked the UN’s International Day of the Disappeared by highlighting the dozens of people who have disappeared in Turkmenistan in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “Many families of the disappeared simply don’t know whether their loved ones are dead or alive,” HRW said in a statement.
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(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)
SEPT 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan is one of China’s most important energy suppliers, the deputy director of PetroChina, Lu Gongxun, said in an interview.
His comments, while not breaking news, underline the importance and high regard that China places on its new partner. Turkmenistan has become vital for the Chinese economy, sending around 50 billion cubic metres (cbm) of natural gas to China each year.
And it’s going to become even more important. By 2021, Turkmenistan will be pumping 65bcm of gas to China each year, eclipsed only by Russia.
“Turkmenistan’s rich gas resources facilitate the implementation of China’s goal of diversifying energy imports. The natural gas imports from the Central Asia play an indispensable role in ensuring the state energy security of China,” he Lu said according to press reports.
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(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)
AUG. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 50 residents of an Ashgabat suburb blocked workmen from removing air conditioning units from their apartment block, media reported, a rare public protest in Turkmenistan. Turkmen officials have ordered apparently unsightly air conditioning units to be removed from apartment blocks despite the souring summer temperatures.
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(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)
AUG. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan has signed another major gas supply deal, underlining its growing status as a regional energy super-power. A Turkish-Japanese consortium will build a $1.7b gas plant in Turkmenistan that will process natural gas into high quality fuel for export. Most of Turkmenistan’s natural gas it pumped to China.
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(News report from Issue No. 197, published on Aug. 27 2014)
AUG. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran has said that it will stop importing gas from Turkmenistan, media reported. Most of Turkmenistan’s gas flows to China and Iran was not a major client but, even so, the Iranian decision to stop imports will irk. With its economy improving, Iran has said that it plans to ramp up its own gas production.
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(News report from Issue No. 196, published on Aug. 20 2014)
AUG. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The TAPI gas pipeline that is planned to run from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India is already influencing regional trade links. At a meeting in Ashgabat to discuss progress on the project, Pakistan and Turkmenistan also agreed to improve bilateral ties.
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(News report from Issue No. 195, published on Aug. 13 2014)
JULY 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Releasing GDP figures for post-Soviet states inthe first quarter of the year, theEuropean Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said Turkmenistan’s economy had grown by 10.3%. Gas sales, mainly to China, have boosted Turkmen GDP enormously.
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(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – There was a very strong sense of déjà vu around an official Turkmen government announcement this month. Media reported that the Turkmen government had announced that it would build a statue to the current president, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.
When he took over the presidency in 2007 from Saparmurat Niyazov, the first president of post-Soviet Turkmenistan, one of his first stated actions with to dismantle the personality cult his predecessor had built up. This included a gold statue of Niyazov built on an enormous plinth in the centre of Ashgabat.
International observers also cheered when he started to open Turkmenistan up to foreign investment. It is now one of the region’s major gas producers, a position it should strengthen further over the next few years.
There have, though, been increasingly strong signals that Mr Berdymukhamedov also wants to build up a personality cult of his own and that worried observers.
He has been shown on state television berating hapless officials, he makes sure that he wins Turkmenistan’s most important horse race each year and now, it appears, he has authorised a statue of himself.
Foreign minister Kasymkuly Babayev was shown on state television giving a tour of the construction site to Mr Berdymukahmedov. He addressed Mr Berdymukhamedov by his preferred moniker of Arkadag, or Protector.
“In the name of the people of the country, of the leaders of (state) structures, (we) appeal to the head of state to decide to establish on one of the beautiful corners of Turkmenistan’s capital, a monument to President Arkadag,” media quoted him as saying. This all sounds very familiar.
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(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)