NOV. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov visited Tashkent for talks with his Uzbek counterpart Islam Karimov. Mr Berdymukhamedov is a relatively well-travelled leader but visits to other Central Asian countries are still rare. His visit showed that Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan relations are strong.
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(News report from Issue No. 162, published on Nov. 27 2013)
NOV. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s gas-powered economy is still booming and will continue to grow rapidly in the future. That’s the latest assessment, in any case, from the IMF.
The IMF said growth would top 10% in 2013 and 2014, slightly lower than the previous two year. Even with the slight growth rate slowdown, Turkmenistan still has one of the fastest growing economies. Most of the growth is coming from exploiting huge natural gas reserves, the fourth largest in the world.
China has become Turkmenistan’s biggest customer, taking over from Russia, but other smaller clients are also playing an increasingly major role.
This dependence on gas, though, is also a potential weakness, the IMF warned. It said that a sharp downturn in the global price of gas could pose real problems for the Turkmen economy.
It also said that Turkmenistan needs to relax currency rules and reform its mainly state-run banking sector.
Alongside gas, cotton has become an increasingly important part of Turkmenistan’s economy. This week, Turkmenistan said it was looking to pull in $1b worth of investment to build factories to process raw cotton into goods.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to stem fuel shortages, Uzbekistan has agreed a deal with neighbouring Turkmenistan to import oil to Uzbek refineries, media reported quoting a subsidiary of the Uzbek state-run energy company Uzbekneftegaz. Oil production in Uzbekistan has been decreasing and its three refineries are running below capacity.
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(News report from Issue No. 160, published on Nov. 13 2013)
NOV. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting in Ashgabat, Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko and his Turkmen counterpart Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov agreed to build a factory to produce unmanned aerial drones. Media reports said Turkmenistan wants the drones to patrol its borders.
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(News report from Issue No. 159, published on Nov. 6 2013)
OCT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Utter the word Borat to a Kazakh diplomat and he or she may cringe.
It took years to purge the image of Kazakhstan — which wants to be seen as a modern, progressive country — from Borat, the boorish fictional character created by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for his 2006 film “Borat: Cultural learnings of America make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan”.
Now, though, it appears that the BBC has created another comedy to, potentially at least, poke more fun at the Central Asian republics.
The BBC will broadcast the first episode of its new three-part comedy on Oct. 23 called “Ambassadors”. It’s essentially a sideways, tongue-in-cheek look at the British diplomatic service and the challenges of a foreign posting in a little-known and far-away country.
The twist, for Central Asia at least, is that the fictional little-known and far-away country is called Tazbekistan. No prizes for guessing the mish-mash of republics it is based upon.
And there’s more. The pre-broadcasting blurb goes further. The plot is based around an incoming British ambassador’s attempts to get to grips with Tazbekistan’s idiosyncrasies. This includes being oil-rich and having a woeful human rights record.
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)
OCT. 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — If more evidence was needed that Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is building a personality cult it has come in the form of a book. Turkmenistan’s second post-Soviet president has penned an adoring book about his 81-year-old father, media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)
OCT. 9 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Trouble appears to be brewing on the border between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Traditionally, Uzbekistan closes its border with its southern neighbour for 72 hours around its Independence Day celebrations on Sept. 1 each year. This year, though, the border remains shut, more than one month later.
Media also reported that Uzbek officials had cancelled a deal made in June with Turkmenistan that allowed citizens from both countries to visit the other for three days without a visa.
It’s unclear what exactly has happened or when, although officials from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan did meet in Bukhara at the end of last month to discuss border issues.
Whatever the official reasons for the border problems, the implications are fairly serious. Business and families are cross border affairs and detouring to the nearest consulates for visas and various permissions to travel is a time consuming tedious business.
One agency that will benefit from the confusion is the border guards’ service. The guards on the borders are notoriously corrupt and, although officially closed, people will still be crossing back and forth. The size of the bribe they need to pay will have increased.
Uzbekistan currently imposes visa requirements on citizens of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan but not Russia or Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)
SEPT. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Seeking to carve out a global role for Turkmenistan, Turkmen deputy PM, Rashid Meredov, proposed holding UN meetings next year to discuss disarmament, energy security, transit issues, desertification, and refugees. Mr Meredov suggested that Ashgabat, fittingly, could host the meeting on desertification.
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov travelled to Tokyo where he signed a series of deals with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to boost cooperation. The deals, and the trip by Mr Berdymukhamedov, again underline Turkmenistan’s increasingly large clout as a major regional energy supplier.
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(News report from Issue No. 152, published on Sept. 18 2013)
SEPT. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a consortium with two other unnamed companies, South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction won a $3.4b contract to build an ethane treatment plant in Turkmenistan, media reported. The contract, with Turkmengas, demonstrates just how wealthy Turkmenistan has become over recent years.
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(News report from Issue No. 152, published on Sept. 18 2013)