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China eyes major purchase on Georgian coast

TBILISI, JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — China underlined its ambitions to boost its presence in the South Caucasus by signing a deal with the Georgian government that could lead it to buying up 75% of the Poti Special Industrial Zone on the Black Sea coast.

Poti is the main entry and exit points into and out of Georgia for goods. It is majority owned by APM, a unit of Maersk Group.

Owning a majority stake in the Poti Special Industrial Zone would be a massive boost for China and would give it a major presence on the Black Sea for the first time.

A memorandum of understanding was signed by the Georgian government and CEFC China Energy Company Limited at a ceremony in Tbilisi attended by Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili.

Georgian media spun the deal as part of China’s One Belt, One Road project which aims to revive the Silk Road across Central Asia between China and Europe.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Azerbaijan’s GDP shrinks by 3.8%

JAN. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s GDP shrank by 3.8% in 2016, the country’s statistics committee said, confirming predictions of a heavy recession in the oil-dependent economy. The data means that, under pressure from low oil prices and a recession in Russia, Azerbaijan’s economy was one of the worst performing economies in the world last year.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Power exports to run alongside TAPI, say Turkmen officials

JAN. 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan said it wanted to build an electricity transmission line alongside the so-called TAPI gas pipeline that, if it all goes to plan, will pump Turkmen gas to Pakistan and India, across Afghanistan, potentially challenging the World Bank-backed CASA-1000 project which will supply Pakistan with electricity generated by hydropower stations in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Turkmenistan has been building gas-fuelled power stations and wants to become known for its electricity, and gas, exports.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Kazakhstan increases online monitoring

JAN. 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government wants to force people who leave comments on the internet to registered first using their real names, phone numbers and email address, a move that free speech activists said is just another way of cracking down on dissenters. The Eurasianet website quoted Mikhail Komissarov, deputy head of the communications and information technology committee, as saying that the new law was designed to improve transparency online.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Hunger strike over union closure grows at oil fields in west Kazakhstan

ALMATY, JAN. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — At least 400 oil workers in western Kazakhstan have started a hunger strike against the forced closure of the country’s trade union umbrella body, media reported.

The hunger strikers are, mainly, workers at the Kalamkas and Zhetybai oil fields in Mangistau region owned by the state-run Mangistau- munaigas. This is near to Zhanaozen where, in 2011, police shot dead at least 15 striking oil workers.

The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website reported that demonstrators were demanding that the government overturns a decision by a court in Shymkent to disband the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Kazakhstan because it hadn’t been

properly registered at its inception. This is the largest workers’ union in the country and analysts suspected that the Kazakh authorities were increasingly wary and worried about the power that it had accumulated.

Since 2011, the authorities in Kazakhstan have generally bent to accommodate the unions, preferring to dodge confrontation.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Analysts are positive on Georgian Healthcare in 2017

JAN. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian Healthcare, part-owned by Bank of Georgia, has been drawing plaudits. Since its debut on the London Stock exchange in November 2015, the group’s share price has more than doubled to 350p from 170p.

But now analysts are predicting further growth. Stock market analysts throughout 2016 stuck a buy rating on Georgia Healthcare, a valuation that they have stuck with this year. This rating is helped by positive moves from the company itself, including buying the ABC pharmacy at the start of the year. This is the fourth largest pharmacy group in Georgia.

And this, clearly, means well for the company in 2017, according to Georgian Healthcare CEO Nikoloz Gamkrelidze.

“This further consolidates GHG’s position as the leading integrated player in the Georgian healthcare ecosystem, and we look forward to delivering on the expected synergies and targeted growth strategy for the enhanced pharma business,” he was quoted as saying after the deal.

Other pharma and healthcare groups in the region have failed to gain much traction but Georgian Healthcare appears set for another decent 2017.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Petrol prices rise in Azerbaijan

JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company, Socar, said that it was going to raise the price it charges consumers for high octane Super Euro 98 petrol to 1.05 manat per litre from 0.95 manat per litre. Azerbaijan imports Super Euro 98 petrol. The sliding value of the manat versus the US dollar means that the cost of imports has increased.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Sweden’s Telia accuses Tajikistan of slapping it with bogus tax bill

JAN. 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Telia Company, the Swedish telecoms company, accused the Tajik government of posting a bogus tax claim against its Tajikistan-based subsidiary Tcell.

In a statement, the head of Telia’s Eurasia division, Emil Nilsson, said that the tax authorities in Tajikistan had handed Tcell a claim for May 2015 to June 2016 of 155m somoni ($19.6m) — more than the company’s entire revenue for 2015.

“We are very concerned with the situation which we believe is totally unacceptable,” Mr Nilsson said.

Central Asia governments have previously tried to raise revenue by slapping large fines for tax violations on Western companies. And this is exactly what Telia, in its abrupt statement, said was the scenario currently playing out with the Tajik authorities.

“The Tajik operator Tcell has appealed what is considered to be an illegal tax claim,” it said in the statement entitled ‘Telia appeals illegal tax claims in Tajikistan’. “The authorities in Tajikistan are basing their tax claim on revenue that Tcell has never generated, so called ‘un- realised revenue’.”

The Tajik authorities may feel that Tcell is vulnerable. Telia is trying to offload its businesses in Central Asia and the South Caucasus after a corruption scandal in Uzbekistan was uncovered that tarnished Telia’s global image and damaged Central Asia’s reputation for governance.

In September 2016, Telia agreed to sell its 60% stake in Tcell to the Aga Khan for $39m. The Aga Khan already owns 40% of the company.

In its statement, Telia said that it had expected the deal to be signed off by the Tajik authorities by the end of 2016. This has been delayed, though, without clear reason, Telia said.

The Tajik authorities have not commented on either the tax-linked fine or the delay in granting permission for Aga Khan to buy Telia’s stake in Tcell.

Tajikistan’s economy has been hit hard by a recession in Russia, making finding potential buyers for Tcell difficult.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Two new opposition parties emerge from one in Georgia

TBILISI, JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two new parliamentary minority factions — European Georgia and European Georgia for a Better Future — have emerged from the group of 21 MPs who quit the UNM opposition bloc earlier this month, leaving the once all-powerful party of former president Mikheil Saakashvili barely surviving.

The party split did not take people by surprise. Disagreements among party members had become increasingly vicious and public, especially after the UNM’s crushing defeat in October’s parliamentary election. Many of the arguments focused on whether the divisive, bombastic Mr Saakashvili, who now lives in exile in Ukraine, should still play a role in the UNM.

In an email interview with The Conway Bulletin, Akaki Bobokhidze, one of the MPs who left the UNM, said that Mr Saakashvili, who was president from 2004 until 2013, was now a political hindrance.

“Saakashvili thinks that it is not possible to defeat Bidzina Ivanishvili [the patron of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition] and to change the government through elections,” he said.

“There is a difference in how those who stayed and those who left evaluate the past and the errors that the UNM made, especially in the human rights field. The two groups take considerably different views of the party’s future.”

The 56-year-old Mr Bobokhidze is one of the most experienced MPs in parliament having won his seat in 2001 as a member of the now defunct Initiative Group. Known for his fiery temper, he has been involved in brawls inside parliament.

Mr Bobokhidze’s had been a staunch ally of Mr Saakashvili and it was clearly with some reluctance that he agreed to split from the main UNM party. It was only in December that he was urging the party to unite around Mr Saakashvili.

“Saakashvili is the politician that made the corrupt post-Soviet Georgia into a successful country. Regardless of his position in the party, I hope he will remain a successful politician in Georgia’s political history,” he said in his interview.

Mr Bobokhidze said the new parties’ focus would be on winning control of local councils at municipal elections later this year and then concentrating on building alliances to win back power in parliamentary elections scheduled for 2020.

And this collaboration could still that the remaining UNM parliamen- tarians, Mr Bobokhidze’s former col- leagues, have a role to play.

“Our new party is open for collaboration with all the parties that shares our values and think that the informal governing of Ivanishvili is damaging our country,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Kazakh court cuts Ex-PM jail sentence

JAN. 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Karaganda, central Kazakhstan, cut an eight year jail sentence handed out to former Kazakh PM Serik Akhmetov for corruption to 1 year and seven months because of an amnesty granted by President Nursultan Nazarbayev last year to mark the 25th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s independence. Akhmetov had been PM between Sept. 2012 and April 2014. He was convicted in Dec. 2015. Under the new term, he should be due to be released shortly.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)