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Tajikistan’s TSB bank re-starts normal activities after state rescue

DEC. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s Central Bank said that Tojiksodirotbank (TSB), the country’s troubled second-largest lender, has completed its temporary administration period and will now resume banking activities.

The Central Bank intervened in TSB in May, saving the bank from bankruptcy. It cut staff numbers and injected 2b somoni ($254m) into the bank, becoming an 80% shareholder. Sources cited by the Avesta news agency also said the government had injected 1.2b somoni ($152m) into Agroinvestbank and hundreds of millions of somoni into Fononbank and Tochprombank to save them from going bankrupt too.

These banks had suffered a liquidity shortage triggered by a fall in the value of the somoni and a steep rise in bad loans. Savers and government employees, who received salaries through banks were unable to access their funds.

Now, TSB said it will soon resume regular banking activity.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)f

Azerbaijan’s GDP shrinks by 3.9%

DEC. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s GDP was 3.9% lower in the nine months to the end of October this year compared to the same period in 2015, the country’s statistics committee reported, confirming the country’s sharp economic downturn. A collapse in oil prices and a recession in Russia have dragged down Azerbaijan’s oil dependent economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Azerbaijan sets up low cost airline

DEC. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — AZAL, Azerbaijan’s flagship carrier, said it will establish a subsidiary to operate low-cost flights. The new company, BUTA Airways, will take over from the Azaljet brand used this year for AZAL’s low-cost flights. Azalet had not been a separate company. AZAL will own 100% of BUTA, which will start operations in late 2017.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Euro parliament agrees Uzbek cotton deal

DEC. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Parliament voted to renew a textile deal with Uzbekistan after dropping the agreement five years ago because of concerns over child labour, drawing anger from human rights groups who said that modern day slavery was being excused.

Under the EU-Uzbekistan trade deal, originally agreed in 1999 but suspended in 2011, tariffs on Uzbek cotton will be dropped. It is a major boost for Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev who appears to want to improve the country’s image after the death in September of Islam Karimov.

The vote was passed by 564 in favour versus 100 against the motion, with 41 abstentions.

Commenting on the vote, MEP Maria Arena, said: “This consent is the result of the progress and commitments made by Uzbekistan in the fight against forced and child labour. But as adult forced labour remains a strong concern, we will follow the situation closely and if there are serious human rights violations or any regress on these issues, MEPs will not hesitate to ask the Council and the Commission to suspend the entire partnership agreement.”

Last month the European Parliament’s influential International Trade Committee had voted to recommend that a deal was approved.

Uzbekistan has appeared to respond to pressure to clean up its employment issues. This year the UN’s International Labour Organisation monitored the harvest in Uzbekistan and said that while doctors and teachers were forced to work in the cotton fields, there were far few children working.

Cotton is a major cash earner for Uzbekistan. It is the fifth largest cotton producer in the world.

Human rights group, though, were less than impressed. “Adopting this Protocol now sends the wrong message to Tashkent,” Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group, said. “Do members want to be seen by Uzbekistan’s millions of victims of forced labour as the parliament that turned a blind eye to their suffering?”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Kazakh President’s son-in-law family want re-trial

DEC. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The family of Rakhat Aliyev, Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev’s former son-in-law who was found dead in an Austrian prison cell in February 2015, called for an investigation into his death to be reopened. At a press conference the family presented a German expert who said that he thought Aliyev had been murdered. An Austrian investigation ruled that Aliyev had killed himself. Aliyev had been married to Dariga Nazarbayeva, Pres. Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter. He had fallen out with his father-in-law in 2007.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

EU criticises Azerbaijan over human rights

DEC. 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EU and human rights groups criticised Azerbaijan for sentencing to 10 years two anti-government activists who said they were tortured by police. The day before, a court had sentenced Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov on drug related charges. They were detained earlier this year for graffiting anti-government slogans on a statue of former Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev. The drug-related charges were added later and their supporters say they have been made up to increase prison sentences.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)f

Trump cancels hotel deal with Azerbaijan

DEC. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — US President-elect Donald Trump’s business cancelled a licensing deal it had made in Azerbaijan, media reported. Mr Trump had been criticised during the US presidential campaign for making a deal to lend his name to a hotel development project in Baku linked to senior members of the Azerbaijani elite who had previously been accused of money laundering.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)f

Comment: Georgia moves towards visa-free EU access, writes Bernardi

DEC. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian Dream coalition government in Georgia stands on the brink of a great victory. It may have been former President Mikheil Saakashvili who set the ball rolling for more integration with the EU for Georgia but he has been vanquished by the Georgian Dream. To the victor the spoils.

Now — once the mechanism to kick out any countries whose citizens abuse the system has been approved, and this EU sources say is a mere formality — Georgians holding biometric passports will be able to enter the 26-country Schengen area for up to 90 days.

By early next year Georgians will be able to avoid the tiring, often boring and sometimes humiliating visa process. Instead they’ll be able to confidently stroll up to immigration queues handover their passport, flash a smile and then skip over into the EU.

And good for them.

This hasn’t been an easy or even straight forward process. There have been plenty of times when the EU could have pulled the process. Instead both the EU and Georgia have stuck to the script. Just. The big wobble was created by the Syria refugee crisis. Suddenly, once the impact of hundreds of thousands of hungry and impoverished refugees had been absorbed by Europe, and Germany in particular, the EU was less keen to allow visa-free access to Georgia, and also to Ukraine as it happens.

Of course though, the perceived threat of Georgian people flows was overblown. There are only 4m people in Georgia and they are not all involved in organised crime, as the German government seemed to imply at one point. The vast majority also don’t want to migrate to Europe. They just want to be treated as equals.

Perhaps, though, geopolitical forces also propelled the process along again. With Russia seemingly dominant in eastern Ukraine and in the Middle East, the EU may have wanted to remind the Kremlin that soft power and the slow pull of European values can be influential. By agreeing to grant Georgia, and Ukraine, visa-free access to the Schengen area, the EU is making itself relevant.

Make no mistake, Georgia’s westward European trajectory is as geopolitically charged as it ever was.

By Giulia Bernardi, The Conway Bulletin’s Tbilisi correspondent

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Israel to build poultry plant in Kazakhstan

DEC. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Israeli poultry processing company BAL International said it will build a new food chain plant in Kazakhstan. The company, which owns two factories in Israel, plans to install a new production line in the Almaty region. Its business will be mostly geared towards exports to China. The company also plans to kick-start a mutton export line from Kazakhstan to Israel. The deal was signed during Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s official visit to Astana.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)f

Kyrgyzstan passes referendum that extends powers of PM and bans same-sex marriage

BISHKEK, DEC. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to change the country’s constitution and shift power from the president’s office to the PM.

The referendum was controversial because opposition groups said that it was designed to empower current president Almazbek Atambayev who has to stand down next year. They accused him of eyeing up a strengthened PM’s office as his next role.

Under the changes the PM will be able to sack cabinet ministers and heads of local administrative regions and the president will no longer chair the Kyrgyz defence council. The referendum also banned same-sex marriage, angering gay rights groups.

Around 80% of the vote was cast in favour of the referendum proposals. Vote turnout was around 42% and one senior Western diplomat told The Conway Bulletin that the referendum only gained enough momentum because officials had cajoled people living in new villages that have sprung up on the outskirts of Bishkek, the capital, into voting for the proposals.

Even so, there was plenty of grumbling too about foul play and vote stuffing.

Nazira, 24, an independent observer said: “Some political parties’ representatives were standing at the polling station entrance, talking to voters and offering them up to 3,000 som ($30) for their vote.”

This is the third referendum in Central Asia this year.

Tajiks voted to extend the length of presidential terms and in Turkmenistan they scrapped a limit on the number of terms a president can remain in power. Across the Caspian Sea, in Azerbaijan a referendum was used to lengthen a presidential term.

In an election run alongside the referendum, people in Bishkek voted to retain the Social Democrats as their city government, although with a reduced number of seats.

The Social Democrats, the party of President Atambayev, won 13 seats in the Bishkek city election, just ahead of Ata Jurt with 12 seats. The other 20 seats were split between Onuguu-Progress, Mekenim Kyrgyzstan and Kyrgyzstan parties.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)