NOV. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s state-owned telecoms operator UMS said it has expanded coverage of its 3G network to the provinces of Ferghana and Namangan. UMS installed 56 new base stations that will boost coverage both in the cities and in the rural areas. Central Asian countries have invested heavily in improving mobile connectivity across their territory.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
NOV. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia plans to cut its consumption of gas, electricity and coal by 38% and boost its electricity generation from renewable sources, deputy energy minister Hayk Harutyunyan told local media. The ambitious plan appears to be another attempt by cash-strapped countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus to cut expensive energy consumption. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have both announced plans to cut back on electricity-generation plans. Kyrgyzstan has also hinted it wants to use more green energy.
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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
NOV. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The IMF downgraded Georgia’s economic growth to 2.7% this year, from an earlier estimate of 3.4%. The downgrade was due, it said to a slightly bigger than expected drop in remittances and exports. It also downgraded growth in 2017 to 4% from 5.2%. Like the rest of the region, a recession in Russia and falling currency values have hit Georgia’s economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
NOV. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The son of Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Serdar Berdymukhamedov, has won a seat in the country’s parliament, local television reported, a possible first step towards inheriting the presidency from his father.
Turkmen TV broadcast Serdar Berdymukhamedov being congratulated after winning a by-election three days earlier. He had previously worked in a senior management position in the foreign ministry.
Little is known about Serdar Berdymukhamedov. Eurasianet ran a story earlier this year which said that as well as holding down government jobs he also owns a “a cotton-spinning plant, a mineral water factory and a chain of hotels”.
Earlier this year, Mr Berdymukhamedov tweaked the country’s constitution so that he could remain in power for life. He also extended the length of presidential terms to seven years from five years.
Succession has become an enduring issue in Central Asia. In September, Islam Karimov, who had ruled Uzbekistan for 25 years died. His daughter had been his preferred successor but was sidelined two years ago, paving the way for PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev to take over. In Kazakhstan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev dodged the issue of a family succession during an interview with Bloomberg this week.
Mr Berdymukhamedov took over in 2007 as Turkmenistan’s president from Saparmurat Niyazov. The only country in the region which has successfully completed a power handover within a family is in Azerbaijan, where Ilham Aliyev became president in 2003 after his father Heydar.
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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
NOV. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — John McCain, a senior US Republican Senator, will visit Georgia, as well as Estonia and Ukraine, in January to warn about Russian aggression, part of a foreign policy push designed to try and set the agenda before president-elect Donald Trump moves into the White House. Mr McCain is one of the most high-profile US Senators. He has been a strong advocate of Georgia’s westward leaning foreign policy.
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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
NOV. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Seven migrant workers from Tajikistan died in a fire in the metal container they were using as their living quarters on a construction site in Siberia, media reported.
Investigators said that the cause was likely to be a short-circuit in the electric heater which was warming the container. The container had been lined with wood and felt to keep out the severe cold.
This is the third major accident involving migrant workers this year. In January a roof collapsed onto a sewing workshop in Moscow, killing at least 12 migrant workers and in September a fire in a printing workshop killed at least 16 women workers from Kyrgyzstan.
Remittances from Russia is a vital source of income for countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, especially for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
NOV. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered his government to modernise the country’s oil refineries so that it could boost its output of refined oil to 20m tonnes by 2020, 22m tonnes by 2022 and 25m tonnes by 2025, media reported. The Central Asia region in general has been suffering from a shortage of refinery capacity.
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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
NOV. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkish security services arrested three dozen men from Central Asia and the South Caucasus who, they said, were working for the extremist IS group and had been planning a series of suicide attacks in Turkey’s biggest city. They said that the ringleaders were an Uzbek man and a Tajik man. Governments from Central Asia and the South Caucasus are increasingly concerned about their citizens heading to Syria to fight for IS.
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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
NOV. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan expects total oil output next year to measure 39.8m tonnes, down from 41.3m tonnes this year, Russia’s Interfax news agency reporting quoting a government official. Oil is Azerbaijan’s most valuable commodity, although it is developing gas exports. The downturn confirms a general drop in production from Azerbaijan’s aging infrastructure despite a boost in investment.
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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
TASHKENT, NOV. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — If there is a shadow hanging over the presidential election in Uzbekistan and the apparent smooth handover of power to Shavkat Mirziyoyev coupled with warmer neighbourly relations, it is the figure of Gulnara Karimova.
Very little has been heard of Uzbekistan’s self-styled diva since she was placed under house arrest in Tashkent in March 2014. She had been the preferred successor of her father, Islam Karimov, but fell from grace after police forces in Europe started investigating her financial affairs. It emerged she had been taking bribes worth hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign telecoms firms.
Unlike her sister and mother, who have been pictured mourning and have set up an institute in Karimov’s name, Ms Karimova has hardly been mentioned in news coverage since her father’s death on Sept. 2.
That is until a Russian language website which specialises on reporting on Central Asia, centre1.com, quoted an unnamed member of the Uzbek security forces as saying that she had been poisoned at the start of November and buried in a shallow grave (Nov. 22).
The centre1.com story was widely sited across the media until her London-based son, also called Islam Karimov, released a statement two days later saying that she was alive and well.
“These are just rumours. She’s alive and still bound to a house arrest sentence ,” he told the BBC.
Even so, Ms Karimova has still not been seen in public.
On a trip to Tashkent last month by the Bulletin, though, it was clear that she still carries a degree of support from ordinary people, despite Western media referring to her as the most hated person in Uzbekistan – a reference based on a 2005 diplomatic cable sent from the US embassy in Tashkent to Washington.
Umida, 22, a Tashkent-based student, said that it would be good if the glamorous Ms Karimova returned to public life.
“Gulnara did lots of useful things in the sphere of culture and education and gave many opportunities to young people,” she said.
Dilmurad, 28, agreed. “I don’t know whether the accusations about her are right or wrong, but I would like to see many of the social projects she organised, the Forum Foundation, Art Week Style, Marathons, Fighting Breast Cancer, being held once again.”
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)
