JULY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Commercial banks in Kyrgyzstan’s need to meet a minimum capitalisation level, the Central Bank said, part of an ongoing process to professionalise the banking sector and protect it against another Global Financial Crisis. By 2017, commercial banks in Kyrgyzstan will need a working capital of nearly $10m.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JUNE 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – To honour Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov’s 58th birthday, city authorities in Ashgabat named a new park Arkadag, which means “Protector” and is the moniker he likes to go by.
Critics of Mr Berdymukhamedov have accused him of encouraging his officials to promote a cult of personality, something that he disparaged at the start of this period in power in 2007.
Earlier this year, though, the authorities unveiled a giant statue of Mr Berdymukhamedov on a horse. Television shots have also increasingly showed him berating officials and holding court, emperor-like.
And the new Arkadag park appears to back up this image. The park’s main feature is a large white marble arch with Mr Berdymukhamedov’s portrait in its centre.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s oil and gas ministry said it wants to increase the amount of processed oil and gas products it exports. Turkmenistan has been trying to increase exports of both raw natural gas and processed products.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JUNE 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan brought the inaugural European Games to a close with another lavish ceremony at the Olympic Stadium in Baku.
Opinion was divided on whether the Games had been a success.
Attendance of both crowds and top athletes was low, espe- cially in the perceived blue ribbon athletics events although Azerbaijan’s new sta- diums were highly praised.
For Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, the Games were an intrinsic part of his strategy to promote the country through sport.
Azerbaijan has sponsored football teams and plans to host a Formula 1 race next year. It will probably also bid to host the Olympics in 2024.
No expense was spared on the European Games, which featured Lady Gaga singing at the opening ceremony.
But complaints over Azerbaijan’s human rights record and a bus crash in the Olympic village which injured members of the Austrian swimming team overshadowed part the Games.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JUNE 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – BISHKEK — MPs in Kyrgyzstan voted to sack a judge over a row about biometric data in what civil activists described as more evidence of parliament’s authoritarian tendencies.
Protesters gathered in the centre of Bishkek to demonstrate against the apparent sacking of Klara Sooronkulova, a judge in the Constitutional Chamber of the Kyrgyz Supreme Court.
She had been working on a document that would have declared a law brought in last year forcing everybody in Kyrgyzstan to give their fingerprint data to the state as unconstitutional.
“Sooronkulova was dismissed only because she expressed her opinion as an independent judge,” shouted Nurbek Toktakunov, a lawyer, at the protest.
The law that Ms Sooronkulova took umbridge with decreed that only those people who had submitted biometric data could vote in a parliamentary election set for October.
She said that this was unlawful. Apparently irritated by her reluctance to accept the law on biometric data, the government forced MPs to vote three times to sack her. She survived the first two efforts.
“This is a clear evidence of complete arbitrariness,” Ms Sooronkulova told a newspaper.
It’s unlikely that protests will gather momentum but the independence of the judiciary from the executive power has been damaged in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JUNE 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s Central Bank kept its interest rates steady at 9.5%, despite inflation falling. The Central Bank is trying to weigh up protecting its som currency from devaluing and also stopping inflation dropping too low. Inflation dropped to 4.8%, down by half since the beginning of the year.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazmunaigas, the Kazakh state oil and gas company, is trying for a third time to sell off three companies it owns in Romania, media reported quoting the Kazakh finance ministry. Kazmunaigas wants to sell Rominserv Valves, a valve manufacturer, SA Palplast, a plastic pipe maker and Global Security Systems which provides security guards. All three are currently owned by Rompetrol, a Kazmunaigas subsidiary.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — Remittances from Greece to Georgia have dropped by nearly a fifth this year because Greek financial meltdown, deputy finance minister Giorgi Kakauridze said.
And Greece is a vital of income for Georgia. Russia, Greece is Georgia’s most important source of remittances.
“The situation in Greece will of course affect money transfers to Georgia, but remittances are already significantly reduced not only from Greece, but from other sources as well, so it will not have a significant effect on the Georgian economy anymore,” Mr Kakauridze told the Rustavi-2 television station.
Georgia, Russia and Greece are all predominantly Christian Orthodox countries.
Overall remittance flows to Georgia have fallen by 23% to $438m in the first five months of this year. Remittances from Greece were down 18% to $69m. From Russia, remittances had fallen by 42% to $163m.
Greece has defaulted on an IMF loan repayment and it is holding a referendum on Sunday to decide whether to accept tighten bailout rules. It’s banks have placed currency controls on withdrawals.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Azerbaijan convicted 9 men of fighting for the extremist group IS in Syria and sent them to prison for up to 15 years, media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JULY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Union will give Uzbekistan $168m to boost infrastructure in rural areas, the European Commission envoy Yuri Sturk said.Mr Sturk specifically said that the EU grant was earmarked to improve irrigation and to boost renewable energies.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
