JUNE 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Experts in Azerbaijan’s real estate sector are predicting a drop in house prices this year as the market reacts to a decline in economic conditions in the region, media reported. A sharp fall in oil prices and the value of the Russian rouble have hit the former Soviet region.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In Tashkent, UN chief Ban Ki-Moon said the Uzbek authorities should stop using forced labour to pick cotton and also improve prisoners’ rights. Clothing companies have boycotted Uzbek cotton.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Fuel prices in Kyrgyzstan are rising, media reported quoting the Kyrgyz Association of fuel traders. They said extra tax imposed by the Kyrgyz government had triggered the rise. Kyrgyzstan is also facing general inflation due to the falling value of its currency.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kaztelecom, Kazakhstan’s stateowned fixed line telecoms company, plans to launch an IPO in London, its CEO Kuanyshbek Yessekeyev, said in an interview to the KazTag news agency. If the IPO does progress, and Mr Yessekeyev didn’t give a timeframe, it will attract much interest.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Swiss embassy in Baku organised for Emin Huseynov, an Azerbaijani dissident and critic of President Ilham Aliyev’s administration, to fly out to Switzerland with Swiss foreign minister Didier Burkhalter. Mr Huseynov had been sheltering in the Swiss embassy since mid-August when police had tried to arrest him on drug-related charges.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia, started work as governor of the Ukrainian region of Odessa.
Media recorded an indifferent reaction to Mr Saakashvil and his new chief of police, Giorgi Lortkipanidze, an ex-Georgian vice interior minister.
But, ever the populist, Mr Saakashvili seized his moment.
“Some people think that they are above the law,” Mr Saakashvili was shown in a video broadcast by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as telling people on a city tram which had been blocked by black Mercedes.
“That’s why I have appointed a new chief of Odessa police who will restore order so that these things won’t happen here,” Mr Saakashvili said.
Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko appointed Mr Saakashvili as governor in Odessa last month, surprising observers.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s public services regulator approved a 17% increase in electricity prices, the third in two years. The price increase has angered people in Armenia and opposition parties have called for protests.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s military has been testing using drones at night in Tajikistan’s Pamir mountains, Russian media reported quoting a military press release. Russia is worried about the threat from the Taliban to Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Kazakhstan arrested on corruption charges Talgat Yermegiyayev, two days after he had quit as the chairman of the company organising President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s EXPO-217 extravaganza.
The arrest will be a major embarrassment to Mr Nazarbayev who has pledged to crackdown on corruption in Kazakhstan.
Adilbek Dzhaksybekov, the mayor of Astana, was quickly given the job of heading EXPO- 2017.
For Mr Yermegiyayev, a powerful businessmen with links to the top of the Kazakh elite, his arrest marks a very heavy fall from grace.
Alongside him, police also arrested Kazhymurat Usenov on embezzlement charges. Mr Usenov was in charge of much of the construction work for EXPO-2017 in Astana.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – MPs in Kyrgyzstan’s parliament have called for the introduction of a new tax on gold exports, media reported, pitting themselves, once again, against the country’s largest foreign investor.
The Kumtor gold east of the country is Kyrgyzstan’s single biggest industrial asset and parliamentarians said that its exports needed to be targeted to raise extra revenue for the national budget.
Centerra Gold, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, owns Kumtor. The Kyrgyz government is a minority owner in Centerra. It has been fighting to increase its stake in the company and to gain more control over Kumtor itself. Earlier this year, a Kyrgyz PM resigned after failing to win concessions.
Mirlan Bakirov, an MP for the opposition Onuguu (Progress) party, proposed a 20% gold export tax to be instated at the beginning of 2016, while Alla Izmalkova of the Social Democratic Party argued for a similar tariff to start in 2018.
Official data showed that in 2014, Kyrgyzstan exported 85,000 tonnes of gold, an increase of around 36% from mine in the 2013.
But the issue of taxing gold exports has been passing around the Kyrgyz parliament for years without ever being resolved.
Earlier in June, Kozhobek Ryspayev, member of the Committee on Fuel and Energy, said an export tax would harm the mining industry. Valentin Bogdetsky, member of the Board of the Kyrgyz Mining Association similarly stated: “The imposition of an export duty on gold is not a solution to the problems between the industry and the government.”
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
