JUNE 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Bishkek, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) president Suma Chakrabarti said that it planned to invest $70m in Kyrgyzstan to boost its investment climate. Mr Chakrabarti highlighted the need for investment in local currency and capital markets.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A human rights campaigner in Uzbekistan told the eurasianet.org website that police sexually abused her when they detained her last month for photographing forced labour in cotton fields. The UN and other organisations have complained of torture and sexual abuse in police custody previously.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the national railway company, is building a new ferry terminal on the Caspian Sea, media reported.The terminal, at Kuryk south of Aktau, should be operational by December 2016 and highlights Kazakhstan’s drive to boost its trade across the Caspian Sea.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
MAY 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan wants to increase its meat and poultry exports to neighbouring countries over the next three years, media reported quoting agriculture minister Asylzhan Mamytbekov. Mr Mamytbekob said that meat exports increased by 300% in 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Defence minister from CSTO member states flew into Dushanbe for their annual meeting, set to begin on June 4. The Collective Security Treaty Organisation includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Turkish infrastructure company has agreed to fund construction of a new hydro- power dam in Georgia, media reported.
The agreement boosts Georgia- Turkey relations and will also strengthen electricity generation in the country.
Anadolu Tasit Ticaret will spend $80m on building the 51-megawatt Khedula-3 hydro- power plant in the Svaneti region in the Caucasus mountains.
Georgia’s government is a major proponent of developing hydropower and energy minister Kakha Kaladze said that this new development was just part of an ongoing process to boost the sector.
“This is being done for our people and for our country. This is being done for Georgia to be an energy independent country, he said. But it’s not without its controversies.
Hydropower currently produces around 85% of Georgia’s power but with economic and industrial development demand rising, so is demand for power. The tension lies between those who want to develop hydropower, which often means smashing through pristine mountain valleys and destroying villages, and those who want to protect the environment.
The government is still to make a final decision about one of the most controversial hydro- power projects in Georgia, the proposed 200m high dam at Khudoni.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s economic picture this year is emerging. Its GDP increased by 2.2% in the first quarter of the year compared with 3.1% in January-March 2014. A slight drop, but not as bad as it could be.
On a trip to the city of Artashat, outside Yerevan, PM Hovik Abrahamyan said that he was pleased with the how the data was emerging.
“We have 2.3% (economic activity) growth for the first 4 months which is usually passive,” he said.
“The programs that we are implementing and the laws we are adopting can become the basis by which we will surely have more than 2.3% economic growth. We will do everything to reach 4.1% GD growth tar- get,” he said.
Like the rest of the region, the impact of falling oil prices on Russia’s economy twinned with sanctions have rippled wider and hit the South Caucasus and also Central Asia.
Mr Abrahamyan said Armenia may be able to reach GDP growth of 4.1% this year because of a number of projects in the pipeline. He highlighted increased agriculture activity of 6.6% in the first quarter of the year and a redress on the remittances’ reduction expected from Russia.
The IMF and the World Bank have said that remittances will drop by up to 40%. The Armenian Central Bank said that the figure is likely to be nearer 25% or 30%. And this is really the crux. If remittances fall sharply, GDP will too.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Baku arrested a former city official and three other men for criminal negligence linked to a fire in an apartment block last month which killed at least 15 people, media reported. The fire spread quickly because of flammable padding used to decorate the building.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Oil output at Tengizchevroil, Kazakhstan’s biggest oil producer, rose by 4.4% in Q1 compared to the same period in 2014, Reuters reported quoting its director-general Tim Miller. Chevron owns 50% of Tengizchevroil, ExxonMobil owns 25%, Kazmunaigas owns 20% and Lukoil owns 5%.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s government has slashed its economic growth forecast for 2015, Reuters reported.
It said that rather than the bullish prediction of growth at 6.2% in 2015, up from 3.6% in 2014 because of increased output at the Kumtor gold mine, growth would actually slow to 2%.
This reduced economic growth rate will also increase the size of its budget deficit, Reuters reported. This will rise to 5.7% of GDP from 3.3%.
Reuters said the new figures had been noted on Kyrgyz government documents.
Kyrgyzstan’s economic woes are shared by other countries across the region. It is strug- gling to deal with the fall-out from a downturn in Russia’s economy triggered by the doublehit of a sharp fall in oil prices around the world and also the impact of sanctions imposed by the West on Russia for its meddling in Ukraine.
Remittances from workers labouring in Russia are one of Kyrgyzstan’s main currency earners. The World Bank has said that this is likely to be down by 40% on 2014.
At a meeting with reporters in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s economy minister Oleg Pankratov explained the severity of the downturn.
“Our main partners are in deep crisis due to the rouble’s plunge … and economic sanc- tions,” she said, according to Reuters.
“Our migrants have started to transfer less cash.”
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
