APRIL 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Central Bank said it had spent more than $1b of its reserves defending the value of the manat currency since it devalued by a third in mid-February. The admission will be an embarrassment for the Central Bank as the devaluation was meant to relieve pressure on the manat and protect reserves.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev has rounded off an 8-day tour of European capitals, on which he signed various economic deals and tried to drum up support for action against Islam extremism.
Mr Atambayev pitched the tour as his attempt to promote his country and attract investors despite economic conditions in Central Asia deteriorating further.
In Austria, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Germany he met with the heads of government and royals.
“I am sure that there will be a whole new stage of relations between Kyrgyzstan and the European Union,” he said in Brussels (March 30).
Europe, generally, views Kyrgyzstan as a relative beacon of parliamentary democracy in Central Asia, a region more closely associated with autocratic leaders.
Over the past few years, though, Kyrgyzstan has moved steadily towards Russia. It plans to join the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union later this year.
Importantly, Mr Atambayev also received various promises for financial support. Switzerland agreed to allocate 74m francs ($77m) to develop the health sector and support small and medium enterprises.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Elbit Cyclone, a subsidiary of Israel’s Elbit Systems, plans to build a factory in Georgia that will produce parts for passenger planes, media reported quoting Georgian economy minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili.
This is an important development for industry in Georgia as it represents a potential shift to a more hi-tech focus. Reports did not say what parts specifically the Georgian factory would produce for Elbit Cyclone, although all the factory output will be for export, but they did say the longer-term aim was to develop a hi-tech industrial sector.
The $85m cost of the project will be shared by the Georgian government and Elbit Cyclone. The factory will also employ 300 people.
And Elbit Systems already has a link with Georgia.
Prior to its 2008 war with Russia, Georgia bought several spy planes from the company. Elbit Systems is the largest publicly-traded military equipment manufacturer in Israel.
lbit Systems also makes technical equipment for the US military.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A parliamentary inquiry in Armenia said the government subsidised gas for consumers between 2011 and 2013 ahead of a controversial buyout of the pipeline network by Russia’s Gazprom.
The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) said the government had previously denied it was subsidising gas imports from Russia.
The Armenian government was desperate both to retain support ahead of an election and to write off a $300m debt to Gazprom. To do this, it needed the public’s support to sell the pipeline distribution network.
The inquiry’s findings will pile more pressure on Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan whose administration has become increasing unpopular.
The RFE/RL report also said Gazprom cut the gas price when Armenia agreed to join the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which also includes Belarus and Kazakhstan.
“The commission has found documentary evidence of unpublicized Russian-Armenian agreements that gradually raised the gas price from $180 to $270 per thousand cubic meters in 2011-2013,” RFE/RL reported.
“Gazprom cut the price to almost $190 per thousand after Armenia agreed to join the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union in late 2013.”
This is yet more evidence that Russia pressured Armenia into joining the EEU.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – During a briefing, Senator Yertargyn Astayev, a member of parliament’s budget committee, said ministries might not have enough cash to fulfil projects unveiled by Mr Nazarbayev’s Nurly Zhol party.
According to Mr Astayev, the interior ministry, which deals mainly with law enforcement and migration issues, will soak up the largest budget cut of $225m.
But, importantly, Mr Astayev also said finances earmarked for large infrastructure projects were going to be “placed under strict control”.
The hint was clear. The investments envisaged by Mr Nazarbayev are under threat.
Economic turmoil in the region has forced Kazakhstan into cutting the budget.
Mr Nazarbayev said that various departments had to save a combined $3.3b.
And the cutbacks have caught the public’s attention too.
Rauan, a 43-year-old engineer from Almaty said the government should ditch various high-profile but less useful projects such as EXPO-2017.
“Now we are funding these projects, designed only to feed our pride, at our own expense,” he said. “Perhaps our ambitions are too high.”
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov will fly to Seoul for talks with his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye on April 10, a meeting that will underline improved relations. South Korean companies, including LG and Hyundai, have won major contracts in Turkmenistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Keen to boost the government’s progressive credentials, Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili said he wanted the entire country to have access to high-speed internet by 2017. Currently around 40% of the country has high-speed internet, he said.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Tajikistan have detained two senior officials at the State Agency for Drugs Control on suspicion of bribe-taking, media reported. The detentions, underline just how entrenched corruption is in Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Without any irony, apparently, the authorities in Uzbekistan declared Islam Krimov the winner of a presidential election on Sunday with 90% of the vote.
This is the fourth consecutive presidential election that the 77-year-old Mr Karimov has won since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991. It’s also the fourth consecutive election Western observers said was unfair. The other candidates, Western observers said, all supported Mr Karimov.
The reality is that the presidential election was a choreographed affair design to impose top-down stability over the country as it grapples with worsening economic conditions across the region.
It was also designed, at least in the short-term, to put an end to any chat of succession or replacing Mr Karimov. Last year his eldest daughter, Gulnara Karimova, who was once widely feared, lost her grip on power and is now under house arrest. Her closest associates are in prison, found guilty of various economic crimes.
The biggest question for Uzbekistan and Central Asia is how the Uzbek elite replace Mr Karimov. For years there has been speculation about his health and although he played a high-profile role in the election he disappeared from view just before campaigning began.
The next few years are vital for sorting out a smooth transition of power.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
MARCH 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s Central Bank bought $11.4m worth of som to slow its devaluation, media reported, its third intervention in March. Kyrgyzstan, like other countries in the region, has been trying to manage a fall in the value of its currency.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)
