MARCH 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s president launched construction of a new city to be built in a desert in the north of the country, media reported. The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said the project is designed to generated jobs in the region and that the city would be home to 250,000 people.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Jahangir Hajiyev, chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), resigned for health reasons. IBA is the biggest bank in Azerbaijan and has close ties to the government. Emil Mustafayev, a deputy chairman, was appointed interim chairman.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia will build a hydropower station with a $250m loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which will boost electricity production in winter and allow it to export power to neighbouring Turkey. Demand for power in Georgia is increasing.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a public speech, President Ilham Aliyev blamed the international community for launching an anti-Azerbaijan campaign ahead of the European Games this summer.
This is important because analysts have been saying that Mr Aliyev has increasingly turned his back on the West. The United States and the EU have been increasingly vocal critics of his clampdown on civic society.
“This campaign, in fact, has never been stopped, but in the run-up to important international events this campaign becomes even uglier,” he said.
“We were faced with it three years ago in 2012, on the eve of the Eurovision contest. We are seeing it today, on the eve of the European Games. This is a well-coordinated anti-Azerbaijani campaign managed from one or several centres.”
The inaugural European Games, set to be staged in Baku in June, is a sensitive issue for Mr Aliyev.
He desperately wants to showcase Azerbaijan and to gloss over its more unsightly aspects such as a stalling economy and criticism over its human rights record.
According to the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Azerbaijan is spending $4b on the European Games.
In his speech Mr Aliyev stated that the main reason for the campaign is the current strength of the country. “
“It is also natural that the stronger Azerbaijan gets, the more pressure it comes under. Our independent policy is not to everyone’s liking though,” he said.
Erkin Gadirli of the ReAl oppositional movement said in an interview to Berlin-based Meydan TV that Mr Aliyev’s speech showed that he was increasingly paranoid about criticism in the international media.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors in France have charged Jean-Francois Etienne des Rosaies, an ex-presidential adviser, with corruption over a 2010 deal to sell 295 trains and 45 helicopters to Kazakhstan, AFP reported. Media said he was the fourth person to be charged in connection with the deal.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A little known investigative reporting unit based in Bosnia released a report which said Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek president Islam Karimov, may have earned as much as $1b from telecoms companies wanting to enter Uzbekistan. Ms Karimova is currently under house arrest in Tashkent.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Georgian Central Bank is continuing to support the lari currency, buying $40m to prop it up. This was the fourth Central Bank intervention to defend the lari currency this year. Since November, the lari has lost 29% of its value, media reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In the largest rally for several years in Georgia, demonstrators accused the government of economic mismanagement and called on it to resign.
Media estimated that several thousand people attended the march in Tbilisi.
Nino Lomouri, a 28 year old Tbilisi resident who works for the opposition United National Movement party (UNM), explained why she attended the rally.
“Not only do I pay more now for food and cigarettes, I also feel unsafe on the streets, crime has gone up a lot,” she said.
During the march, UNM MP Giorgi Gabashvili said that the UNM would hold several more anti-government protests across the country.
Georgia has a history of political turbulence and analysts have said the current economic problems across the region may stoke instability.
And via a video-link from Kiev where he holds a position with the Ukraine government, former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili said he wanted to return and lead the country once again.
“I miss you all. I miss Georgia,” he said. “I believe I will overcome all obstacles and come back to save the country.”
Mr Saakashvili, who led Georgia between 2003 and 2013, loved and loathed in equal measures in Georgia.
The current government coalition has an arrest warrant out for Mr Saakashvili for various economic crimes.
Mr Saakashvili has said the charges are politically motivated and that he wont return to Georgia until they are dropped. Several of his colleagues have been jailed for similar crimes.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a protocol that officially cleared Kyrgyzstan’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) later this year, Russian media reported. Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia are already members of the EEU.
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(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
MARCH 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) sent a warning to all Central Asian economies, and in particular to Tajikistan, in its Asian Development Outlook report.
Landlocked and dependent on remittances from migrant workers, Tajikistan is particularly vulnerable to the present economic crisis, the ADB said.
The ADB said Tajikistan is expected to experience a deceleration in its GDP growth. This had averaged 9% between 2010-14 but will fall to 5%.
“The decline in remittances and the traditional exports of aluminum and cotton slowed growth in 2014 and inflation worsened to 6.1%,” it said.
The ADB is also expecting rampant inflation and a further devaluation of the somoni currency by 6.5%.
Remittances, mostly from Tajik workers in Russia, represent roughly half of its GDP. The rouble crisis has affected both the value of those transfers and the capacity of these workers to retain their jobs. The ADB also said that new legislation for migrant workers in Russia will hit Tajikistan’s earnings.
“Remittances will likely contract further in 2015 as new regulations require that migrants to the Russian Federation have Russian language proficiency, as well as medical tests and health insurance that are estimated to cost about $500 per Tajik migrant,” it said.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 224, published on March 25 2015)
