JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan has given the go-ahead for Turkish Coca-Cola Icecek, which produces and distributes Coca-Cola products across Central Asia, to build its first bottling plant in Dushanbe, media reported. The project will cost $50m and generate up to 500 new jobs.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
JAN. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian PM Irakli Garbashvili flew to Paris to join other world leaders at a unity rally three days after attacks by Islamic extremists killed 17 people in the French capital. Mr Garbashvili was the only head of government from C.Asia and the S.Caucasus to attend.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015
>>Currency devaluation inflated early data>>
JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The number of property deals in Kazakhstan dropped by over 13% last year, the State Statistics Committee data showed, more evidence of a downturn in the economy.
The biggest drops in the number of property transactions were in North Kazakhstan — a fall of 25% in the number of property deals in 2014 compared to 2013 — and the Akmola, Almaty and Karaganda regions which all had a fall of around 20%.
Only some of the western regions, experiencing something of an oil boom, enjoyed a small increase in the property market in 2014.
This is all bad news for Kazakhstan which is trying to keep its tenge currency strong despite a fall in the price of oil and a drop in the value of the Russian rouble.
Earlier, the shrink in Kazakhstan’s property market had been disguised by figures which showed that the value of the deals had actually increased by over 10% in 2014. A currency devaluation of 20% in February 2014 inflated the value of transactions in the Kazakh market.
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(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
JAN. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s security services are constructing a new base on the border with Afghanistan to oppose an apparent build-up of Taliban forces, media reported. Central Asian government have worried that the Taliban is preparing an assault once NATO leaves Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Car imports to Kazakhstan from Russia have jumped in the past two months to 2,859 from 2,005 during the same period in 2013, Kazakh media reported quoting government officials. The upturn is linked to the currency discrepancies. The rouble has nose-dived but the Kazakh Central Bank has kept the tenge strong.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
>>Laws important in country with little formal health education>>
JAN. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The World Health Organisation (WHO) is lauding a move by Kyrgyzstan to increase tax on cigarettes and to make it law to publish garish images of the damage smoking can to people’s health on packets.
Kyrgyzstan’s parliament ratified the news laws at the end of last year, WHO said. The laws will equalise the tax on cigarettes with neighbouring Kazakhstan.
“Tobacco taxes for different types of tobacco will increase as of 2015 and are expected to increase to the level of tobacco taxes in the neighbouring Kazakhstan,” WHO said in its statement.
“As of 2014, tobacco taxes in Kyrgyzstan are 2-1/2 to 12 times lower than in Kazakhstan.”
The pictures that will be carried on cigarette boxes from 2016 show how smoking gives people cancer and other diseases.
This is an important step. Tightening regulations on smoking and educating the general public on the dangers of smoking is seen as a civilising step and a marker of a country’s development.
For Kyrgyzstan, where cigarettes appear to be clamped to the lips of men walking down a street and the purple fog of tobacco smoke fugs many bars, this is a big step indeed. Public health is often overlooked in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
JAN. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia accused Azerbaijan of killing two of its soldiers along the border to the dispute region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Separatists backed by Armenia control Nagorno-Karabakh but peace, or a relative peace, is only held by a 1994 UN-brokered ceasefire. There are weekly shootings along the border.
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(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
JAN. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Uzbek Border Guard Service has beefed up its units along its frontier with Afghanistan, citing intelligence that the Taliban was mustering its forces, although some analysts and Afghan security officials questioned the level of the threat.
Central Asian governments have said that the withdrawal of NATO from Afghanistan will worsen its own border security.
Two weeks ago, Zamir Kabulov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Afghanistan said that the Taliban was planning a wide offensive on Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in April.
Even with the Russian warning and the Uzbek military build-up, the Tajik-language service of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted Afghan general Abdusabur Nusrati refuting reports of the Taliban build-up.
An Uzbek analyst who declined to be named was also sceptical over just how acute the Taliban threat was.
Instead he suggested that the move may be linked to the up and coming presidential election set for March 29. He said that the security issue may play into President Islam Karimov’s image as the tough man of Uzbekistan.
“The country is preparing for presidential elections in only three months,” he said. “To my mind this statements is another indication that he is eyeing another bid as president.”
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)
JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgians are now able to buy Dunkin’ Donuts in Tbilisi. One of the United States’ biggest fast food franchises opened its first two stores in Tbilisi, giving the economy a major PR scoop.
Other than Russia, Georgia is the only country in the former Soviet Union that Dunkin’ Donuts has opened a franchise.
“Opening Dunkin’ Donuts in Georgia proves that there is an attractive business climate in this country and it is easy to do business here,” US ambassador Richard Norland said at the opening of the stores.
Georgia’s economy has rebounded strongly from 2008 when it collapsed after a brief war with Russia. Since then foreign investment and exports, mainly to Russia, have picked up pace.
The Wissol conglomerate, which has close connections with the Georgian business and political elite, brought Dunkin’ Donuts to Georgia. Last year it also brought Wendy’s, another US fast food chain to Georgia.
The vice-president of Dunkin’ Donuts in Europe, Carlos Vidal, said that Wissol had the experience to launch a brand successfully in Georgia.
“Wissol Group owns knowledge of establishment of retail business and management,” he said.
“Together with Wissol Group we have ambitious plans in Georgia because we know that the population of the country is ready to receive the unique experience of Dunkin’ Donuts and to become everyday customer of sandwiches, donuts, bakery and a variety coffee products.”
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015
JAN. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The new Mrs Clooney, wife of Hollywood superstar George, is adding a dash of glamour to a case going through the European Court of Human Rights involving Armenia. Amal Clooney has agreed to represent Armenia as it challenges an appeal against a Turkish politician who denied an alleged genocide against Armenia in 1915.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015
