SEPT. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting in Ashgabat, the Turkmen and Iranian defence ministers, declared that they would boost cooperation between the two countries. Perhaps most important when considering Turkmenistan-Iran military cooperation is the issue of the Caspian Sea which they border.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.16 2014)
SEPT. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Energy tariffs will rise in Kyrgyzstan, but only for certain users, the country’s energy minister told parliament.
Kyrgyzstan’s electricity, at $0.1 per Killowatt/hour (kw/h), is cheaper than the cost of its production and 1-1/2 times cheaper than in Tajikistan, the former Soviet country with the next cheapest electricity.
But government’s attempts to explain this fall on deaf ears. Ex-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ejected from power in 2010 following substantial energy hikes that were subsequently reversed by the interim government that took power.
The current increases, target users of three-phase- systems that are used to heat private houses. They will pay 0.02 USD per kilowatt/hour.
These targeted increases will not provide the funds required to repair a failing grid, and will be insufficient to prevent scheduled electricity shutoffs during the heating season this winter. The Toktogul reservoir, that feeds a Hydroelectric plant powering most of the country is at its lowest level since the Bakiyev period.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR is expected to complete the deal to buy the Greek state gas operator DESFA by the end of this month, SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev said. SOCAR agreed to buy a 66% stake in DESFA in 2013. The EU is currently considering it.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A United Nations team sent to Azerbaijan to investigate allegations of torture in state jails cut short its trip after it said Azerbaijani officials blocked access to sites. Azerbaijan has come under pressure over alleged human rights abuses.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Plans to increase the amount of capital held by Kazakh banks won’t solve all its structural weaknesses, the Standard & Poor’s ratings agency said in a new report.
The Kazakh Central Bank has been trying to work out just how to improve its banking system ever since the global financial crisis of 2008/9 toppled three of the biggest banks. Only government takeovers saved the Kazakh banking system. Most recently the Central Bank said that from Jan. 1 2019, banks would have to hold a minimum of 100b tenge (roughly $550m), a ten-fold increase from the current requirements.
But although the increase in capitalisation requirements may force various mergers in the system and rid it of the smaller, more fragile, banks, the Kazakh Central Bank also needs to address serious structural weaknesses, Standards & Poors said.
“Although consolidation could create opportunities for the Kazakh banking sector over the long term, the system’s major weaknesses–the lenient banking regulation and supervision, banks’ aggressive risk management practices, and sometimes deficient corporate governance procedures are very likely to remain,” the report said.
And the move may even backfire.
“Furthermore, the resulting higher barriers to entry could lower the sector’s attractiveness to foreign investors,” Stand & Poors said.
There are currently 38 banks in Kazakhstan. Of these, 35, it has been estimated, would fail a move to a capitalisation of 100b tenge.
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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Central Bank said that it would ban domestic banks from keeping most of its cash overseas from next year.
The announcement is another move aimed at strengthening the local banking sector.
Kairat Kelimbetov, the Central Bank chief, said that banks currently kept most of their assets in foreign currency, undermining the tenge.
“We have taken appropriate action. Firstly, limiting the ability to work with derivative financial instruments at 30 per cent on the balance. Roughly speaking, not allowing to play with currency derivatives,” he said, according to the media.
One of the biggest challenges facing the Kazakh Central Bank currently is trying to stop a slide in the value of the tenge. It has already had to devalue the national currency by 20% earlier this year and has come under sustained pressure to devalue again.
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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – South African parliamentarians have questioned why its government sold 50 sniper rifles to Turkmenistan earlier this year, media reported. Democratic Alliance MP David Maynier reportedly quoted from a Human Rights Watch report calling Turkmenistan one of the most repressive countries in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The price of gas in north Kyrgyzstan will drop by up to 40% because of extra supplies, the head of Gazprom, now owners of Kyrgyzgaz, Alexei Miller said according to media. Although Mr Millar’s comments will be welcomed in the north, caution should be added. The dangerous north-south divide in Kyrgystan may be increasing.
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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 4-5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – NATO took, yet another, tentative step towards admitting Georgia to its club at its conference in Cardiff.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish head of the US-led military group, said that a substantive package had been drawn up to help aspiring members join.
“Each aspirant has work to do in different areas and we will give them support they need,” he said. “We agreed on substantive package of measures for Georgia that will help Georgia advance in its preparations towards membership of NATO.”
This is good news for Georgia, and probably as good as it could realistically have expected. Ukraine is another country that wants to join NATO, as well as Australia, a more easy country for NATO to accept.
The 28-member NATO also agreed to boost Georgia’s military defences.
Georgia fought a brief war with Russia in 2008 and is dealing with two frozen conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The problem for the NATO member states is that they want to show a strong face against Russian aggression in the former Soviet Union but they also want to avoid inheriting a load of problems that could well drag them into somebody else’s war.
All-in-all, the NATO summit probably lived up to expectations from Georgia.
“We will have very important steps taken in regard of NATO standards by the next summit (in Poland in 2016),” said Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili.
It remains to be seen if Mr Margvelashvili is being realistic or just optimistic.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s state-run cotton company will spend $1b building its own cotton processing plant, media quoted a senior official as saying. Uzbekistan wants to double its cotton processing capacity. Human rights workers have accused Uzbekistan of suing slave labour to pick its cotton harvest.
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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
