OCT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Shokasym Shoislamov, the Uzbek ambassador to Tajikistan, said the countries are negotiating an agreement to open the Tajik market to Uzbek car exports. Uzbekistan’s largest carmaker, GM Uzbekistan, a JV between US-based GM and the Uzbek government, exports most of its cars to Russia.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan-focused energy company Nostrum Oil & Gas posted a 12% fall in oil output in the first nine months of 2016, compared to the daily average it maintained in the same period last year. Lower production and sustained low oil prices meant that revenues in Jan.-Sept. 2016 fell by 35%, compared to last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sweden’s Telia Company posted a net loss of $908m in Q3 2016 due to the settlement of court cases involving corrupt practices in Uzbekistan. Telia, which paid $1.4b to settle claims by US and Dutch courts in September, said that the court case is not yet closed, hinting of possible further claims. The company was accused of bribing Gulnara Karimova, daughter of late- Uzbek President Islam Karimov, to win telecoms licences.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan said that its economy would shrink in 2016 by 2.8%, a major reversal from its earlier insistence that it would avoid a recession and post growth of 1.8%.
Answering questions posted by Reuters, the Azerbaijani economy ministry blamed sluggish oil prices and low global growth for the GDP revision. Last week government data showed Azerbaijan’s GDP had contracted by nearly 4% in the first nine months of 2016.
“The growth at 1.8 percent was projected in 2015, when the International Monetary Fund had been projecting the oil price at $64/barrel,” Reuters quoted government officials as saying. Oil prices are now around $50/barrel, double the price in January.
Most economists have been predicting a recession in Azerbaijan this year and the reluctance to downgrade its own growth estimate has been seen by many as fanciful thinking that will damage the credibility of the Azerbaijani government.
According to the World Bank the last time that Azerbaijan’s GDP contracted was in 1995.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — China wants to invest $11b in developing tourism on the banks of Lake Baikal in southern Kazakhstan, media reported. It said that a memorandum of understanding had been signed between two companies to start exploring the best way to invest the Chinese cash. Attracting Chinese tourist to Lake Baikal would be a potential boom for the area.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan is seeking the extradition of a former mid-ranking police officer based in Almaty who they say headed a crime ring that stole luxury cars from Moscow and resold them in Kazakh cities. The allegations show the extent of corruption within Kazakhstan’s police force. Prosecutors said that the corrupt police officer and his gang stole 500 cars over 10 years. Each car was worth between $50,000 and $120,000.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Pobeda, a low-cost subsidiary of Russia’s flagship carrier Aeroflot, confirmed it will start flights to Armenia in the next few weeks. From November, it will fly from Moscow Vnukovo to Gyumri, Armenia’s second airport seven times a week. Earlier this month, Pobeda obtained permission to start Rostov- on-Don to Yerevan flights. Pobeda already flies to Almaty, Baku and Tbilisi.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazkommertsbank, one of Kazakhstan’s largest banks, rebranded to Qazkom. The bank’s management chose its 25th anniversary to introduce the new branding. Kenes Rakishev, a powerful businessman with ties to the elite, owns, directly and indirectly, 71% of Qazkom. Mr Rakishev has gradually increased his shareholding, essentially taking it over from founder Nurzhan Subkhanberdin last year.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
OCT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Three Kazakh women weightlifters were stripped of their 2012 Olympic gold medals after new tests showed that they had used banned drugs. The three Kazakh weightlifters were Zulfiya Chinshanlo, Maiya Maneza and Svetlana Podobedova. The international weightlifting authorities are now considering banning Kazakhstan from all competitions.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
ALMATY, OCT. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Kazakhstan blocked demonstrations in support of two imprisoned organisers of protests earlier this year against proposed changes to the country’s land code.
The two land activists, Maks Bokayev and Talgat Ayan, have been on trial in Atyrau since Oct. 12 accused of trying to organise a coup, in one of the most highly-charged and politically sensitive trials this year. The demonstrations that they are accused of organising in March attracted wide popularity and spread across Kazakhstan, unnerving the government.
Apparently worried that the high- profile nature of the trial and the latent support for the defendants might trigger another round of mass protests, the authorities have been rounding up people gathering in support of Mr Bokayev and Mr Ayan.
Local media has reported that several people have been detained trying to attend these rallies and one activist said that he was beaten up by unknown men shortly after attending a rally in Atyrau.
For supporters of Mr Bokayev and Mr Ayan, the trial is a sham.
Bakhytzhan Toregozhina, a human rights activist, told The Conway Bulletin that she thought it was a purely political process.
“The judge pretends that she is neutral and listens carefully to both sides but this is a regular political trial in an authoritarian country, nothing new,” she said.
The authorities, though, have said the two men are coup plotters who had teamed up with Tokhtar Tuleshov, a millionaire brewery owner from Shymkent in southern Kazakhstan. Mr Tuleshov has been detained since January and is also charged with a coup attempt.
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(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)
