Category Archives: Central Asia & South Caucasus News

Telia to sell subsidiaries in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Uzbekistan

JUNE 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Investigations into corruption allegations at its subsidiaries in Central Asia has slowed a sale by Swedish telecoms operator Telia Company, formerly TeliaSonera, of its 59% stake in Netherlands-based holding company Fintur to Istanbul-based Turkcell, sources involved in the sale told Bloomberg News. Fintur is valued at $1b and owns telecoms subsidiaries in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan, and Moldova.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Armenia launches smartphone

JUNE 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Under the slogan “It’s time for Armenian products”, a mobile phone designed and built in Armenia by a US-Armenian joint venture went on sale in Yerevan.

The ArmPhone smartphone retails at between $100 and $300. It also, importantly, goes some way to boosting Armenia’s ambitions of becoming a genuine tech hub in the South Caucasus.

This is the second device that the JV, Technology and Science Dynamics Inc, has unveiled. In February 2014, it launched the ArmTab tablet.

Vahan Shakaryan, chairman of Technology and Science Dynamics Inc, said the company would sell the ArmPhone across the FSU and establish a shop in Moscow.

“It is important to note that our product is high quality and we stand behind and take responsibility for the quality of our product,” media quoted him as saying. “We produce in Armenia, we are with our con- sumers and take full responsibility for every step, from production to customer service.”

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Kazakhstan signs military deals with Russia

JUNE 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In three separate deals, Kazakhstan bought a range of military kit. State-owned Russian Helicopters signed an agreement with the ministry of interior to supply helicopters until 2020. Days later, the Russian defence ministry said it would supply Kazakhstan with anti- aircraft missiles for free. In addition, China’s Chengdu Aircraft Industry Company sold two combat and reconnaissance drones to Kazakhstan’s Air Force, the company’s first sale in Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Kazakh charity sector adapts to downturn

ASTANA, JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Like other charities in Kazakhstan, the Astana-based Aspan Arystany, which translates as Celestial Lion, has had to adapt to survive a sharp economic downturn that has both reduced donations and increased demand for its services.

Importantly, this is a side of the economic downturn that the Kazakh government doesn’t particularly want you to see. Where the state is failing to provide a safety net for people during the economic downturn, the private sector has stepped in.

As a response to the economic downturn, Zhaniya Shaukenova, Aspan Arystany’s director, told the Conway Bulletin in an interview how they had developed a scheme for women to earn money through sewing.

“Our fund was hit hard by the crisis because donations, membership fees decreased and were not constant. Everybody had difficulties with finances. And then, we had an idea,” Ms Shaukenova said.

As the economy slowed down unemployment rates rose and many women, mostly mothers from socially vulnerable groups, found it difficult to financially support themselves.

And so they turned to charities like Aspan Arystany.

In January, the charity set up a new scheme called Aspan Home.

The main idea of this social entrepreneurship project is to help single mothers to earn money by sewing clothes and selling them through different fairs or local fashion shows.

Ms Shaukenova said they started slowly, initial capital was just 100, 000 tenge ($302) which grew after women proved that they could cover their costs and turn a profit. Some of the mothers were disabled, or had disabled children, so most of them work from home.

Currently, there are four mothers working in Aspan Home and they are already making money to support their families.

Roza Karayeva, a mother of four children and one of the women working in the project, said that it had helped her recover after losing her job as a Kazakh teacher.

“I was sitting home without job for one year,” she said. “I like this job, I sew many dresses and earn money.”

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Kazakhstan oilfield output to fall

JUNE 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tengizchevroil (TCO), an international consortium operating the Tengiz oilfield in western Kazakhstan, said it will produce 26.4m tonnes of oil in 2016, 2.8% lower than last year. Chevron-led TCO didn’t give a reason for the drop in production. Tengiz is Kazakhstan’s most productive oil field, though, and a drop in its production is likely to have an impact on Kazakh government earnings.

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Georgian Parliament approves constitutional changes

JUNE 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Georgian Parliament voted to approve an earlier veto that President Giorgi Margvelashvili had imposed on a controversial bill designed to change rules and procedures for the country’s Constitutional Court. The previous week, Mr Margvelashvili had imposed a veto on the bill, after it received criticism from international observers.

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

First Tajik president dies

JUNE 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Khakhar Makhkamov, who served as the first president of Tajikistan just prior to its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, died in Dushanbe aged 84. Mikhail Gorbachev, the then leader of the Soviet Union, created the post of Tajik president in 1990 and appointed Makhkamov to the role. He was ousted in August 1991 for supporting the coup by Boris Yeltsin that precipitated the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Fashion firms accuse Turkmenistan of using forced labour to pick cotton

JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Several international clothing brands, including German sportswear manufacturer Adidas, Hong Kong-listed Esprit, Sweden’s H&M and Britain’s Tesco, accused Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov of presiding over a system that used forced labour to pick cotton.

The accusation shifts the focus of forced labour in Central Asia from Uzbekistan, which is already the subject of a ban imposed by most Western fashion labels, to neighbouring Turkmenistan, although campaigners have in the past also accused Kazakhstan and Tajikistan of the practice.

The system is a legacy of the Soviet Union when students, their teachers, doctors and other government workers headed out to the plantations for a few weeks in the harvest season to pick cotton.

“It has been widely reported that every year the Government of Turkmenistan forcibly mobilises tens of thousands of public-sector workers and farmers to cultivate and harvest cotton,” the letter read.

“We urge you to take urgent action to end forced labour in the cotton sector of Turkmenistan.”

The letter, published on May 25 by The Cotton Campaign lobby group, was later disseminated by Turkmen opposition websites (June 4). It mirrors other public actions taken by The Cotton Campaign against forced labour in the Uzbek cotton sector.

Sweden’s H&M, one of the biggest high street retailers in Europe, banned Turkmen cotton in December, two years after it imposed a ban on Uzbekistan.

The criticism will sting Turkmenistan. Cotton is its third biggest export, earning around $300m every year.

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Czech rep. pledges support to Armenia

JUNE 7/9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Czech president Milos Zeman made a state visit to Armenia during which he promised to bolster trade and diplomatic ties between the two countries and also push the Czech parliament to recognise the genocide of 1.5m Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago. Recognition of the Armenian Genocide is a cornerstone of Armenian foreign policy. Earlier this month, Germany’s parliament recognised the genocide, angering Turkey which rejects the charge.

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(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

FDI rises in Georgia

JUNE 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Foreign direct investment into Georgia in Q1 2016 measured $376m, roughly double the total of Q1 2015, the country’s statistics agency said. The communication and transport sector received the largest proportion of investments. The data suggests that Georgia’s economy is rebounding from a steep economic downturn last year that was triggered by a recession in Russia and a drop in oil prices.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)