MAY 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — State-owned company United Airports of Georgia said it had opened a tender for the construction of a new airport in the town of Zugdidi, 300km west of Tbilisi. The new airport, which will be built in the same location as the existing one, will service both domestic and international flights.
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
MAY 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting in Astana, leaders of the Russia-backed Eurasian Economic Union delayed the establishment of a single energy market to 2025. Previously, the EEU’s plan was to roll out a barrier-free single market for oil and gas by 2024. The parties did not comment on the reasons for the delay.
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
ALMATY, JUNE 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Activists in Kazakhstan said President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s move to defer changes to the land code until next year and set up a commission to improve dialogue with ordinary people was a positive step, although frustrations over the economy still lingered.
Proposed changes to the land code, that would have given foreigners more rights to own and lease land, sparked a protest in Atyrau in April. Those protests then spread across Kazakhstan, taking on a more general anti-government flavour although the land reform issue was still a key concern.
In Kazakhstan, analysts have said, it is difficult for ordinary people to protest directly against the government. Police detained hundreds of protesters on May 21 ahead of planned anti-government demonstrations.
Instead it is easier to protest against a single issue, such as land reforms, and use this to channel grievances over a stalling economy, job losses and a currency devaluation.
At press conference in Almaty, Mukhtar Taizhan, a high profile opposition activist who has been appointed to the land reform commission, said that Kazakhstan’s society was still riven through with tension over the economy.
“The work of commission does not eliminate increasing tensions in our economy,” he said. “If we want stability, we need to change our economic politics urgently.”
Other activists interviewed by the Conway Bulletin’s Kazakhstan correspondent agreed. Saken, an activist said: “There will be no mass protests in the near future because the land commission has softened the current situation.”
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
MAY 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Revenues for KazTransOil, Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil pipeline company, grew by 2% to 54.7b tenge ($164m) in Q1 2016, compared to the same period last year. As capital expenditures almost halved to 6.6b tenge ($20m), analysts remain confident that the company will benefit from the depreciation of the tenge in Q4 2015 and also from rising oil prices.
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
JUNE 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Barely two weeks after the Kazakh authorities quashed unsanctioned protests with dozens of arrests around the country, President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked Yerlik Kenenbayev, the Presidential Administration’s police supervisor/adviser, and Nurmakhanbet Isaev, the deputy prosecutor. Mr Nazarbayev did not explain the sackings, but analysts have said it could be linked to the May 21 protests.
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
JUNE 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s GDP will shrink by 2.4% in 2016, the IMF said in a statement after it sent a mission to Baku. The IMF improved its forecast, which had previously said that Azerbaijan’s GDP would fall by 3% this year. Sustained low oil prices have hit Azerbaijan’s growth. The IMF has urged structural reforms to accelerate the country’s diversification objectives but the Azerbaijani economy has remained stubbornly addicted to oil.
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
MAY 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazmunaigas, Kazakhstan’s state- owned energy company, said that a litigation case in Romania involving one of its subsidiaries will not affect the sale of the unit to China’s CEFC. Last December, CEFC agreed to buy a 51% stake in KMG International, formerly Rompetrol. Romanian prosecutors seized KMG International’s refinery earlier in May during an investigation into its privatisation and subsequent sale to to Kazmunaigas.
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
DUSHANBE, JUNE 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Pious Tajiks complain that doing the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, has become prohibitively difficult because of a sharp rise in inflation, a reduction in the amount of remittances flowing into the country from Russia and an increase in surveillance by the security forces.
A Bulletin correspondent spoke to several people in Tajikistan who have cancelled plans to make the pilgrimage.
Abbos, a taxi driver, sucked in a deep breath. He squinted and exhaled with a sigh. In his late 40s, Abbos has been planning to do the Hajj this year but has had to cancel his plans.
“It is my dream to do the Hajj, but I do not have enough money this year,” he said as he left a central Dushanbe mosque. “The Hajj price tag has gone up while I have been earning less this year.”
According to Tajikistan’s Committee on Religious Affairs, the price of going to Mecca — including flights, accommodation and living expenses — is now around 28,649 somoni (roughly $3,500). This is nearly 20% more expensive than last year.
Like the rest of the region, Tajikistan has been dealing with an economic fallout linked to a recession in Russia. All important remittance flows have dropped by around 45% while the value of the somoni currency has fallen and inflation has risen. And there is also the surveillance. The Tajik government has grown increasingly wary of pious Tajiks. Last year it banned the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, imposed various restrictions on people who frequent mosques and set a minimum age requirement of 40 for men who want to go on the Hajj.
So, for some, the route to Mecca lies elsewhere. Isroil, a 35-year-old man has a game plan. “I want to go from Russia as it is cheaper and has no age limits,” he said. “I’m not able to wait five more years because it is becoming more expensive in Tajikistan.”
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
MAY 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Central Bank said tenge-denominated deposits had grown steadily in Q1 2016, due to the stabilisation of the exchange rate with the US-dollar after five months of high volatility. Commercial banks increased interest rates on deposits in an effort to attract customers. The C.Bank’s decision to lower interest rates earlier in May could now depress deposits and increase spending.
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
JUNE 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev lifted a ban on the import of potatoes from Kyrgyzstan after meeting with his Kyrgyz counterpart Almazbek Atambayev in Astana. Kazakh authorities had banned Kyrgyz potatoes in early May due to an outbreak of Globod- era rostochiensis, a pest. The Kazakh regulatory agency said it will continue to monitor the presence of the pest in the following months.
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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)
