MAY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – National carrier Uzbekistan Airways said it will open a new route to the Russian city of Voronezh, in south- western Russia. It will fly once every week connecting Tashkent and Voronezh from June 14. Thousands of Uzbek migrants work in Voronezh, in factories and in the construction sector.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)
MAY 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Copper prices dipped below the psychological threshold of $2/lb in mid January, for the first time since 2009, and it has bit of a roller-coaster ride since.
Shares of Central Asia Metals and KAZ Minerals, two Kazakhstan– focused producers, have followed copper’s ups and downs.
As shown in the graph above, shares in KAZ Minerals, which mines copper in northern and eastern Kazakhstan, have fluctuated more dramatically with copper prices.
Shares in Central Asia Metals, have been more stable.
With copper prices now sliding back towards $2/lb, share prices for both Central Asia Metals and KAZ Minerals are falling. This week, they were down 5.3% and 9% respectively.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)
MAY 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s ministry of energy said construction of a 220kV transmission line between the Hradzan thermal power plant and the Shinuayr substation will be completed by the end of the year. The 230km-long transmission line will be an important link between power generating centres in Armenia. The World Bank’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development said it would fund the project with a series of loans.
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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)
APRIL 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Kyrgyzstan extended a prison sentence on the widely reviled Maxim Bakiyev, the son of the ousted former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, to 30 years for money laundering and extortion. Bakiyev has been living in London since he fled Kyrgyzstan after a revolution in 2010. In 2015, a transparency group revealed that he owns a mansion in southern England worth an estimated $5m. Kyrgyzstan has applied to have Bakiyev extradited but his lawyers have successfully countered this request by saying that he wouldn’t receive a fair trial in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)
MAY 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s ministry of energy reported that in Jan.-April 2016, the country produced 7.6b kWh of electricity. This is 1.6% higher than the same period last year. Turkmenistan is looking to expand electricity exports to neighbouring Iran and Afghanistan and plans to construct 15 gas turbine power plants by 2020.
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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)
MAY 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Kyrgyz court freed Nariman Tuleyev, former mayor of Bishkek, after roughly three years in prison. He had been convicted of corruption over a deal to buy Chinese buses and snow removal equipment. It’s unclear exactly why the Kyrgyz authorities had decided to amnesty Tuleyev although there have been allegations that he was beaten in prison.
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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)
MAY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Toronto-listed miner Orsu Metals lost $437,000 in the first quarter of 2016, cutting its losses by around 50% from the same period last year. Most of the company’s losses are now booked for “assets held for sale”. Last month, Orsu agreed to sell its Karchiga and Kogodai mines in Kazakhstan to UAE-registered Karasat Trading for around $10m. After announcing the sale, Orsu de-listed from London’s AIM.
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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)
MAY 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz mobile operator Aktel discontinued its mobile services after it let its licence expire. In December 2013, a court in Bishkek declared Aktel bankrupt and said its debt amounted to around $147m. Aktel previously operated under the brand names of Fonex and 7Mobile. It has now transferred its assets, but not its debts, to Jeti Mobile.
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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)
BISHKEK, MAY 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a departure from normal diplomatic niceties, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev used the celebration of the Soviet Union’s victory over the Nazis in 1945 to warn of growing racism against workers from Kyrgyzstan in Russia.
Thousands of migrants workers from Kyrgyzstan and the rest of Central Asia travel to work in Russia each year, sending home their salaries but racist attacks in Russia have been on the increase, a rise that some have linked to the economic downturn.
Earlier this month, Russian media reported that a group of skinheads attacked and injured a group of Kyrgyz on the Moscow metro.
In pouring rain at Kyrgyzstan’s Eternal Flame War Memorial, Mr Atambayev said that Russia and Russians should respect their neighbours in Kyrgyzstan more.
“Kyrgyz families shared food and shelter with hundreds of thousands of refugees (from Russia). Most of them soon stayed here forever and became Kyrgyz,” he said.
“I want to give a reminder of this to our brotherly nation, Russia, where unfortunately fascist groups are rising up.”
Heads of states in the former Soviet Union usually use the annual Victory Day parade and celebrations to remind their people of the region’s common cause and their debt to Russia. By using the occasion to highlight racism in Russia, Mr Atambayev was adding emphasis to his comments.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)
MAY 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Chinese companies said they will invest around $1.9b in Kazakhstan’s agriculture sector over the next few years, in an effort to boost trade and cooperation through its Silk Road Initiative. Gulmira Isayeva, Kazakhstan’s deputy minister of agriculture, told the FT that Chinese investment will help increase domestic production.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)
