Category Archives: Central Asia & South Caucasus News

OnePlus to push out smartphone to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

MARCH 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus has signed a deal with FSU-wide distributor Marvel to push its 3T model into the Kazakh and Kyrgyz markets, media reported. OnePlus has only been building smartphones since 2013 but it has already attracted rave reviews. The deal, which should push the 3T onto the shop floors of mobile handset retailers, reflects the prominence of China in Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Record number of Iranians flock to Georgia and Armenia for Nowruz

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TBILISI/YEREVAN, MARCH 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iranians have been piling into Georgia and Armenia to celebrate Nowruz, one of the biggest Muslim holidays of the year.

Visitor data for both Armenia and Georgia will be released later this year but evidence shows that the holiday, the biggest annual get-away for Iranians, is likely to have triggered a record number of tourists from Iran.

Media in Iran said that airlines were going to run 22 flights a week over the Nowruz period from Iran to Armenia to cope with the demand.

Both Georgia and Armenia scrapped visas for Iranians last year, triggering a boom in tourist numbers and also in business links. Iran has become an important revenue generators for Georgia and Armenia, especially during the economic downturn that has hit the region.

According to statistics held by Georgia’s National Tourism Administration, nearly 150,000 Iranians travelled to Georgia in 2016, a 6-fold increase from 2015.

Masoud Silakhori, economic advisor of the Georgia-Iran Common Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told The Conway Bulletin that Iranian investment in Georgia has grown exponentially since the visa free regime reintroduction.

“Nearly 20,000 Iranian companies have been registered in Georgia in the last year,” he said.

In 2012, when Georgia first relaxed restrictions on Iranians doing business, there was a reported rush of new companies linked to Iran being open — 1,500 in total.

And it’s changing the face of Georgia’s streets too. Now Farsi signs hang above shop windows in Tbilisi, head scarves are an increasingly common sight and the Iranian flag competes for space among other more familiar flags outside businesses.

Geopolitics and the spread of terrorism, is also an issue. Nima Farzaneh, the owner of the Iranian restaurant 1001 Nights told the Bulletin that along with the establishment of visa free regime, the high number of terror attacks in Turkey played a role too.

“For many years Iranians went to Turkey, but since terrorism spread there, our tourists decided to come here. That also helped the increase of Iranian businesses,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

Azerbaijan’s economy will shrink again in 2017, says ADB

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MARCH 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s economy will continue to shrink in 2017, the Asian Development Bank said in a grim assessment of the country’s outlook following a disastrous 2016.

Overall, the ADB said that the Azerbaijani government’s prediction of 1% growth in 2017 was wildly over-optimistic and that a decrease of 1.1% was more likely. Last year,

Azerbaijan’s oil-backed economy shrunk by 3.8%, its worst year of economic activity since the 1990s.

“Our preliminary assessment as of today is minus 1.1 percent … and it’s most likely that our … assessment of GDP for this year will remain at the negative level,” Nariman Mannapbekov, the ADB’s country chief, told Reuters in an interview in Baku.

The ADB assessment will be a major blow to Azerbaijan which has been looking for some growth.

And, once again, Mr Mannapbekov urged the Azerbaijani government to focus on diversify the economy away from oil.

The slump in oil prices has hit Azerbaijan hard, forcing the government to slash funding.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

Berdymuhamedov wants Turkmen horse placed on UNESCO List

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MARCH 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, a man renowned for his vast array of talents including being a champion jockey, ordered his government to try to have the country’s famous Akhal-Teke horse placed onto the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Over the past few years, government’s in the region have been using the UNESCO World Heritage List as a sort of brand identifier to promote

themselves. Azerbaijan has registered itself as the birthplace of polo, Armenia has claimed lavash bread as its creation and Kyrgyzstan has uploaded the epic Manas poem to the list.

The Akhal-Teke horse is the national symbol of Turkmenistan. It is one of the most expensive horses to buy and is famed around the world for its good looks, endurance, intelligence and speed.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

EBRD to start lending to Uzbekistan after decade-long break

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MARCH 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EBRD rounded off a visit to Uzbekistan by promising to invest in the country for the first time in a decade, giving Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev a major boost.

EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti flew to Tashkent to meet Mr Mirziyoyev to discuss the terms of the return, a decade on since a row over human rights scuppered relations.

In a statement, the EBRD said that it was looking forward to helping to give private enterprise a boost and to help open up the country after years of isolation under Islam Karimov.

“I am delighted that the EBRD is re-engaging with Uzbekistan. These discussions have been highly fruitful and there is great interest on both sides in reinvigorating the relationship between the Bank and Uzbekistan,” the EBRD quoted Mr Chakrabarti in a press release.

“This is a new beginning in EBRD- Uzbek relations.”

It is only seven months since the death of Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan for 25 years, but already Mr Mirziyoyev has attracted much needed investment into the country. Earlier this month Asian Development Bank President Takehiko Nakao visited Uzbekistan and promised to lend $573m to fund four projects, including a scheme to fund small businesses in rural areas.

Funding from institutional banks such as the EBRD and the ADB have been instrumental in helping Central Asia’s economies develop. The EBRD phased out its involvement in Uzbekistan gradually after it held its 2003 AGM in Tashkent. That meeting was marked by a row between Uzbekistan and the EBRD over media freedom and prisoners’ rights. The relationship never recovered during Karimov’s lifetime and the EBRD’s last investment in Uzbekistan was in 2007.

As a comparison, the EBRD said that it has invested €11.6b into Central Asia. Of this, Uzbekistan, where roughly half of Central Asia’s population live, received €894m. That’s roughly 8% of the total.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

BP appoints new region chief in Azerbaijan

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MARCH 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP, the dominant oil major in Azerbaijan, appointed Gary Jones, previously head of drilling as its new regional chief in Baku. Mr Jones’ predecessor, Gordon Birrell, has moved to London as COO for production. BP has been under pressure from Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev to boost the performance of the country’s main oil producing site, Azeri-Chirag- Gunashli (ACG), where output has dropped.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

China eyes up investment in Uzbek gas field

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MARCH 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — China is eyeing up a major investment in a gas field in southern Uzbekistan, media reported. The gas field is operated by the Uzbek-Chinese JV New Silk Road Oil & Gas Company, which is likely to contract China’s state-run CNPC to develop the site, funded by loans from China. China has been pushing hard to expand its project portfolio inside Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

Azerbaijani GP promoter criticises F1

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MARCH 15 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The promoter of Baku’s Formula One Grand Prix, Arif Rahimov, called criticism of the race by Formula One’s new owners as “ignorant”. The week before Greg Maffefi, CEO of Liberty, Formula One’s owners, said that the Baku GP did nothing to improve and build the health of the brand and the business. Mr Rahimov said: “Mr Maffei has been involved in F1 for less than half a year. We’ve been working on this project for three years now so we have more experience with F1 than them. I think saying something like this is ignorant.” Baku hosts its GP, its second, on June 25.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

Third Syria peace talks in Kazakhstan breakup without progress

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ALMATY, MARCH 15 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The third of a series of meetings held in Astana to discuss the civil war in Syria broke up without much sustained progress, delegates reported, a blow to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s ambitions to establish his capital as a go-to centre for conflict resolution.

The main sticking point for the talks was a boycott by the rebels, they had sent a delegation to the first two rounds. It may also be that the peace talks have broken down irreparably after news on Monday that rebel forces had attacked government held Aleppo.

The talks are organised and run by Turkey, Iran and Russia and have no major Western participation other than at observer level. There is no UN involvement in the Astana talks, although Kazakhstan has been keen to draw parallels.

Despite spending most of the time going over old ground and also lacking a rebel delgation, the Kazakh foreign ministry released a statement lauding the talks as a vital part of the peace-making process in Syria.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan reiterates that the Astana meetings are an integral part of the Geneva process under the UN aegis and regards the results of the third International meeting on Syria in Astana to be a meaningful contribution to the process of political settlement of the Syrian crisis on Geneva platform,” it said.

In a statement released by the Russian foreign ministry, the Kremlin blamed unnamed groups for trying to sabotage the talks, a thinly disguised dig at the rebel factions who dropped out.

Mr Nazarbayev and Russian Pres- ident Vladimir Putin discussed the talks on March 18.

No details of the discussion was given to the media.

The three power-brokers said that they had agreed to reconvene in Astana for Round Four of the peace talks on May 3/4, although this statement was made before news of the March 20 rebel attacks on Aleppo.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)

Kazakh opposition trial starts in absentia

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MARCH 17 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Almaty began the trial in absentia of fugitive billionaire and self-styled Kazakh opposition leader Mukhtar Ablyazov, potentially setting Kazakhstan on a collision course with France which has refused to extradite him. The former head of BTA Bank is accused of embezzling billions of dollars. He fled to Britain after the collapse of BTA Bank in 2008/9 and then to France where he was arrested in 2013. Last year, a judge in Paris ruled against his extradition because of concerns that he would be tortured.

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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)