SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said that Azerbaijan’s economy will contract by 2.5% this year. Earlier this year, the ADB had forecast a 1% contraction. The Bank said Azerbaijan’s GDP will resume growth in 2017, when it will increase by 1%.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
SEPT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Germany’s HeidelbergCement said it will invest $100m into expanding its cement and concrete plant in Kaspi, a small town 50km outside of Tbilisi in northern Georgia. HeidelbergCement has operated in Georgia for 10 years.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
SEPT. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Temir Sariyev, Kyrgyzstan’s ex-PM, hinted at his possible participation in next year’s presidential election. Mr Sariyev, 53, who resigned in April to face corruption allegations, continues to be a powerful figure in Kyrgyzstan. In an interview with RFE/RL, Mr Sariyev said that he had major plans for the future.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
SEPT. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s National Security Committee said a court in Osh jailed four alleged members of the extremist IS group. The two Kyrgyz and two Uzbek citizens, whose names were kept secret, received sentences of between 10 and 18 years in prison for planning terrorist attacks in the country. In August, a suicide bomber drove a car through the Chinese embassy gates in Bishkek injuring several people.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Citing falling prices and signs that the economy is beginning to grow again, Kyrgyzstan’s Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged at 6%. The Central Bank said that only by keeping rates at 6% will it be able to let prices increase gently, within a 5-7% corridor. This year, the Central Bank has reduced interest rates twice from a level of 10% in January.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
SEPT. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – SOFAZ, Azerbaijan’s sovereign oil fund, said it would reduce by 20% its transfers to the state budget, in an effort to balance the country’s economy. In 2017, SOFAZ plans to give the government 6.1b manat ($3.8b). This year, SOFAZ forecast a total of 7.5b manat ($4.6b). As of July 1, SOFAZ holds $35.1b in assets and reserves.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Cartu Foundation and the Georgian Co-Investment Fund, both supported by Georgia’s richest man Bidzina Ivanishvili, have invested $80m in the construction of a new hotel and a botanical garden in the town of Ganmukhuri, on the unofficial border with Abkhazia. Abkhazia is a breakaway region that declared its independence from Georgia after a brief war in 2008.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – US-based Frontera Resources said it has made progress at the South Kakheti gas complex it operates in Georgia, announcing a new drilling campaign for October. Frontera also said it will go forward with a financing deal it reached with YA II PN, part of the Yorkville Advisors financial group. Frontera will raise around $686,000 through a share issue in London.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
BAKU, SEPT. 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijanis voted in a referendum to make 29 amendments to the country’s constitution which opposition leaders have said are designed to strengthen President Ilham Aliyev’s grip on power.
The Azerbaijani Central Election Commission (CEC) said that around 90% of the votes were in favour of the amendments, the most controversial being an extension to the presidential term from five to seven years. Other changes included scrapping the age limit for parliamentarians and presidential candidates and the establishment of the role of vice-president.
The turnout, recorded as 69.7%, was much higher than the 25% needed to validate the results although some election observers complained of irregularities such as ballot stuffing which the CEC said it would investigate.
Brushing aside allegations of an unfair voting system and whether the reforms were actually needed, members of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party said the result proved the high regard that ordinary people have for President Aliyev.
“This was a test of people’s trust in the country’s President, and it was held successfully,” said Ali Ahmadov, deputy prime minister and deputy chairman of Yeni Azerbaijan.
This is the second time that Azerbaijan has held a referendum to change its constitution under President Aliyev, who came to power in 2003.
In a 2009 referendum, Azerbaijan controversially voted to end a limit on the number of terms that a president can stay in office.
These tweaks to constitutions drawn up in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 have been fairly standard across Central Asia and the South Caucasus. They allow the incumbent president to remain in power for as long as he wants, reduce the number of irksome elections that need to be handled and also widen options for a handover of power to a son or daughter or favoured associate.
The Venice Commission, the European Commission’s watchdog for constitutional issues, criticised Azerbaijan’s referendum saying the the amendments would “severely upset the balance of power by giving ‘unprecedented’ powers to the President.”
And many Azerbaijanis held a similar view.
A 22-year old Fidan, a student in Baku said that she had voted against the constitutional changes. “These changes will turn the country into a monarchy,” she said.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
SEPT. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Zaza Agladze of the Union of Industrialists and Irakli Glonti of State For The People, two candidates for the upcoming parliamentary election in Georgia, exchanged punches on live television after a heated debate. Just last week, two other candidates also fought during a televised debate.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
