Category Archives: Uncategorised

Uzbekistan closes borders for SCO summit

JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek government ordered the closure of land borders for ten days to try to insulate the country from potential Islamic militant attacks ahead of a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) heads of states, scheduled for next week.

Leaders from Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan will join Uzbek President Islam Karimov at the annual SCO summit in Tashkent on June 23/24.

Uzbekistan has emphasised its efforts in combating terrorism, one of the pillars of the SCO, and wants to demonstrate its ability to become a safe haven of peace in Central Asia.

Analysts said that closing its border crossing checkpoints is a way of demonstrating control over its territory and its capacity to fence off potential terrorists from abroad.

The authorities dismissed earlier rumours that Tashkent would be closed off during the summit.

“There will be enhanced security checks, but the city will operate in normal mode,” the Uzbek ministry of interior said in a statement.

In the weeks leading up to the summit, the Tashkent city administration ordered a clean-up of the capital. Reports said that hundreds of satellite dishes were removed from houses on Prospekt Kosmonavtov,a main road in Tashkent which runs down to Mr Karimov’s official residence.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Remittances drop in Georgia

JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Central Bank said remittances from abroad fell by 5% in May to $92.9m, compared to May 2015, a sign that the regional economic malaise is still biting economies in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Money transfers from Russia represented one-third of all remittances last month. Remittance flows to Georgia have also been badly hit by Greece’s economic problems. Greece, also a predominately Orthodox country, had been the second highest originator of remittances to Georgia.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

EEU plans single electricity market, say energy ministers after meeting in Tajikistan

JUNE 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Eurasian Economic Union, a trade bloc led by Russia but also involving Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia plans to set up a unified electricity market by 2019, EEU members’ energy ministers said after a meeting in Dushanbe. Tajikistan aspires to be part of the EEU, which critics have said is a Kremlin project to extend its control.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Azerbaijan to launch ferrosilicon plant

JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s state-owned Baku Non-Ferrous Metals & Ferroalloys Company said it will launch in 2017 a new plant for the production of ferrosilicon and ferrosilicon manganese, two ferroalloys used in the heavy industry. The plant will be located at the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park outside of Baku.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

International Bank of Azerbaijan issues loan to Iran

JUNE 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – International Bank of Azerbaijan, the country’s largest lender, will issue a $500m loan to Iran for the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway section, part of a rail link from Qazvin to Astara, around the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. The total cost of the Rasht-Astara segment is projected to be $1.1b. The countries of the South Caucasus have been quick to engage Iran in business since sanctions were lifted earlier this year.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Kyrgyzstan accuses Centerra of corruption at Kumtor

BISHKEK, JUNE 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev instructed state prosecutors to investigate agreements signed by Canadian miner Centerra Gold in 2003-04, after corruption charges emerged against both Centerra and former officials at the state-owned Kyrgyzaltyn.

Earlier this week, the country’s security service said that Dastan Sarygulov, the 69-year-old former head of Kyrgyzaltyn from 1992 to 1999, had been charged with plotting a coup earlier this year and taking bribes in the 1990s.

The charges appear to be based on accusations made last week by Len Homeniuk, former head of Centerra and Kumtor Gold, who sent a letter to Kyrgyz prosecutors alleging corrupt practices that had involved the miner over its entire lifetime, explicitly naming Mr Sarygulov.

In the letter, Mr Homeniuk said that the companies he headed were regularly asked for bribes by Kyrgyzaltyn, which owns a 32% stake in Centerra.

“[Their requests] were sometimes very significant, more than $200,000 in a given month,” Mr Homeniuk wrote. “Dustan Sarygulov and Kamchybek Kudaibergenov always explained such requests that they were under pressure by the office of the President.”

Centerra, Kumtor Gold and Kyrgyzaltyn have not commented on the allegations.

The revelations seem to be well- timed for Kyrgyzstan.

Sarygulov was already under house arrest, accused of having participated in the coup plot.

Now, analysts say, the Homeniuk letter could be a powerful tool for Mr Atambayev to both discredit his predecessors and taint Centerra’s record in Kyrgyzstan, just as it prepares an arbitration case in Stockholm against the government for blocking its business development.

“Timing is important. Homeniuk’s revelations seem a gift to Mr Atambayev now,” Mars Sariyev of the Institute of Public Policy, a Bishkek-based think tank, told The Bulletin.

Centerra owns the Kumtor Gold Company, which operates the country’s largest gold mine, which accounts for around 7% of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP.

In March security forces raided the office of Kumtor in Bishkek looking for evidence of financial wrongdoing. Centerra has said that Kyrgyzstan is using heavy-handed tactics to try and claim more direct ownership of Kumtor.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Georgia becomes new destination for Chinese tourists

JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – China Southern Airlines, a Chinese carrier, said it will begin regular flights from Beijing and Urumqi to Tbilisi from September 22. The company said the move responds to increasing interest in Georgia as a tourist destination. China Southern Airlines launched pilot flights from Tbilisi to Urumqi last November. Chinese tourism has become big business for Georgia which is increasingly promoting itself as a holiday destination.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Kazakhstan begins constructing Shymkent city

JUNE 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s government said it has started construction work at Shymkent City, a new urban development outside Shymkent, in the south of the country. The government will share costs with local investors and plans to deliver the project in 2020. Shymkent is Kazakhstan’s third-largest city. The government wants to stimulate the economy through major building schemes.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Kazakh oil revenues fall

JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh officials said production of oil and gas makes up around 17% of the country’s GDP, a proportion eight percentage points lower than in 2015. The fall in oil prices has impacted both feasibility and profitability at Kazakhstan’s oil and gas fields. This is an important measure of the impact of the drop in oil price on Kazakhstan’s economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

US court to seize Uzbek President’s daughter’s accounts

JUNE 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A US court said that it is ready to seize assets linked to Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov, in Ireland, Belgium and Luxembourg, if a corruption case in New York courts is not resolved soon. US authorities said these assets are valued €269m ($303m). In February, Ms Karimova was named as the beneficiary of bribes paid by telecoms companies seeking licences in Uzbekistan, the largest foreign corruption probe in US history.

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(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)