Category Archives: Uncategorised

Kazakhstan allows headscarves in school

MARCH 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s minister of education Yerlan Sagadiyev said school councils were free to allow headscarves into the classroom. The declaration follows a public request to allow kimeshek headdress, considered part of Kazakh traditional dress, thus not in conflict with the government’s ban on wearing religious clothing items. Mr Sagadiyev’s declaration has now opened the way for more exceptions.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Architect who added curves to Azerbaijan’s skyline dies

MARCH 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Zaha Hadid, known for designing some of the world’s most cutting edge buildings, including the Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku, died in Miami of a heart attack aged 65.

Hadid had been admitted to hospital for bronchitis when she suffered the heart attack, her publicist said.

Tributes poured in from around the world for Hadid, a British citizen of Iraqi descent, who pushed the boundaries of building design throughout her career.

Her buildings were typically full of curves and melted into the surrounding landscape, urban and natural. She is probably, globally, best known for designing the swimming arena for the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Phaeno Science Park in Wolfsburg, Germany.

But Hadid also left her mark in the Central Asia/South Caucasus region by designing a museum in Baku named after Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s former president and the father of current president Ilham Aliyev.

The Heydar Aliyev Centre opened in 2012 to international acclaim. In 2014, London’s Design Museum gave Hadid its design of the year award.

“Located in a part of the world associated with flying carpets and magic lanterns, the levitating soft white peaks of Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre feel indigenous,” the Design Museum said. “Hadid has made a topologist’s dream into a practical reality shaped by hypnotically fluid forms. A masterwork of invention and execution.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Dollarisation grows in Georgia

MARCH 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Georgian Central Bank said the dollarisation of Georgia’s economy continued to rise in February, as US dollar deposits grew to 68.4% of the total, the highest level since October 2010. A high dollarisation of deposits suggests that bank customers’ trust in the local currency in waning.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Russian tourism to Azerbaijan to rise

MARCH 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The number of Russian tourists going to Azerbaijan for holidays will increase by 50% according to calculations by Russian financial newspaper Kommersant. Due to diplomatic sanctions against Turkey, the Russian government banned Turkey as a holiday destination for its citizens.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Stock market: Nostrum Oil & Gas

APRIL 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Nostrum Oil & Gas has suffered a long period of sustained low oil prices, which has hit both its revenues and its stock price.

Nostrum’s revenues fell by a staggering 42% last year, accompanied in the downward trend by lower production volumes.

And, as shown in the graph, Nostrum’s share price has continued to fall, down 48.7% in Q1 2016.

Nostrum, however, remains confident about its long term objectives and pointed out in its full year results that it had cut costs and was investing in its processing capacity.

It made no mention of the failed takeover offer for Tethys Petroleum of last summer, which hit Nostrum’s share price, especially after Tethys started talks with Kazakhstan’s Olisol last November.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Azerbaijan’s SOCAR applies to ADB for Shah Deniz loan

MARCH 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR said it applied for a $450m loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help pay for the expansion of its Shah Deniz gas project.

The loan, according to both ADB and SOCAR, is aimed at financing the second phase of the project, which the company plans to bring online by 2018. Shah Deniz is core to Azerbaijan’s future gas plans.

BP, which develops the field together with SOCAR, said the expansion of the Shah Deniz project will cost around $28b and will add 16b cubic metres annually to the current production of around 10b cubic metres.

Gas produced at Shah Deniz 2 is already booked for export to Georgia and Turkey in 2018 and further on to Europe by 2019, with the completion of the Southern Gas Corridor.

Unnamed ADB sources told Natural Gas Europe: “It is in the processing stage. Once approved, the loan will be provided under the state guarantees.”

There was no information on the timeline of the loan.

SOCAR, hit by sustained low oil prices, has applied to various sources for financing and has sought to divest from some of its unprofitable ventures to raise cash for its core projects.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Russia forgives Uzbekistan’s debt

MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Russian Duma ratified an inter- governmental agreement to pardon most of Uzbekistan’s debt. Uzbekistan will now pay $25m of its $889m debt to Russia but it will also withdraw any claims to the Soviet Diamond Fund which contains some of the world’s most expensive jewellery from the Tsarist era. Russia and Uzbekistan agreed to scrap the debt in November 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Azerbaijani court releases activist

MARCH 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Azerbaijan converted a seven-year prison sentence into a five-year conditional one for human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev, allowing his immediate release. Mr Aliyev had already spent two years in prison. His release follows the release of 14 political prisoners earlier this month. The West has criticised Azerbaijan for its crack- down on free speech.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Azerbaijani econ. data shows woes

MARCH 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Data on economic activity in Azerbaijan showed a sharp slowdown after the government abandoned the currency peg to the US dollar in December, a move that triggered a 30% drop in the value of the manat currency.

Azerbaijan imported markedly less wheat and cars, both good indicators of domestic demand.

In January, imports of wheat fell by 55.8% to 47.95m tonnes, as businesses found it increasingly more difficult to pay for their orders in foreign currency.

Total car imports in January and February this year were just 821 units, barely a tenth of the total during the same period in 2015.

Also, Azerbaijan’s State Statistics Committee said that the country had generated 6.4% less power in the first two months of the year compared to the same period last year. Thermal power production, Azerbaijan’s main source of electricity, was down nearly 8%, suggesting that demand from consumers and businesses had dropped — another indicator of the sharp economic downturn.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Uzbek capital closes tram lines

MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The mayor of Uzbekistan’s capital, Rakhmonbek Usmonov, ordered officials to shut down tram lines across the city and sell most of the ageing trolley cars. The city administration had already started dismantling some of the lines. Almaty, in Kazakhstan, has also said it is phasing out its Soviet-era tram system.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)