Category Archives: Uncategorised

Kyrgyzstan to host SCO wargames

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan will host the main military exercise for members of the Russia and China led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) later this year. Media said that the military exercise, involving soldiers from all the SCO’s members will be the biggest held in Kyrgyzstan. Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are also members of the SCO which has an economic, social and military agenda.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Armenian President visits Athens

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan travelled to Athens for a high-profile meeting with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras where both sides pledged to increase bilateral support and trade. Greece is, potentially, a natural ally for Armenia in Europe. Both countries have strong Christian roots and are both able to grumble about past grievances with their larger shared neighbour, Turkey.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Editorial: British Airways and Azerbaijan

MARCH 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) -The economic downturn continues to hit Central Asia and the South Caucasus with British Airways now cancelling its London-Baku service.

But whether BA needs to quit the route altogether is questionable. Airlines keep a diversified portfolio of route because it is near impossible to second guess which routes will be profitable in a few year’s time.

The decision took many by surprise because of the strong presence of British business in Azerbaijan, most notably BP.

As oil prices fell dramatically in the past 20 months, airline companies have rallied on cheap fuel, but have also struggled to maintain links to countries negatively affected by the crisis.

In 2012, British Airways cut its route to Yerevan, the following year it cancelled regular flights to Bishkek and Tbilisi. Last October, the company quit its London-Almaty route.

The crisis, aside from hitting government budgets and people’s wallets, has contributed to cutting off further the region from the West.

ENDS

Editorial from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Azerbaijan’s IBA rebrands

MARCH 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The International Bank of Azerbaijan, the country’s largest lender, changed its logotype, colour and slogan in an effort to boost its domestic and international image. The IBA posted poor financial results last year. Its former CEO Jahangir Hajiyev was arrested in December.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Turkmenistan wins lawsuit against Turkish construction company

MARCH 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A World Bank tribunal rejected a $567m claim by Turkish firm Ickale Insaat against Turkmenistan that the government had deliberately derailed several construction projects, a rare victory for a Central Asian government against private companies.

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) said the claim was not substantiated by concrete cases of interference.

“There is no basis for the claims in the BIT [a 1992 Turkey-Turkmenistan bilateral treaty to protect investments], which does not create any cause of action under general principles of international law,” the ICSID wrote in its 175-page analysis of the case, specifying that the Turkish company will also have to pay $1.7m, or 20% of Turkmenistan’s total legal fees.

Ickale claimed that Turkmenistan had breached a dozen construction contracts signed in March-November 2007 to supply mainly consulting services on a series on projects.

The Turkmen side denied the accusations and instead said that Ickale failed to deliver on its promises to complete its works by 2009.

Ickale was supposed to deliver machinery and service construction works at two luxury hotels, four schools, one cinema in Ashgabat, and several other projects.

Ickale listed at least eight of these projects as “completed” on its website. Earlier in January, a Stockholm arbitration court had ruled against the Kazakh government in a case

brought by Estonian firm Windoor for reneging on a building deal in Astana.

Relations between Turkish firms and the Turkmen government might be worsening as the opposition newspaper Alternative News Turkmenistan alleged that another construction company Ilk Insaat had planned to sack around 1,200 workers in March-April.

When contacted by The Conway Bulletin, Ilk Insaat’s parent company declined to comment.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

EBRD to help Armenia develop currency markets

MARCH 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), one of the biggest investors in the former Soviet region, signed a deal with Armenia’s Central Bank to help it develop dram-listed capital markets, to improve Armenia’s image as a reliable financial market.

The agreement is part of EBRD’s Local Currency Programme (LCP), which is also aimed at Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

“The EBRD provides local currency loans through procuring local currency funding or hedging, by entering into currency swaps with third party providers, such as the Currency Exchange Fund,” the EBRD said in a statement.

It’s been one of the EBRD’s stated aims to develop markets and financial tools which support local tools and reduce the dollarisation of economies.

“Expanding the availability of local currency financing is crucial for the growth of local businesses by providing them with fund at affordable rates and manageable risk,” Andre Kuusvek, EBRD director at the LCP said in a statement.

Strengthening and protecting local currencies has become especially important after the drop in oil prices globally exposed their vulnerabilities.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Kyrgyzstan makes hydropower plan

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz PM Temir Sariyev said that 16 new hydropower stations would be built for a total of $160m, adding 188MW of power to the national grid. This is important as Kyrgyzstan is committed to boosting its power output to hit domestic demand and also to feed the CASA-1000 project which will send electricity to Pakistan via Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Zenith signs agreement with Azerbaijan’s SOCAR

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A subsidiary of Canadian oil company Zenith Energy signed a production sharing agreement with Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company SOCAR to develop three onshore oil fields. Zenith Aran Oil and SOCAR had started negotiations last year. Zenith will have an 80% share in the Muradkhanli, Jafarli and Zardab fields for the next 25 years. SOCAR will retain the remaining 20%.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Uzbek scientists find T-Rex fossils

MARCH 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Scientists said they had found fossils belonging to an earlier cousin of the T-Rex dinosaur in Uzbekistan’s Kyzylkum desert. The discovery of the fossils of a smaller version of T-Rex were hailed as a major scientific breakthrough.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Azerbaijan’s oil exports drop

MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan exported 5.2m tonnes of oil in January and February, down from 5.5m tonnes in the same period last year, official customs data reported. Azerbaijan is reliant on oil exports to fund its budget. The drop in oil prices has hit its economy hard, forcing the government to cut budgets. The problem for Azerbaijan is that a lot of its oil fields are aging.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)