JAN. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s finance minister Samir Sharifov said a new 20% tax on capital exports will not be imposed on foreign investors. The manat has lost around a third of its value since the Central Bank ditched a peg to the US dollar on Dec. 21. In response the government imposed various capital control requirements.
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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)
JAN. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Central Bank said it would compensate customers of banks who lost savings in banks which have been stripped of their licences over the past couple of weeks. Legally, the Central Bank is only obliged to compensate up to 30,000 manat ($18,400). Around 6,600 customers will be eligible for the refund.
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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)
JAN. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A man working at the Centerra Gold-owned Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan died in an accident. Neither Centerra Gold nor the Kyrgyz government, which owns a stake in the company, have commented on the accident. The Kumtor gold mine is the single biggest economic asset in Kyrgyzstan and is the focus of an ownership row.
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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)
JAN. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Arizona-based Hexagon Mining wants to increase its presence in Kazakhstan after it signed a deal with local miner KAZ Minerals to develop two open pit copper fields. Hexagon will work with KAZ Minerals at Bozshakol and Aktogay, two of the company’s most promising greenfield sites.
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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)
JAN. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ratings agency Fitch said it forecasts GDP growth in Armenia of 2% in 2016. The agency also revised upwards its prediction on the final 2015 results. According to Fitch, Armenia grew by 2.7% in 2015, pushed up by a relatively positive trade balance. While imports fell sharply by 26% compared to 2014, exports only contracted by 1% in the same period.
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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)
JAN. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s health ministry said that 18 people had died in the past two months from the H1N1 strain of swine flu, media reported, up from an earlier death toll of 10. The health ministry denied that the deaths had reached epidemic proportions but neighbouring countries have also started to report deaths linked to swine flu.
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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)
JAN. 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s state-owned Delta, which manufactures weapons and other military equipment, said it had secured a deal worth up to 100m lari (around $40m) to build “several dozen” military evacuation vehicles for Saudi Arabia, an important deal in an economically tough environment. Georgia has invested fairly heavily in its defence and military equipment sector.
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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)
JAN. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Inflation in Azerbaijan in 2016 will measure between 10% and 12%, finance minister Samir Sharifov said on TV, up from a previous estimate of 3%. In 2015 inflation measured 4%. The sudden increase is linked to the sharp devaluation in the manat currency, Mr Sharifov said.
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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)
JAN. 27 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon appointed his daughter, Ozoda, as head of the Presidential Administration, drawing accusations of nepotism.
Mr Rakhmon has form with appointing family members and friends to important government posts. One of his two sons, Rustam, is head of the government’s anti-corruption agency and had been head of the Tajik football association.
Earlier this month, Tajik MPs also voted to change the country’s constitution and lower the minimum age that a person can stand to be president to 30 from 35. This would allow Rustam, aged 28, to stand for president in 2020.
As for Ozoda, little is known about her. She had previously been a deputy foreign minister and her husband is the deputy head of the Central Bank. She has also studied in the United States.
Mr Rakhmon has been in power in Tajikistan since the end of a civil war in the mid-1990s. He is accused of setting up an authoritarian state. Last year Mr Rakhmon effectively closed down the only legal opposition party, consolidating his grip on power.
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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)
JAN. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov flew to Ashgabat to meet with Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, at a time when relations between two countries are considered to be near a post-Soviet Union low.
During his trip Mr Lavrov offered Turkmenistan help in defending its borders against potential incursion from Taliban fighters, a threat that Turkmen authorities have said has become more acute over the past year.
The Russian foreign minister quoted Mr Lavrov as saying: “If Russia’s assistance is needed with respect to these endeavours, it goes without saying that it will be in our interests to provide it. Let me reiterate that today our Turkmen friends provided us with a detailed insight into their efforts to reliably protect the border with Afghanistan.”
Local media said Mr Berdymukhamedov declined this offer.
Relations between Turkmenistan and Russia have dipped to a new low over rows about gas contracts. This year, Russia confirmed it was scrapping gas imports from Turkmenistan and buying more from Uzbekistan. Analysts said this was a slight against Turkmenistan for discussing gas routes to Europe via Azerbaijan and the S.Caucasus, a rival route to Russia’s gas supplies to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)
