NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Coca-Cola Ichimligi may have suspended its operations in Uzbekistan, according to a report published by US-funded RFE/RL. Tashkent residents said Coca-Cola products have disappeared from shops. Coca-Cola Ichimligi is reportedly linked to Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Pres. Islam Karimov.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bulgarian manufacturer Euro Games Technology reported positive growth in Georgia, where it expanded its product line to several casinos. EGT, which manufactures slot machines and roulettes, said most of its machines operate at casinos in Batumi, a resort town on theGeorgian Black Sea coast. The company said it grew its market share from 25% in 2014 to 33% this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – South Korea wants to boost further its investments in Uzbekistan, local media reported quoting government officials. South Korea and Uzbekistan have developed close relations over the past few years. There are thousands of ethnic Koreans living in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s Agency for Renewable Energy said it is developing a 200 megawatt wind farm in the Caspian Sea, to help diversify the country’s energy supply. The project will cost around 450-500m manat (around $450m). Azerbaijan, which has only minor renewable energy production, wants to reach a capacity of 2 gigawatt by the end of the decade.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Almaty-based Eurasian Development Bank is close to agreeing a deal to lend the Armenian government $300m to help it through the economic malaise enveloping the Central Asia and South Caucasus region.
If it is agreed, the first $100m is due at the end of this year with the outstanding $200m handed over by the end of 2017.
Like other countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, Armenia has been trying to deal with the fallout of the drop in oil prices and a recession in Russia which have combined to tip the entire region into an economic depression.
“Current macroeconomic actions have been agreed with the Armenian government,” Dmitry Pankin, the EDB CEO, told the Armenpress news agency.
“The project has been approved by the expert council and is now being considered by the Eurasian Stabilisation and Development Fund. After the official decision, the final conditions will be agreed upon.”
The Eurasian Development Bank is an overtly political organisation. It’s membership mirrors the membership of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union — Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia — with the addition of Tajikistan.
It was set up before the Eurasian Economic Union to give the trade bloc extra weight.
It also acts as a kind of sweetener. Armenia is reliant on Russia for economic and political support. It joined the Eurasian Economic Union at the start of this year under duress from Russia but can now access cheap loans to keep its economy running.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian authorities lifted a ban on imports of poultry meat and by-products from three US states — Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. In May, Armenia’s Food Safety Service had banned poultry imports from 13 US states, following an outbreak of avian influenza in the US. Armenia lifted the ban for 10 US states in July.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an intergovernmental organisation set up to improve transparency in mining and oil sectors, published its first report on Tajikistan which the authors said shone some light on the murky Tajik extractive sector.
Anti-corruption lobby groups have previously criticised the Tajik government for siphoning off cash from its metals sector and while the report was considered a step forward for transparency in Tajikistan, there were still many blank spots.
And the authors of the report made this clear.
“Three of the 14 companies in the EITI Report are partially state owned. Considerable details related to these companies are missing from the report due to the currently weak government systems for recording all company payments,” they wrote in the EITI report.
Tajikistan had been supposed to present its first report to the EITI in February, a deadline it missed.
A presentation on the report will be made in Dushanbe on Nov. 25.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 6 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin)– Famed across the Soviet Union as the biggest and most beautiful of Central Asia’s formal gardens, the Botanical Garden in Bishkek is now, quite literally, dying.
Once a peaceful sanctuary of bright exotic flowers and their perfumed scents, the 152 hectare Botanical Garden is overgrown and decrepit.
There are few visitors and even fewer staff. Most left in the 1990s when the Soviet Union collapsed, dragging down people’s salaries too. Now just a handful of under-paid scientists tend to the garden.
A weather-beaten Dmitry Vetoshkin, was one of these.
“For such a small city as Bishkek having a Botanical Garden is a luxury,” he said. But it’s a luxury that is under increased threat.
Kyrgyzstan’s capital is growing and has swallowed up the Botanical Garden. It once lay on the southeast fringe
of the city. Now, it is ringed by busy road and houses. Property developers are pinching parcels of land to build houses and gardens.
But for most people, the political elite included, the fate of the Botanical Garden is of little concern. “While political parties promise to improve people’s lives during current election campaign, none of them
announced a course to take up and renovate our natural heritage, our Botanical Garden, that stands at the entrance of the city,” said Vetoshkin.
Kyrgyzstan held a parliamentary election on Oct. 4.
There has though, despite the lack of support from the political elite, been some sort of grassroots resistance against selling off or giving away the Botanical Garden to developers. Vetoshkin said citizen power helped to defeat a proposal from developers to build new greenhouses in exchange for taking a large slice of the garden to develop.
Even so, the reprieve may just be temporary. It’s difficult to see just where the Botanical Garden fits into modern Bishkek life.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ukraine’s ministry of infrastructure said it plans to hold negotiations with authorities in Turkmenistan to resume air traffic and boost commercial links between the two countries. In early September, Ukraine International Airlines postponed the launch of a Kiev-Ashgabat connection due to disagreements between the aviation authorities.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan and Indonesia established a 30-day visa free regime which they said would promote tourism between the two countries. The visa-free regime with Indonesia contrasts with Azerbaijan’s constraints on European travellers. Over the past few years, Azerbaijan has increased restrictions on European travel.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
