Category Archives: Uncategorised

Turkmen President is no dictator, says official

SEPT. 21-23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Even at a European human rights meeting, it seems, calling President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov a dictator is just not acceptable.

This was the irate response, at least, of a deputy minister of foreign affairs when he slapped down a Turkmen dissident at an OSCE arranged human rights meeting in Warsaw.

Responding to a series of criticisms raised during the meeting, deputy foreign minister Vepa Khadzhiyev listed President Berdymukahmedov’s achievements in bringing “cheaper and more objective information to our citizens.” He also dismissed criticism from human rights groups of a decision to remove thousands of satellite dishes from homes in Ashgabat in April. Human rights campaigners had said this was the behaviour of a dictator.

Opposing Mr Khadzhiyev was the former member of Turkmenistan’s parliament now living in exile in Norway Pirimguly Tangrikuliyev, who openly criticised Western countries for cosying up to Mr Berdymukhamedov.

“They court the dictator because they need access to Turkmenistan’s energy resources,” he said.

This irritated Mr Khadzhiyev who asked rights groups not to use the term “dictator” for Mr Berdymukhamedov.

“A dictator does not provide free electricity, gas and water to his population. Our country increases salaries yearly by 10% and provides free education and healthcare,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Armenia to produce lifts

SEPT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian private company ADA Tech and the Chinese lift manufacturing factory Koyo signed an agreement to jointly build a lift factory in Armenia by 2018.

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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Azerbaijan’s gold output rises

SEPT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gold production in Azerbaijan increased by 30% between Jan.- Aug. this year to 1.5 tonnes, media reported quoting government data. Gold is not a major contributor to Azerbaijan’s earnings, which is dominated by oil and gas, but it is growing in importance.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Japan and Kazakhstan push on nuclear test ban

SEPT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Japan and Kazakhstan will co-chair a conference in New York later this month which will push for a comprehensive ban on nuclear testing, UN official Lassina Zerbo told Japan Times in an interview. Both countries have a vested interested in nuclear issues. The US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 towards the end of World War 2. Kazakhstan sees itself as the champion of anti-nuclear issues.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Kyrgyzstan endures Manas airport funding headache

SEPT. 21 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — When the US military quit its airbase outside Bishkek in July 2014, ambitious officials dreamt of turning Manas airport in a Central Asian transport hub that would connect Europe and South-East Asia.

A year on and this dream is still very much that. There have been no major investments.

In an interview with the Bulletin at his office in central Bishkek, Nursultan Belekov, the 24-year-old deputy head of Manas Airport’s investment department, explained his frustration.

“We have worked hard to attract Russian, Turkish and Chinese partners, but no one has contributed yet,” he said.

Earlier this year Rosneft rowed back on an earlier promise to invest in the airport, perhaps making Manas a victim of a sharp economic downturn hitting the region.

Mr Belekov, who is standing for parliament in October’s election, had a different spin on Rosneft’s pull out from Manas.

“They offered to invest $1b dollars, but we were needed to refuse because Manas airport is a strategic object for Kyrgyzstan’s independence, and a 51% stake cannot go to a foreign company,” he said. Manas needs around $1.2b investment.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Biometric data enables Kyrgyz people to vote

SEPT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Most Kyrgyz migrant workers will not be able vote in the parliamentary election because they have failed to submit biometric data to the authorities before the deadline. The Zamandash opposition party told RFE/RL that only around 10,000 out of 700,000 Kyrgyz living in Russia will vote in the Oct. 4 election.

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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Kazakh gas utility to issue bond

SEPT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — KazTransGaz Aimak, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state-owned gas transit system, said it plans to issue Eurobonds for 5b tenge ($18.6m) to refinance its outstanding debt. KazTransGas Aimak, which controls the gas distribution system in the Almaty region, has an outstanding bonds issue of 8.6b tenge ($31.9m) maturing in December 2018.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Armenia accuses Azerbaijan on civilian killing

SEPT. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia-backed authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh accused Azerbaijan of shelling a civilian area and killing three women. The accusation marks a heightening of tension around the disputed region. Violence is a feature of the region but civilian deaths are not common.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Kazakhstan’s Potash cuts assets

SEPT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan Potash Corporation, an Australia-listed mineral exploration company focused on Kazakhstan and Australia, said its assets had been overvalued by $302m in its half-year report. Mining companies operating in Central Asia have come under pressure to devalue their assets as local currencies have lost value.

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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)

Comment: Georgian CBank’s blunt assessment

SEPT. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Georgian Central Bank is one of the more open central banks in the region. It holds scheduled meeting and posts reasonably detailed explanations on its monetary policy decisions.

In short it can give people interested in Central Asia and the South Caucasus something of an insider’s view of things. This makes its statement on Sept. 23 that accompanied an interest rate rise all the more important.

And the Georgian Central Bank was blunt in its assessment of the problems facing the wider region.

“Real GDP growth in the second quarter was consistent with the forecasts,” it said. “The factor hindering growth is the external sector, which, given the dire economic situation in the region negatively affects export of goods and services.”

Of course the Georgian Central Bank was talking about poor GDP growth in Georgia but the more important word in this statement for the wider region was “dire”. The Georgian Central Bank had said what other government economists from Tajikistan to Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan and Armenia have been thinking but shying away from saying. The prospects for their economies, with inflation rising and the values of their currencies falling, is dire.

Of course there are differences between the various regional economies – Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are heavily dependent on oil and gas sales, for example, while Georgia isn’t – but many of the pressures are shared ones and if one Central Bank, in this case the Georgian one, starts describing the situation as “dire” it is important to listen.

By James Kilner, Editor, The Conway Bulletin

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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)