JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev said he would welcome Italian infrastructure company Snam taking a stake in the planned Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which will pump gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
BISHKEK/KYRGYZSTAN, JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Timur, a car mechanic in Bishkek, was more sanguine than most about impending petrol price rises.
“I do not think the fuel price increase will bother me,” the 23-year-old said. “There are always ups and downs in fuel price.”
Analysts in Kyrgyzstan anticipate a fuel price rise of between 7-15% this year because of the introduction of an excise tax that the government has introduced to plug a hole it is finances.
It’s a price rise that is all but certain to irritate ordinary Kyrgyz who have seen the value of their som savings plummet over the past few months and inflation slowly accelerate.
Russian importers dominate Kyrgyzstan’s petrol imports and, effectively set prices. The Kyrgyz government, though, has said that it wants to bring in a tax on fuel that will make up a shortfall generated by a drop in income during the recent downturn in economic fortunes. Like the rest of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan’s economy is closely tied to Russia. The Russian economy has floundered because of a fall in oil prices and Western-imposed sanctions.
In March, the Kyrgyz government said that it was going to slap the tax on fuel and alcohol. Initially, analysts said the new tax was needed to bring the country in line with its future partners in the Eurasian Economic Union. Kyrgyzstan is set to join the economic group, which also includes Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia, this year.
And on the streets of Bishkek, other than Timur, the mechanic, people were increasingly frustrated. Taxi drivers said that whatever happened they would pay more for petrol but the same fee to rent the car.
“Of course, it is bad because we, as taxi drivers, pay for fuel on our own. Whether the fuel price is moderate or high, we pay the same percentage to the taxi service owners [to hire the taxis],” said a young man driving his car.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Khatlon province, south Tajikistan, sentenced Khusein Odinamakhmadov, 30, to 35 years in prison for recruiting Tajik men in Moscow to travel to Syria to join the extremist IS group, media reported. Tajikistan is worried about IS recruitment.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s military ordered a readiness check of its units stations in Armenia, the AFP news agency reported. The military garrison stationed in Armenia is one of Russia’s largest overseas deployments.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan needs to invest about $2b into its infrastructure if it wants to provide clean drinking water for its entire population, Alimurod Islomzoda, head of the Tajik state public utilities company, said.
This is a rare public omission in Tajikistan but Mr Islomzoda didn’t stop there. He also said that updating the system would take 80 years.
“To date, only some 57 percent of the country’s population has access to safe drinking water,” the Asia-Plus news agency quoted Mr Islomzoda as saying. “About $2b is needed and the full rehabilitation of the water supply systems will take 80-85 years.”
Tajikistan is one of the poorest countries in the world and with vital remittances from Russia dropping by around 40% this year because of a downturn in the Russian economy, the outlook is looking worse.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz Pres. Almazbek Atambayev said he would support expanding the Russia and China led Shanghai Corporation Organisation (SCO) to include Iran, Pakistan and India, local media reported. The SCO is holding a summit meeting in Ufa, Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prices in Armenia have been dropping since January, its official statistics agency said. It said that overall inflation in June measured a 5.5% increase from the same month one year earlier. A drop in food prices has slowed inflation, the Central Bank said in a statement.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – YEREVAN — Demonstrators in central Yerevan shifted their rally against an electricity price rise on Monday after police cleared barricades from the central street they had occupied for two weeks.
A Bulletin correspondent said around 1,000 people gathered at Freedom Square in the centre of Yerevan for another protest on Thursday evening. Police watched the protest but the atmosphere was calm.
“We demand one thing. The immediate and complete cancellation of the decision adopted by the State regulatory commission on baseless rise of electricity tariffs,” one of the protesters said.
Thousands of people have been protesting in the evenings in the centre of Yerevan, demanding that the government scrap the plan to raise the price of electricity, the third price rise in two years. The Russian-owned electricity company says the hike is necessary to support the power grid.
A state regulatory commission has already approved the price rise but in an apparent concession to the protesters earlier this month Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan ordered an audit of the electricity company.
And, on Wednesday, an Armenian state watchdog fined the electricity company $126,000 for violating the rights of consumers for demanding residents in new-built housing pay up front for their electricity.
The protests have widespread support even though the numbers have been dwindling.
“I’m very busy and that’s why I can’t take part in the protests,” said Georgi Barseghyan, a Yerevan resident. “So are other members of my family. But we all are with them.”
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Parcel delivery company DHL has signed a deal with Kazakhstan’s railway company Temir Zholy which it said would improve and increase freight transport between China and Europe. The deal highlights Kazakhstan’s growing prominence as a transport route between Europe and Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
JUNE 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Geostat, the Georgian statistics agency, reported an increase in year-on-year GDP growth to an estimated 2.1% in May, up from 0.9% in April. The economic data will be welcome news for the Georgian government which has been under pressure because of a downturn in the economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 238, published on July 2 2015)
