Category Archives: Uncategorised

Berdy wants white cars only

JAN. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan has banned the import of any car that isn’t white, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported quoting a customs official. RFE/RL said new rules may also force all car owners to repaint their cars white. The new rules highlight the often bizarre nature of Turkmenistan.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Germany confirms Uzbek military base

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The German ambassador to Uzbekistan, Neithart Höfer-Wissing, officially confirmed that Germany was going to maintain its military base near Termez, south Uzbekistan, German media reported . A deal was made between the Uzbek and German government last year, although details were kept secret.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Azerbaijan cancels social projects

>>Fall in oil price has hit Azerbaijan hard

JAN. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s government has cancelled a $100m project to provide rural communities with vastly improved and faster internet, media reported.

The fall in the price of oil prices has hit Azerbaijan hard. It is very much a petro-dollar economy and has had to adjust its budget to account for falling revenues.

The project was supposed to be funded by the state budget but it was, instead, one of the first to be cut when the budget was re-organised earlier this year.

And the project was supposed to be a major stepping stone to build a more integrated, connected society. Research in 2013 showed that only 500 of Azerbaijan’s 4,000 villages had access to the internet, a figure the government’s programme was supposed to improve.

Another project that the government has apparently reduced funding for is the Star refinery that it was building in Turkey. Instead, media reported, the Star oil refinery will be funded by foreign-backed debt.

Oil prices are critical to Azerbaijan. Last week BP, the biggest foreign investor in Azerbaijan, said that it was making 8% of its local workforce redundant.

The next few months are going to be important. While prices remain low, there could be more project cancellations to come.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Germany confirms Uzbek base

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The German ambassador to Uzbekistan, Neithart Höfer-Wissing, officially confirmed that Germany was going to maintain its military base near Termez, south Uzbekistan, German media reported. A deal was made between the Uzbek and German government last year, although details were kept secret.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Kazakhstan’s brain drain

>>Net emigration is the first for a decade>>

FEB. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Almost 27,000 people emigrated from Kazakhstan in 2014. That’s 10% more than those who decided to move into Kazakhstan, creating a negative population flow for the first time in a decade, according to official data.

More worrying for the Kazakh authorities is that behind the migration flux was a clear brain drain.

In the early 1990s, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, millions of non-ethnic Kazakhs left for their familial or cultural homeland. Since then, the population in Kazakhstan has steadily increased.

But a report on migration released by the national statistics agency showed that more people left Kazakhstan in 2014 then moved in. Shynasyl Yernazar, of the Kazakhstan Centre for Public-Private Partnerships said the most worrying sign was the number of young people leaving.

“A brain drain among young professionals is happening, as demonstrated by last year’s survey, by which more than one-third of Kazakhstanis between 18 and 28 said they’d like to leave, ” he told the Tengrinews website (Jan. 29).

Better job prospects and access to more meritocratic systems are the main drivers of this trend. Most of the incoming migrants are from poorer countries.

Daniyar Kosnazarov, a researcher at the Presidential Library in Astana and a co-author of a book on youth issues, said it was important the government finds better and more effective ways of engaging with young Kazakhs.

“With the Eurasian Union, the common labour market will make competition tougher as Russians and Belarusians are better skilled,” Mr Kosnazarov told the Bulletin in a telephone interview from Astana.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Azerbaijan’s ratings downgraded

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Azerbaijan’s debt rating to negative from stable because of the fall in oil prices. It said 44% of Azerbaijan’s GDP and 95% of its exports were linked to the energy industry. Despite calls from various foreign institutions, Azerbaijan has failed to diversify.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Berdy worries about the economy

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps even the phlegmatic Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is beginning to become unnerved by the sudden drop in energy prices. Media reported that he held an unprecedented TV broadcast in which he explained to ordinary Turkmens how he had been forced to devalue the manat currency (Jan. 30).
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

UN criticises Kazakh clampdown

JAN. 28. 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Wrapping up a mission to Kazakhstan, the UN’s special rapporteur Maina Kiai said he was disturbed to hear from Kazakh officials that they had decided to clamp down on protests because they worried about a Ukraine style rebellion.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015

AcerlorMittal cuts workers’ salaries in Kazakhstan

FEB. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — ArcelorMittal, the Luxembourg-based steel manufacturer, said it had temporarily cut salaries for workers at its plant in Temirtau near Karaganda, central Kazakhstan, by 25. ArcelorMittal has struggled to make the plant profitable over the last few years. It has cut its workforce at the plant to 17,000 from over 20,000.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

IS plans to attack Uzbekistan

FEB. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The radical group IS plans to attack Uzbekistan, an Uzbek security officer told centralasiaonline.com. Other media outlets broadcast the comments although analysts questioned the motive behind them. The Pentagon, which has agreed to send military kit to Uzbekistan, is linked to the website.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)