NOV. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Through its subsidiary Super iMAX, Korea Telecom will launch a 4G technology in Uzbekistan in 2015, media reported. South Korea is one of the biggest investors in Uzbekistan. The 4G service will be available in Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Egypt have charged four Tajik men with recruiting for the extremist group Islamic State (IS), the US-fund Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported quoting officials at the Tajik embassy in Cairo. Central Asian states are increasingly worried about young disenfranchised men joining IS.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Replacing leaky pipes at the Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea will cost around $3b, Reuters reported quoting a senior Kazakh official. Kashagan was to be the project that propelled Kazakhstan into the top tier of global energy suppliers instead it has run hugely over budget and time.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Aiming to give tourism a lift, Armenia said it would join the EU-funded Black Sea Silk Road Corridor which already includes Georgia, Turkey and Greece. The focus of the corridor is a 3,000km path that weaves through 150 cultural sites. Armenia’s government has earmarked tourism as a way of boosting the economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has predicted that inflation in Kyrgyzstan will hit 10% in 2015 after it joins the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union. The biggest jump in prices, the ADB said, will be a 30% rise in petrol when prices are brought into line with Kazakhstan and Russia.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least one of the thousands of inmates freed last week under a massive amnesty sanctioned by Tajikistan’s government to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the national constitution appears to have been let out too soon.
Tabur Gafurov, 31, killed his 55-year-old father during a heated argument after he returned to his family home in Sogd region, northern Tajikistan, reported Tajik outlet Asia Plus.
The incident has called into question Dushanbe’s decision to release so many prisoners at once, undermining what one regular observer of politics in the country says is an attempt by President Emomali Rakhmon to project his domestic political power.
“The amnesty is classic authoritarianism at work,” he said. “He wants the population to know that he can give freedom or take it away as he pleases,” he said.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s exports totalled $24.4b in the nine months to the end of September, media reported quoting the state statistics agency, but only $1.2b of this figure came in non-energy products. The figure highlights just how dependent Azerbaijan is on energy exports.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian mobile provider MTS is testing equipment ahead of its re-entry into Uzbekistan, media reported. MTS, which is owned by Russia’s Sistema, quit Uzbekistan after a major row with the authorities in 2012 over alleged unpaid tax bills. It since appears to have made up and has agreed to return to the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia plans to re-establish its Interior Ministry ahead of joining the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union.
PM Hovik Abrahamian said that several ministries would be merged together to create an Interior Ministry, which was abandoned in 2002.
“Nineteen ministries is too many for Armenia,” the official Armenpress news agency quoted Mr Abrahamian as saying. “In the future we will turn the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Local Government into the Ministry of Internal Affairs as it is the case in many European countries.”
In the former Soviet space the Interior Ministry is one of the more powerful government institutions. It has its own army and is tasked with imposing internal security and order. In 2002, Armenia disbanded the Interior Ministry and handed these pseudo military powers to the police force. This will now revert back to the Interior Ministry.
Armenia is joining the Eurasian Economic Union in the New Year, a group that already includes Belarus and Kazakhstan alongside Russia. Kyrgyzstan is also intending to join.
All these countries have a strong Interior Ministry. It’s likely that joining the Eurasian Economic Union and re-establishing the Interior Ministry in Armenia are linked.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
NOV. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan is looking to bolster its military, media reported quoting Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov from a transcript of a meeting at the National Security Council. Mr Berdymukhamedov is concerned about Taliban activity on its border with Afghanistan. Turkmen forces have built strengthen defences in some border areas this year.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 208, published on Nov.12 2014)
