Category Archives: Uncategorised

Azerbaijan completes railway construction

NOV. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan completed an 8.3km extension of a railway line to the Iranian border, a vital component of the North-South Transport Corridor that will link India with Europe and Russia. Media reported that the rail link was due to open next year. This is the only rail link between Azerbaijan and Iran. Relations between the two countries have much improved over the past couple of years, mainly due to the relative moderate Hassan Rouhani being elected in 2013 as Iranian leader and the lifting of most of the sanctions hanging over Iran. The North-South Transport Corridor is being developed to cut transport costs and is considered vital to boosting regional trade.

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

European Parliament set to approve Uzbek cotton deal

NOV. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An influential European Parliament committee backed a textile trade deal with Uzbekistan that had been moth- balled in 2011 on concerns over the use of child labour.

The vote is a triumph for Uzbekistan and acting-president Shavkat Mirziyoyev as it bestows credibility on the Uzbek cotton sector after years of negative headlines and boycotts by international clothing companies.

The Committee on International Trade will now recommend at a full European Parliament vote in December that a trade deal is made with Uzbekistan.

Reuters quoted Maria Arena, one of the MPs on the committee, as saying that Uzbekistan had improved its labour rights over the past few years.

“The progress made by the Uzbek authorities allows us to move forward and include textiles in our partnership agreement. But we will remain extremely vigilant,” she was quoted as saying.

Last year the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) monitored the Uzbek cotton harvest. It said in a report that there had been major improvements in the way labour was organised and although it was still commonplace for government workers to leave their jobs to pick cotton during the harvest, the use of child labour was far reduced.

Human rights groups, though, were adamant that the European Parliament needed to set an example and avoid a deal with Uzbekistan. In an open letter to the committee sent three days before its meeting, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said that it was because of the European Parliament’s rejection of a trade deal in 2011 that Uzbekistan agreed to open up to UN monitors. It also said that the scenario in Uzbekistan wasn’t as positive as the committee made out.

“We were pleased to note that as a result of international pressure since 2013 children have not been forced to pick cotton on a nationwide scale, and child labour has effectively declined. Yet, local officials reportedly still resort to forced child labour out of a need to fulfil their quotas,” HRW said in its letter.

“Since 2014 we have received steady reports of extortion linked to the cotton harvest.”

Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s most important commodities. For Mr Mirziyoyev, the timing of the recommendation is also important. He faces a presidential election next month.

He is certain to win this election and become the second post-Soviet president of Uzbekistan after Islam Karimov who died in September, but he still needs to win over popular support. Backing from the European Parliament that child labour is reducing in Uzbekistan and a trade deal can now be made will strengthen his position.

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Georgia and regional governments welcome Trump election win

TBILISI, NOV. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Governments across Central Asia and the South Caucasus welcomed Donald Trump’s win in the US presidential election on Nov. 4 and heralded it as an opportunity for the US to increase its engagement in the region.

Analysts have said that under President Barack Obama, the US’ interest in Central Asia and the South Caucasus has dropped. Both President Obama’s Secretary of States, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, visited the South Caucasus and Central Asia but since the US and NATO pulled most of its forces out of neighbouring Afghanistan in 2013 and 2014, its interest has waned.

The only US president to have visited the region was George W. Bush in May 2005. He visited Tbilisi when Mikheil Saakashvili was president. Georgia is the US’ biggest ally in the region, sending its army to fight in both Iraq and Afghanistan and Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili welcomed Mr Trump’s win.

“I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to Donald J. Trump on his victory in the presidential elections,” he said. “American people voted for change, oriented on making US even stronger.”

His sentiments were echoed by other regional leaders but reaction on the street was less clear cut. In Almaty Aidana Omarova, a university lecturer, said she was appalled that Mr Trump had won the election.

“I cannot even imagine how such a sexist, racist and rude person can lead the US,” she said.

In Tbilisi Nana, a lawyer, was worried. “He wants to improve relations with Russia, that’s not very good for Georgia, in case we need support from the US,” she said. “Secondly he was extremely negative about immigrants and I know there are lots of Georgians who work in America and send money to their families.”

But in Dushanbe, Jakhongir, 29, a website developer, had a different viewpoint. He said the US election had been a great democratic exercise.

“I wish we could have such interesting elections debates here in Tajikistan, too,” he said. “Let’s see how Trump will behave, I think he will be more restrained in his words and actions now.”

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Azerbaijan’s SOCAR to build chemical park in Turkey

NOV. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — SOCAR Turkey Enerji, the Turkish subsidiary of Azerbaijan’s state owned energy company, said it wants to build a new chemical industrial park in Turkey. SOCAR Turkey Enerji and SOCAR Turkey Petrokimiya already own a controlling stake in Petkim, a petrochemical complex in Izmir, western Turkey.

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

WHO declares Kyrgyzstan malaria-free

NOV. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Kyrgyzstan to be free of malaria, marking the culmination of a 15 year plan to eradicate the disease. Kyrgyzstan had been free of Malaria from the mid- 1960s until the late 1980s and 1990s when migrant workers brought it back into the country from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Grounded flights in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan

NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Air traffic in Central Asia and the South Caucasus continues to suffer from the regional economic slump, as major international carriers cut flights and leave the market to fickle domestic players.

Most notably this year, British Airways cut its London-Baku link, the last remaining destination for the British flag carrier in the region. The connection had lasted over 20 years, ever since BP started to negotiate the so-called Contract of the Century.

Demand for air transport, however, has shrunk, especially in the business market. Low

commodity prices have made many regional business unprofitable. This, added together with some damaging reputational issues, such as the delisting of Kazakhstan’s ENRC from the London Stock Exchange, have made many Western businesses wary of the region.

So it’s not surprising that Turkish Airlines dropped its connections with Osh and Khujand when it decided to downsize its global network because of a drop in demand. The second-largest cities in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan just cannot make the cut for commercially viable air links.

Turkmenistan’s new flights to Georgia were also postponed indefinitely this week, a sign that even diplomatically-motivated aviation routes need to be profitable.

On the positive, the Russian and Tajik aviation committees agreed a deal to end their short-lived dispute over routes. This is important, vitally important, for Tajikistan’s migrant workforce who rely so heavily on Russia for their income.

Air routes have become part of a modern-day annual commute for people in developing countries, needed to carry them to waiting jobs.

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Kazakh oil company completes maintenance

NOV. 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil company PetroKazakhstan said it has completed planned maintenance and remodelling work at its Shymkent refinery three days ahead of schedule. Kazakhstan’s ministry of energy has repeatedly said that the country needs to upgrade its refineries and build a new one. London-traded KMG EP, a subsidiary of state-owned Kazmunaigas, owns a 33% stake in PetroKazakhstan, while China’s CNPC owns the rest.

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Stock market: Centerra Gold

NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Encouraging production results at Kyrgyzstan’s largest gold mine, Kumtor, supported Centerra Gold shares in Toronto, although they were weighed down by a fall in the price of gold.

The company said that because a court in Bishkek has restricted its access to cash held by its Kumtor gold mine, it could not pay a quarterly dividend and may have to seek a cash injection to continue operations. It didn’t give any more details of this but it would be a departure from previous policy.

The spat with the Kyrgyz government, which has become increasingly heated in the past two years, seems to be constantly on the verge of breaking point.

In general, though, Centerra’s share price has followed the price of gold. However, should news from Kyrgyzstan continue to be negative, Centerra’s stock price might start diverging from this pattern.

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Kyrgyz parliament approves new government

NOV. 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament approved the composition of a new government, still dominated by Pres. Almazbek Atambayev’s Social Democratic Party, after a row over a referendum next month led to the collapse of the previous coalition. Two parties, Kyrgyzstan and Bir Bol, have entered the coalition and been given ministerial positions.

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Kazakhstan electricity distributor to sell its stakes

NOV. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — KEGOC, Kazakhstan’s electricity distributor, renewed its plans to sell off its stakes in Kazenergoprovod, a Semey-based company that sells AC cables. First in May, then in August, KEGOC had unsuccessfully tried to sell its 49.9% stake for 98.4m tenge ($290,000). Founded in 2012, Kazenergoprovod has posted losses for three consecutive years. Local East Industry Company owns 51.1% of Kazenergoprovod.

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)