Tag Archives: business

WHO praises new cigarette laws in Kyrgyzstan

>>Laws important in country with little formal health education>>

JAN. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The World Health Organisation (WHO) is lauding a move by Kyrgyzstan to increase tax on cigarettes and to make it law to publish garish images of the damage smoking can to people’s health on packets.

Kyrgyzstan’s parliament ratified the news laws at the end of last year, WHO said. The laws will equalise the tax on cigarettes with neighbouring Kazakhstan.

“Tobacco taxes for different types of tobacco will increase as of 2015 and are expected to increase to the level of tobacco taxes in the neighbouring Kazakhstan,” WHO said in its statement.

“As of 2014, tobacco taxes in Kyrgyzstan are 2-1/2 to 12 times lower than in Kazakhstan.”

The pictures that will be carried on cigarette boxes from 2016 show how smoking gives people cancer and other diseases.

This is an important step. Tightening regulations on smoking and educating the general public on the dangers of smoking is seen as a civilising step and a marker of a country’s development.

For Kyrgyzstan, where cigarettes appear to be clamped to the lips of men walking down a street and the purple fog of tobacco smoke fugs many bars, this is a big step indeed. Public health is often overlooked in Kyrgyzstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)

Dunkin’ Donuts opens in Tbilisi

JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgians are now able to buy Dunkin’ Donuts in Tbilisi. One of the United States’ biggest fast food franchises opened its first two stores in Tbilisi, giving the economy a major PR scoop.

Other than Russia, Georgia is the only country in the former Soviet Union that Dunkin’ Donuts has opened a franchise.

“Opening Dunkin’ Donuts in Georgia proves that there is an attractive business climate in this country and it is easy to do business here,” US ambassador Richard Norland said at the opening of the stores.

Georgia’s economy has rebounded strongly from 2008 when it collapsed after a brief war with Russia. Since then foreign investment and exports, mainly to Russia, have picked up pace.

The Wissol conglomerate, which has close connections with the Georgian business and political elite, brought Dunkin’ Donuts to Georgia. Last year it also brought Wendy’s, another US fast food chain to Georgia.

The vice-president of Dunkin’ Donuts in Europe, Carlos Vidal, said that Wissol had the experience to launch a brand successfully in Georgia.

“Wissol Group owns knowledge of establishment of retail business and management,” he said.

“Together with Wissol Group we have ambitious plans in Georgia because we know that the population of the country is ready to receive the unique experience of Dunkin’ Donuts and to become everyday customer of sandwiches, donuts, bakery and a variety coffee products.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015

Kim Kardashian to visit Armenia

JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia is bracing itself for a major celebrity visit when Kim Kardashian, a Los Angeles-based reality TV star, and her sisters travel to Yerevan later this year. US media announced that the sisters were planning a visit to their ancestral homeland.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)

Gazprom quits Tajik exploration

JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s Gazprom has given up searching for oil in two of its four exploration blocks in Tajikistan, media reported. Interfax, a Russian news agency, said that Gazprom had been working since 2003 on the projects. It still plans to explore its two remaining blocks. Tajikistan has said that it hopes a major oil and gas discovery will boost its economic prospects.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)

Veggie options are rare in Kazakhstan

KYZYLORDA/Kazakhstan, JAN. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Vegetarianism is growing in popularity in Kazakhstan although ordering it successfully can still be a challenge, even for a well-known pop star.

Pasquale Caprino, an Italian singer who goes by the name of Son Pascal and has made Kazakhstan his home, was trying to order a bowl of vegetarian soup at a restaurant in Kyzylorda.

He’d headed out to this remote and barren medium-sized town in south-central Kazakhstan to shoot a music video.

The restaurant was making an effort with its Alpine chalet-style decorations and uniforms for the staff. It contrasted nicely with the concrete skyline outside. In the corner, overlooking the diners was a full-sized taxidermy of a snarling wolf.

Caprino wanted a bowl of cucumber soup without meat. It arrived, though, with sausage floating amongst the ubiquitous dill. Caprino tried again but in Kazakhstan where eating meat, including horsemeat, is ingrained into the national consciousness the waitress thought that she was being teased. He sighed and pushed away the bowl.

This story of frustration for vegetarians is common in Kazakhstan, said Baur Safi and Stanley Currier — two Almaty-based bloggers who run the vegetaristan.com website.

“During holidays or weddings, it is extremely difficult to find anything other than bread and a cucumber and tomato salad that a vegetarian can eat,” said Currier, a native of California.

Safi, a Kazakh, said, though, that it had become far easier in Almaty, at least, to order vegetarian dishes than it had been several years ago. Much of this is down to the introduction of cuisines that don’t use meat rather than any sort of pro-vegetarian groundswell.

“Many locals equate being vegetarian to being gay,” he said. “It’s a question of ethics, as if you’re trying to be special, and of machismo, which is linked to eating meat.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)

Food prices in Kazakhstan rose by 20% in 2014 -media

JAN. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Food prices in Kazakhstan have increased by nearly 20%, the news website zakon.kz reported. Its unofficial survey of prices said they had risen far more than the official Statistics Committee data showed. Wheat, zakon.kz reported, had increased the most with a 25% rise in 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)

Azerbaijan bans UK tour company

JAN. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s ministry of culture has said it may ban British tour operator Regent Holidays after the company started advertising trips to Nagorno-Karabakh via Armenia. Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over Nagorno-Karabakh.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)

Berdymukhamedov sacks energy chief

>>Sackings come shortly after currency devaluation>>

JAN. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s been a busy start to 2015 for Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. He ordered the devaluation by 20% of the manat on Jan. 1 and now he has sacked both the head of the state gas company Turkmengaz and the head of the Central Bank.

Mr Berdymukhamedov appears frustrated at the relative sluggish nature of recent growth in the Turkmen economy. Much of this can be attributed to the 50% fall in energy prices and the drop in the value of the Russian rouble, so important for the economies of Central Asia.

But Mr Berdymukhamedov said that Turkmengaz head Kakageldy Abdullayev was to blame.

“We could have raised production and exports of liquefied gas and other products which are in great demand on world markets,” Reuters quoted him telling a government meeting.

Mr Berdymukhamedov is fond of culling his top officials. Mr Abdullayev had only been in the job for a year. His replacement was named as Charymuhammed Hommadov.

The day before, Mr Berdymukhamedov had also sacked the head of the Central Bank, the head of the state-run Prezidentbank and also the agriculture bank Daikhanbank.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)

Azerbaijani bank looks for sukuk

JAN. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Highlighting the growing attraction of Islamic finance in the region, International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) said it wanted to raise $200m-$300m later this year through a sukuk. A sukuk is the name of an Islamic bond. IBA is a government owned bank. It raised $252m through a sukuk in 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)

Azerbaijan raises fuel prices

>>People in Baku worry that fuel price rises may also accelerate inflation>>

JAN. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil prices may be falling on the world market but in Azerbaijan the cost of filling your car with either petrol or diesel has actually increased.

The government announced that it was putting the price of fuel up by 0.02 manat to 0.7 manat ($0.9) for a litre of petrol and 0.62 manat for diesel.

This sounds like a marginal increase only but, given the 50% drop in oil prices, actually represents a sharp rise.

Independent observers say that this is another attempt to fill the state budget, so dependent on oil revenue, with cash.

The government, though, has said the price increase was due to the inclusion of a road tax on oil products produced in Azerbaijan for domestic consumption, as well as imported from abroad.

In a suburb of Baku, 52-year-old taxi driver Ahmed Huseynov was waiting for customers at a taxi rank. It was a damp, dreary afternoon. The roads and rooftops were sodden and slippery after the first snows of the year.

“Every day we hear on the news that oil prices are decreasing which logically should have led to a decrease in fuel prices too,” he said. “I don’t understand the government’s decision.”

Azad Gayibov, 38, a school teacher and father of two, said the fuel price increases will mean careful budget planning for his family. “It does not mean an increase in fuel prices only, but also a deterioration in the entire economy.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 214, published on Jan. 14 2015)