JAN. 25 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A property developer in Azerbaijan has applied to the Baku city government for permission to build the world’s tallest tower, the AP news agency reported. Avesta wants to build an office complex with a 1,050m tower at its centre. The tower would be nearly a third higher than the world’s current tallest building.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 75, published on Feb. 2 2012)
JAN. 31 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in western Kazakhstan ended a week-long strike by 300 workers at an engineering business in Atyrau on the Caspian Sea coast by agreeing to boost their wages by 25%. The deal avoids any risk of a repeat of the acrimonious six-month long strike in Zhanaozen, about 600km south of Atyrau, which ended in riots that killed 16 protesters.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 75, published on Feb. 2 2012)
JAN. 19 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR agreed to build an oil refinery in Kyrgyzstan. Media reported that the refinery will process 2m tonnes of crude oil a year and be operational by the end of 2013. The construction will cost $150m. China is already building an oil refinery in Kyrgyzstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 74, published on Jan. 26 2012)
JAN. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Paris-based intergovernmental International Energy Agency warned that unrest last month in west Kazakhstan could slow investment in the Kazakh oil and gas sector, Bloomberg reported. This is the first warning from a major institution that violence which killed at least 17 people could impact the investment climate.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)
JAN. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In its annual growth forecasts, the World Bank said weakening markets in the West would hit the developing world in 2012. For 2012 growth forecasts for Central Asia and the South Caucasus were: Tajikistan 6%, Kyrgyzstan 5.5%, Kazakhstan 5.5%, Uzbekistan 8%, Turkmenistan N/A, Azerbaijan 3.1%, Georgia 5%, Armenia 4.3%.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 73, published on Jan. 19 2012)
JAN. 10 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The personal envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao, Chen Zhili, travelled to Bishkek to meet new Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev. Ms Chen pledged to strengthen relations between China and Kyrgyzstan. Through diplomacy and finance, China has been boosting its influence in Central Asia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 72, published on Jan. 13 2012)
JAN. 10 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh central bank chief, Grigory Marchenko, estimated GDP growth for Kazakhstan in 2012 at 6%. This is slower economic growth than in 2011 but in a worsening global economic climate it also underlines the potential of Kazakhstan’s economy.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 72, published on Jan. 13 2012)
DEC. 23 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the Turkmen president, travelled to Moscow to meet Russia’s President, Dmitri Medvedev, and PM, Vladimir Putin. The trip is important because economic ties between the countries have worsened over rows about gas prices and mobile phone licenses in the past three years.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 71, published on Jan. 5 2012)
DEC. 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to reject a deal to reduce tariffs on Uzbek textiles until the UN is given access to investigate reports of child labour. The decision comes at a time when, despite criticism over its human rights, Uzbekistan is being re-integrated into the international community.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
DEC. 18 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Riots that have killed at least 16 people in western Kazakhstan are a major challenge to the Kazakh elite.
It was, to put it simply, the biggest display of public discontent with the country’s leaders since independence in 1991.
The authorities have since imposed a state of emergency in the town of Zhanaozen, the centre of the fighting, and flooded the region with military. Protests have now taken root in Aktau, a major nearby oil centre, although there are so far no reports of violence.
Their strategy is simple. They aim to stop protests spreading to cities outside the western region of Mangistau. If they can’t, then the outlook for 2012 is decidedly bumpy.
The authorities’ reaction to the riots was insightful. It felt Soviet. They simply crushed the former oil workers who had occupied the main square in Zhanaozen since mid-May.
The statements that followed were dripping in Soviet language. According to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the riots were started by selfish bandits and hooligans and the police had fired on them only when they feared for their lives. Reading it felt like 1986.
The bottom line is that in two consecutive civil disorder scenarios, police fired live rounds at protesters and killed several people.
Kazakhstan has prided itself on being an island of stability in volatile post-Soviet Central Asia. That image is looking distinctly battered.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
