JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s GDP was 6.9% higher at the end of May than it was a year earlier, the Kyrgyz national statistics office said. The main driver of this growth was the Kumtor gold mine, Kyrgyzstan’s largest industrial project.
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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)
DILIJAN/Armenia, JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Once best known as a spa resort in the north-eastern mountains of Armenia, for the past couple of years Dilijan has also been a base for the Central Bank.
As part of a government plan to redistribute wealth around the country, the Central Bank moved 100 employees in the Central Bank’s research department and their families to this quiet, gentle mountain town of around 20,000 people.
“Central Bank’s move to Dilijan has had multiple effects,” the Armenian Central Bank chairman, Artur Javadyan, told the Bulletin on a trip to Dilijan.
“Our staff’s first concern was whether their children would have appropriate education and other facilities for permanent residence. This encouraged the Central Bank to create new and high quality infrastructures.”
It’s an ambitious project for the Central Bank to tackle. It had to build new infrastructure for its employees, such as schools, sports centres and apartment blocks, investments which have had positive drip-down effects on the local population, their shops and businesses.
And it appears to be paying off. The Central Bank employees who have moved to Dilijan, which lies in a national park, said they were enjoying the experience.
“It is great in here,” one said as birdsong floated across the air. “After a hard working day we go to play football, have some beer and rest.”
Nearby, a supermarket has experienced a boost in demand for products generated by the workers.
And Armenia’s newest financial hub — even if it is a small, embryonic one — is also a magnet for tourists interested in nature. Surrounded by forested mountains, Dilijan is famous for its natural springs which have attracted tourists from around the world.
“We’re so happy to see our city developing, where you can see the contrast of old and new,” said a Dilijan resident.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – As part of its ambition to become a more important transit country, Uzbekistan plans to increase the amount of cargo it moves through to Europe, media reported. A government official said that Uzbekistan wanted to increase cargo levels by 400% over the next few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
MAY 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili said that he opposed stripping the Central Bank of its supervisory duties over the country’s commercial banks. As reported in last week’s Bulletin, reformers suggested that these powers should be given to an independent body.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
June 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Electricity prices in Armenia will increase, media quoted Robert Nazaryan, chairman of the Public Services Regulatory Commission, as saying, ending months of indecision. This will be the third electricity price rise in two years and triggered street protests.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
MAY 28-30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov completed a three day state visit to South Korea which laid the foundations to further develop relations between the two countries.
Mr Karimov and South Korean president Park Geun-hye signed deals worth $7.7b. The agreements cover many sectors ranging from financial to medical to agriculture sectors.
Compare the $7.7b worth of deals to trade between Uzbekistan and South Korea of $1.9b last year.
Mr Karimov appears to have deliberately chosen South Korea for his first foreign trip following his re-election in March for two important reasons.
South Korea is a close ally of the West, and a reception in Seoul offers Mr Karimov’s recognition and credence, and may serve as a stepping-stone for recognition by other capitals.
It is also important to note that Mr Karimov chose a country to visit that would not irritate either Moscow or Washington.
And there is also a cold, hard economic reason for choos- ing to visit South Korea so soon after winning re-election. Mr Karimov needs hard currency to boost the economy, which has been in a downward spiral since Western sanctions hit Russia and dented remittances.
South Korea and Uzbekistan are closely linked. The Soviet Dictator moved thousands of Koreans to Uzbekistan in the 1930s and 1940s.
There is still a large Korean diaspora living in Uzbekistan and, as well as being an important investor in Uzbekistan, after Russia and Kazakhstan, South Korea generates the most remittance flow.
An agreement from Mr Karimov’s trip to Seoul on the mutual recognition of drivers’ licenses also suggested that the two parties are expecting closer ties between the countries.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
MAY 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Apparently not content with a booming gas industry, Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said that he wanted to develop an electronics industry. Mr Berdymukhamedov has been keen to push Turkmen industry.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijanis have lost confidence in the manat currency since a 33% devaluation earlier this year, eurasinet.org reported. It said dollar accounts in Azerbaijan now made up 70% of the total, the highest proportion in a decade.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Inflation in Georgia in May rose to 3.5% from 2.5% in April, the Georgian national statistics agency said. Economists have warned that the fall in the value of the lari would spur inflation.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
JUNE 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Bishkek, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) president Suma Chakrabarti said that it planned to invest $70m in Kyrgyzstan to boost its investment climate. Mr Chakrabarti highlighted the need for investment in local currency and capital markets.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
