Tag Archives: government

Tajik president to be given title of “Leader of the Nation”

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon is about to add another title to his growing list of names. Already called “His Excellency”, he will now add the moniker “Leader of the Nation”.

A group of deputies of the lower chamber of parliament have submitted a draft law proposing that Mr Rakhmon take this title.

One of the proposers of the bill, Abdurahim Kholikzoda told local media that the draft has been prepared because of a groundswell of support from ordinary Tajiks who want to honour their president and everything he has achieved.

“This is a tribute to the merits of the outstanding son of the Tajik people, President Emomali Rakhmon, and for his services to the country and the people of the country,” media quoted Mr Kholikzoda as saying.

Mr Kholikzoda has a track record of lavishly praising Mr Rakhmon. Once head of the State Religion Committee of Tajikistan, he called Mr Rakhmon “the sun” and “the star of happiness” earlier this year.

Many ordinary Tajik are suspicious, though, and suspect that Mr Rakhmon’s new title is a crude attempt to curry favour.

A Dushanbe resident called Farhod said: “We have the lowest economic development in the post- Soviet space, our migrants are dying in Russia, our families are freezing in areas without electricity or poisoned by carbon monoxide of coal, corruption is developed, and the list can go on.

“However, what are our MPs doing? They compete to invent such laws to get the attention of the President. I am speechless.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kazakh leader signs new employment law

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev signed into law changes to the country’s employment code that make it easier for companies to sack workers. The new law also makes industrial action harder to take. Businesses have said that the law is a necessary modernising step. Trade unions have said it is designed to undermine them.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kazakh parliament approves budget cuts

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s parliament approved a budget designed to both limit spending during a period of low oil prices and target a national deficit that has crept up to a 10-year-high.

Perhaps with this in mind, the sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Ka- zyna announced plans to cap pay and close 33 of its 36 overseas offices and the Central Bank said that it would slow work on building a state-of-the- art data centre in Astana.

The government’s budget for 2016-18 acknowledged that economic growth had stalled and would measure only 1.2% this year, its lowest rate since 2009 — the height of the Global Financial Crisis.

It also specifically wanted to target a deficit which has grown to around 3% of GDP, its highest in the past decade.

Presenting the government’s budget, PM Karim Massimov acknowledged the severity of the economic challenge.

“On December 8, the government will adopt an anti-crisis programme for the next three years. We will unite all previous economic programmes under a new umbrella,” Mr Massimov told the Senate.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev later confirmed he will address the nation on Nov. 30 on plans to tackle to the growing economic malaise.

The new budget forecasts oil prices to remain within the $40- 50/barrel range and the tenge to remain stable at around 300/$1.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Uzbek President signs investment programme

NOV. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Official media in Uzbekistan reported that President Islam Karimov has signed a resolution to begin a $16.6 investment programme running in 2016 and 2017. The main focus of the programme is to upgrade and modernise the country’s technology and energy sectors. Projects include part of a gas pipeline to China and the construction of both a petro-chemical plant and a thermal power station.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)

Uzbekistan releases former MP

NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan released Murod Juraev, a 63-year-old former MP, from prison after 21 years. He was jailed for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government, although human rights groups have said this is a fabrication. Observers linked Mr Juraev’s release to a visit this month to Uzbekistan by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Kazakhstan cuts food subsidies

NOV. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – In what it described as a push to promote competition, the Kazakh government said it will cut subsidies for bread, petrol, and animal husbandry. In particular, the government will cut subsidies for wheat producers from 2,500 tenge/tonne ($8) to zero. The government may be looking to save money.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Kyrgyz President wants change

NOV. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Two years before he steps down as Kyrgyzstan’s president, Almazbek Atambayev, said he wants the country to fully embrace the parliamentary model of governance. Analysts interpreted this as an attempt to shore up power for his Social Democratic party.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Kyrgyzstan ditches energy ministry

NOV. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan disbanded its energy ministry and reinvented it as a holding company under the ministry of environment. It will hold all the government’s stakes in its various energy projects. The reasons for the transformation have not been made clear.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Azerbaijani President fires communications minister

NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev fired his long-serving communications minister Ali Abbasov, the second sacking of a government minister in two months.

Mr Aliyev has generally preferred to keep people in key positions for years, so the sackings have created an unusual sense of instability around the Azerbaijani government.

Mr Abbasov had been communications minister for over 11 years.

The presidential press service announced the sacking through an online statement. No reason was given for the sacking although shortly afterwards police arrested 10 senior officials in the communications ministry and charged them with corruption.

The pattern is similar to the sacking last month of national security minister Eldar Mahmudov. He had also been in the job since 2004. Similarly, after Mr Mahmudov was sacked, police arrested several senior officials in the national security ministry for corruption.

Azerbaijan is routinely criticised for its corruption levels but it is unusual for the state to purge its own ranks for alleged graft and even more unusual for an internal investigation to trigger ministerial sackings.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

Kazakh president seals deals in London

NOV. 3/4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev flew to Britain and France to sign a series of headline grabbing deals and pose for useful photo-ops.

In London, Mr Nazarbayev met with PM David Cameron and the Queen. The two sides signed 40 deals for £3b ($4.6b).

Importantly, Mr Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter Dariga, a deputy PM, accompanied him on the trip and was part of the official photo with the Queen. In Soviet and post-Soviet iconography, featuring in official photographs sends a strong signal and being photographed next to her father at an official engagement with the Queen will have boosted any presidential ambitions that Ms Nazarbayeva harbours.

In Paris, Mr Nazarbayev met with President Françoise Hollande and signed another set of deals worth over $5b, according to state media in Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)