MAY 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps echoing its Soviet past, Kazakhstan will fire a third of its high-level government officials after they failed a new test, media reported quoting the chairman of the state service agency, Alikhan Baimenov. The test for officials was introduced last year to professionalise Kazakhstan’s bureaucracy.
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(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — It certainly sounds grand. Baiterek, the name for the new Kazakh national holding company, means earth-tree, a mythological tree connecting the inner Earth, the human-inhabited surface of the planet and the heavens.
On May 27, the Kazakh government said it planned to set up a new company, Baiterek, to hold some of the nation’s assets. It’s still, though, not entirely clear what specific role Baiterek will play.
According to media reports, Baiterek will hold stakes in various national companies and work with foreign investors on innovation projects.
Names are important in Kazakhstan and the symbolism of calling the new company Baiterek is difficult to miss.
Baiterek also holds greater resonance in Kazakhstan as the name for the tower at the centre of Astana, a symbol of a growing, proud nation.
Baiterek, the holding company not the tower, is probably one to watch.
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(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
APRIL 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Underlining Kazakhstan’s reliance on its energy sector, Kazakh PM Serik Akhmetov, signed into law a 50% increase in oil export duties.
From April 13, exporters will pay a $60 tax to the government for every tonne of oil they export, up from $40. Reuters quoted deputy economy minister Marat Kusainov as saying that the extra revenue will be spent on social projects.
Wherever the extra revenue is spent, energy companies will no doubt be tired of being used as a cash cow whenever the Kazakh government wants to raise cash.
The government has flip-flopped on the oil export duty, introducing it in 2008, scrapping it altogether in 2009, when the global economy tumbled and energy prices fell, before reintroducing it again.
In 2010, the export tax stood was $20 per tonne. This increased to $40 per tonne in 2011.
The oil export duty also re-enforces the feeling that the Kazakh government is often too focused on taxing energy exporters rather than developing other parts of the economy.
After all, in 2011 Kazakh government ministers promised there would be no oil export tax rise until at least 2014.
Clearly the plan, if not the mind-set, changed.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
MARCH 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Bishkek court jailed three nationalist opposition MPs for between 12 and 18 months for calling for a revolution and trying to break into a Kyrgyz government office in October last year. The politicians — Kamchibek Tashiyev, Sadyr Zhaparov and Talant Mamytov — wanted the Kumtor gold mine to be nationalised.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)
MARCH 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Amid an increasingly acrimonious political divide in Georgia, President Mikheil Saakashvili and PM Bidzina Ivanishvili met for only the second time since an election on Oct. 1 to discuss their differences. Supporters of Georgia’s two political leaders have clashed recently in Tbilisi.
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(News report from Issue No. 126, published on March 8 2013)
FEB. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov sacked the head of the national equine association live on television for not sufficiently promoting the horse industry, media reported. Mr Berdymukhamedov has set much weight in promoting various aspects of the Turkmenistan’s culture since becoming president in 2007.
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(News report from Issue No. 125, published on Feb. 22 2013)
FEB. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov sacked the head of the national equine association live on television for not sufficiently promoting the horse industry, media reported. Mr Berdymukhamedov has set much weight in promoting various aspects of the Turkmenistan’s culture since becoming president in 2007.
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(News report from Issue No. 125, published on Feb. 22 2013)
FEB. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ukrainian police arrested ex-Tajik PM Abdumalik Abdullojonov in Kiev after he flew in from the US where he has been living since fleeing Tajikistan over a decade ago. The Tajik authorities have asked Ukraine to extradite Mr Abdullojonov. They accuse him of plotting to assassinate President Emomali Rakhmon.
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(News report from Issue No. 123, published on Feb. 8 2013)
JAN. 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Roughly 1,000 people protested outside Georgia’s presidential palace to demand that President Mikheil Saakashvili resign, one of the biggest political demonstrations since a parliamentary election in October. Georgians are due to vote in a presidential election in Oct. 2013.
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(News report from Issue No. 121, published on Jan. 25 2013)
JAN. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmenistan’s autocratic president, sacked the head of the state’s natural gas company in a government reshuffle, media reported. Gas is Turkmenistan’s biggest income earner. Sahatmyrad Mammedov had headed Turkmengaz for less than a year.
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(News report from Issue No. 120, published on Jan. 18 2013)
