Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyz MPs resisted Kumtor restrictions

JUNE 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – MPs in Kyrgyzstan resisted an attempt by the Ata-Meken party to impose stricter mining techniques at the Kumtor gold mine. Ata-Meken is part of the ruling coalition. Kumtor is owned by Toronto-based Centerra Gold. Kyrgyzstan has been arguing with Centerra over ownership of the mine.

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(News report from Issue No. 237, published on June 25 2015)

IOC President visited Kyrgyzstan

JUNE 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), travelled to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as part of a short trip to the region. Mr Bach first travelled to Baku for the opening ceremony of the European Games and then to Tashkent, Dushanbe and Bishkek.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Kyrgyzstan to face inflation

JUNE 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan will only see the benefits of its membership of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union in 2017, media quoted economy minister Oleg Pankratov as saying. He said inflation will initially soar in Kyrgyzstan once it joins the economic group.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Fuel prices rise in Kyrgyzstan

JUNE 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Fuel prices in Kyrgyzstan are rising, media reported quoting the Kyrgyz Association of fuel traders. They said extra tax imposed by the Kyrgyz government had triggered the rise. Kyrgyzstan is also facing general inflation due to the falling value of its currency.

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

Kyrgyz MPs want to impose gold export tax

JUNE 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – MPs in Kyrgyzstan’s parliament have called for the introduction of a new tax on gold exports, media reported, pitting themselves, once again, against the country’s largest foreign investor.

The Kumtor gold east of the country is Kyrgyzstan’s single biggest industrial asset and parliamentarians said that its exports needed to be targeted to raise extra revenue for the national budget.

Centerra Gold, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, owns Kumtor. The Kyrgyz government is a minority owner in Centerra. It has been fighting to increase its stake in the company and to gain more control over Kumtor itself. Earlier this year, a Kyrgyz PM resigned after failing to win concessions.

Mirlan Bakirov, an MP for the opposition Onuguu (Progress) party, proposed a 20% gold export tax to be instated at the beginning of 2016, while Alla Izmalkova of the Social Democratic Party argued for a similar tariff to start in 2018.

Official data showed that in 2014, Kyrgyzstan exported 85,000 tonnes of gold, an increase of around 36% from mine in the 2013.

But the issue of taxing gold exports has been passing around the Kyrgyz parliament for years without ever being resolved.

Earlier in June, Kozhobek Ryspayev, member of the Committee on Fuel and Energy, said an export tax would harm the mining industry. Valentin Bogdetsky, member of the Board of the Kyrgyz Mining Association similarly stated: “The imposition of an export duty on gold is not a solution to the problems between the industry and the government.”

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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)

UN chief challenges Kyrgyzstan on 2010 fighting

JUNE 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a stopover in Bishkek as part of a wider tour of Central Asia and its capitals, UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon said Kyrgyzstan should hold an impartial investigation into the death of 400 people during fighting in the south of the country in 2010.

Most of the people killed during fighting around the city of Osh in south Kyrgyzstan in 2010 were Uzbek.

“Kyrgyzstan has ambitious plans to promote interethnic harmony and to protect the rights of all, including minorities,” Reuters quoted Mr Ban as saying at a press conference in the city.

“But it’s important for these policies to be put into practice. Root causes must be addressed fully and impartially investigated and prosecuted.”

The inference is clear. Any Kyrgyz investigations since 2010 have been skewed to clear ethnic Kyrgyz of blame for the fighting which drove thousands of ethnic Uzbeks over the border into Uzbekistan.

Although lying inside Kyrgyzstan’s borders, Osh and the surrounding towns and cities have always been heavily populated by ethnic Uzbeks.

Human rights groups have accused Kyrgyzstan of a cover up over how the fighting in 2010 started by convicting local Uzbek leaders for starting the fighting.

Relations between the two communities living around Osh continued to be strained and the peace fragile.

Mr Ban was visiting Bishkek as part of a Central Asia tour, his second since 2010.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Kyrgyz health minister worries

JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Doctors and other health workers will leave Kyrgyzstan for better paid jobs in Kazakhstan and Russia now that the country has joined the Kremlin- led Eurasian Economic Union, media quoted Kyrgyz health minister Talantbek Batyraliyev as saying. Kyrgyzstan’s health service is already in a precarious states.

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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)

Kyrgyz GDP increases

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)

Kyrgyzstan bans RHD cars

JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A law in Kyrgyzstan banning the import, registration and maintenance of righthand-drive cars came into force. The bill was signed into law earlier this year. Traffic experts in Kyrgyzstan have said that righthand drive cars are involved in more accidents than lefthand drive cars.

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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)

Kyrgyzstan passes anti-NGO bill

JUNE 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s parliament passed a preliminary reading of the so-called Foreign Agents Bill which will, basically, make it harder for local NGOs to receive money from Western organisations. The bill is similar to one passed by Russia in 2012.

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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)