JUNE 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – From 2015, except for members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU), migrant workers from the ex-Soviet Union will only be allowed to work in Russia if they carry a passport and not just an ID card. Kyrgyzstan wants to join the EaEU which includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz agriculture accounts for around a fifth of GDP and just under half the country’s employment according to the country’s National Statistics Committee, yet many farmers say the sector is on its knees.
As Kyrgyzstan prepares for entry into the Eurasian Economic Union comprising Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, discussions over farming’s future are only likely to intensify.
On June 12, Alibek Rakaev, Head of the Association of Pastoralists told journalists that meat production in the country was falling due to the prevalence of diseases that village vets have proven unable to diagnose or treat. Livestock farming was in a “critical condition”, he said.
Back in Soviet times Kyrgyzstan’s meat and dairy products were exported all over the Union, but neighbouring Kazakhstan now views Kyrgyzstan’s products with caution and has banned import of Kyrgyz milk and meat in the past. The Eurasian Economic Union has even tighter controls.
Poultry farmers might welcome membership, with high tariffs on non-Union imports potentially restricting the flow of Chinese chicken and eggs onto the domestic market, but for Kyrgyzstan’s crop-growers, Jomart Jumabekov, a member of the Public Advisory Board on the Ministry of Agriculture, said, closer integration with Russia and Kyrgyzstan means problems.
“I view the Customs Union negatively. Russian and Kazakh wheat and grains already dominate our market,” Mr Jumabekov told the Conway Bulletin. “With even fewer barriers to trade with these countries, we will stop growing even a small proportion of our own food. No-one will till the land.”
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 100 people demonstrated in front of the Jalal-Abad regional administration headquarters in the town of Aksy in south Kyrgyzstan to demand the resignation of the governor, who they accuse of corruption. Aksy is significant as a demonstration there in 2005 triggered a revolution.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – US defence spending in Central Asia — and in particular in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan — has been slashed by more than 90%, media reported quoting figures released by the Pentagon. The US is withdrawing from neighbouring Afghanistan and winding down operations in Central Asia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – After a six month delay, Kyrgyzstan approved a business plan for Centerra Gold’s Kumtor mine in the east of the country. The approval narrowly beat a deadline set by Toronto-listed Centerra Gold which had threatened to close the mine for the year. Kumtor is Kyrgyzstan’s single biggest industrial operation.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Inflation in Kyrgyzstan will almost certainly double this year to around 8%, Tolkun Abdygulov, head of the Central Bank, said. Increasing inflation could agitate people in Kyrgyzstan. Mr Abdygulov also said that the Central Bank had spent $198m trying to prop up the Kyrgyz national currency.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The number of migrants entering Russia for work has fallen by 20% this year because of strict new rules, Konstantin Romodanovsky, head of the Russian Federal Migration Service, said. This is important to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan whose economies rely most heavily on remittances from Russia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
BISHKEK/Kyrgyzstan, JUNE 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dressed in a colourful striped shirt Narynbek Moldobayev is on first name terms with all the staff at this Italian restaurant in central Bishkek.
Moldobayev is the archetypal Kyrgyz MP and rather charming with it. Having moved seamlessly between three political parties in the last five years, his politics can be described as fluid — a common characteristic in Kyrgyzstan.
And it is this fluidity amongst the Kyrgyzstan’s political class, that’s important to examine as it is undermining, many say, Central Asia’s first parliamentary democracy.
An MP who supported former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, ousted in a revolution in 2010, Moldobayev is now part of an opposition group that split from the nationalist Ata-Jurt party.
“I was never a nationalist,” he said as he tucked into a bowl of salad.
Moldobayev is 60-years-old and sentimental about the Soviet Union. He praises Russia unreservedly but is suspicious of China and its “desire to influence” the Central Asian energy sphere.
Moldobayev, primarily a businessman who made his money in the construction and oil industries, seems unbothered by the values of the party whose list he has paid his way to be on through donations. “Kyrgyz politics is built on personal gripes,” he said wearily, explaining why some parties in the parliament have effectively disintegrated.
Many say Kyrgyzstan’s political system might be more representative if it ditched party lists in favour of geographic constituencies. In the parliamentary vote in 2010 five parties took less than 40% of the vote creating a fractious, and many argue weaker, parliament. Moldobayev disagrees with this viewpoint, citing potential for “dangerous localism”.
There may be another reason, though. Since few people actually know who Moldobayev is and he might not win a seat.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The appointment of Tokon Mamytov, a former spy, as head of Kyrgyz state gold mining champion Kygyzaltyn could be good news for investors.
Kyrgyzaltyn acts as the government’s representative in partnerships with Canadian Centerra Gold, operator of the country’s major gold mine, Kumtor, and a number of other Joint Stock mining projects including Altynken (Chui province) and Makmal (Jalal-Abad province).
Starting out in the Soviet-era KGB, Mr Mamytov has spent his adult life in security and defence postings, a background some argue doesn’t qualify him to run a mining company.
But others see Mr Mamytov’s appointment as signal that change is coming.
Kubat Rahimov, a local economist, said Mr Mamytov’s background in the security services, was a good thing as Kyrgyzaltyn’s previous leaders were young western-educated types that “played by Asian rules”. This was a thinly veiled reference to corruption.
Mr Mamytov will not have full control over the sector — licenses are issued via the State Agency of Geology and Mineral Resources — but the position makes him the government’s man on the ground across projects accounting for 97% of the country’s gold production.
Mr Mamytov will need to draw on experience from his last post — managing conflict on the Kyrgyz-Tajik frontier as a deputy PM in charge of security, defence and border issues — in his new post. Along with corruption, community conflict is the biggest problem facing the Kyrgyz mining sector today.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s PM Djoomart Otorbayev said the country would be a member of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union by the end of 2014, Itar-Tass news agency reported. Mr Otorbayev’s comments were another indication that Kyrgyzstan is steadily moving towards Russia’s sphere of influence.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)
