APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament officially voted in Djoomart Otorbayev as the new PM. Mr Otorbayev is a former World Bank official who served as deputy PM in the previous government.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 7 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Under gentle pressure from the World Bank, a key donor, Kyrgyzstan plans to increase the retirement age for women by two years to 60-years-old.
The idea is to both equalise the retirement age of men and women and generate revenue for the state pension plan.
But reforming Soviet-era pension plans is an emotive issue. In neighbouring Kazakhstan, a similar plan last year triggered protests and the resignation of a government minister.
Kyrgyzstan currently has a young population but with a grey economy worth 40% of GDP, payments into the government’s pension pot and other forms of social assistance are miserly.
This needs to change to support a society where life expectancies are increasing, although people in sight of retirement are unlikely to be thinking fiscally.
Varya Zirilenko, 53, said her hands ached from the repetition of sorting potatoes at the processing plant in the northern city of Tokmok where she works.
“When I come home at night they shake. Is that normal? Must I go on like this for another seven years before I can receive a full pension?” Varya expects her monthly pension to be over 6,500 Kyrgyz soms ($120). Many are even smaller.
Perhaps, though, the retirement age is just one of the issues surrounding Kyrgyzstan’s pension scheme. Another is corruption, endemic throughout the country.
Akhmatbek Keldibekov, an opposition politician from the country’s south is currently on trial for corruption. The charges relate to his time as head of the Social Fund under former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
APRIL 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Highlighting tension in Kyrgyzstan’s mining sector, media reports said that protesters blocking a road in the Talas region of north Kyrgyzstan clashed briefly with police. The protesters were demanding compensation for alleged environmental damage from the mining company.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
MARCH 31 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Checkpoints along the disputed Kyrgyz-Tajik border have re-opened for the first time since a shootout between border-guards in January, media reported. The border is disputed between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, one of a number or territorial flashpoints across Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A car bomb in Tokmok, northern Kyrgyzstan, killed champion Kyrgyz kick-boxer Ruslan Abasov and injured his wife and child. Media reported that police are investigating links to organised crime gangs. Abasov has won the Eurasian and European kick-boxing championships.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a similar move to Russia’s controversial law of 2013, Kyrgyzstan’s parliament published a draft bill that would outlaw spreading information about gay issues. The bill is currently only published online for public discussion but this is the first step to turning it into law.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament confirmed the new governing coalition would be made up of the same partners as the previous one — the Social Democratic Party, Ar-Namys and Ata-Meken.
The only apparent difference is the PM who is likely to be Djoomart Otorbayev, a deputy prime minister in the last two coalition governments.
But Mr Otorbayev is already a divisive choice. He is a former World Bank technocrat and in Kyrgyzstan’s partisan politics that sits uncomfortably with many.
What he lacks, decried Kyrgyz MP Jusupali Isayev, is a certain Kyrgyz-ness. Mr Isayev said that his World Bank training is all very well but Mr Otorbayev is out-of-touch with ordinary Kyrgyz as he doesn’t know how to keep livestock or dry apricots.
Indeed, Mr Otorbayev has already signalled where he lies on the central debate in Kyrgyzstan between nationalist policies and attracting essential foreign investment, when he said that he would not look to re-negotiate a new deal with Toronto-based Centerra Gold over the Kumtor gold mine.
In February, the Kyrgyz government and Centerra Gold agreed a 50:50 ownership deal of the gold mine.
Kumtor is key to the Kyrgyz economy. It currently accounts for 10% of GDP.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A joint Tajik-Kyrgyz commission is discussing land swaps to reduce tension along their border, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported (March 24). Tension along the border has escalated this year. A shootout between Tajik and Kyrgyz border guards earlier this year killed several people.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan threw its support behind the Crimea referendum, saying the vote reflected the will of the people. Crimea voted overwhelmingly to cede from Ukraine and join Russia earlier this month. Kyrgyzstan supported the overthrow of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich but had been careful not to offend Russia.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — When Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon headed to his home province of Khatlon to celebrate the Nowruz spring holiday he found time to, possibly at least, take part in an important part of Tajikistan’s modern history.
He joined Fan Xianrong, China’s ambassador in Dushanbe, at the official opening ceremony to build Tajikistan’s first oil refinery.
The facility could process up to 1.2m tonnes of crude annually, mirroring the potential of a similar Chinese-built plant in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan.
The Kyrgyz refinery is ready to begin production but has faced persistent protests and inflated compensation claims from locals concerned about the environmental impact. On March 24, Kyrgyzstan’s environmental agency finally ruled the refinery was not in breach of domestic environmental laws.
When they are up and running these refineries may help break the Russian energy grip over Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and produce enough supply to feed domestic demand.
The crude oil for the Kyrgyz refinery could be sourced via a spur from the China-Kazakhstan pipeline, while Beijing’s CNPC is working on upstream oil projects in Tajikistan.
For China, building a refinery and controlling crude oil supplies is an effective way of securing influence over regional governments.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
