DEC. 6 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — The latest from WikiLeaks revealed US diplomatic cables from Turkmenistan which described leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov as vain and not very bright and another from Azerbaijan which compared President Ilham Aliyev and his father to the mafia bosses in the film The Godfather.
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(News report from Issue No. 18, published on Dec. 6 2010)
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NOV. 19 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – A judge in the United States dismissed charges of corruption and fraud against businessman James Giffen, who had been accused of giving $84m in bribes to Kazakh officials in exchange for oil concessions during the 1990s. Prosecutors linked senior members of the Kazakh government, including President Nursultan Nazarbayev, to the case.
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(News report from Issue No. 16, published on Nov. 22 2010)
NOV. 11 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva asked her parliamentary allies, the Social Democrats, to form a coalition government by Nov. 27 despite coming third in an election in October. Kyrgyzstan’s new parliament met for the first time on Nov. 10. Most of the deputies for the winning Ata Zhurt party failed to turn up.
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(News report from Issue No. 15, published on Nov. 15 2010)
NOV. 9 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian PM Tigran Sargsyan sacked 2 deputy health ministers for corruption. Mr Sargsyan has previously said corruption is widespread in Armenia’s health, agriculture, education and finance ministries. In Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perception Index Armenia was placed 123 out of 178, just above Azerbaijan but behind Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 15, published on Nov. 15 2010)
NOV. 7 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) – Political parties loyal to the president won all the seats in a parliamentary election in Azerbaijan. The main opposition party
complained of election fraud. International observers said little democratic progress had been made and that a lack of media freedom had made the election unfair.
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(News report from Issue No. 14, published on Nov. 8 2010)
NOV. 1 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz central election committee gave the official results of the Oct. 10 election, triggering negotiations to form a government between the five parties that won seats in parliament. The results shut out the Butun party which says it has been cheated out of seats and has pledged to demonstrate.
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(News report from Issue No. 13, published on Nov. 1 2010)
OCT. 28 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Underdeveloped banking systems, a high rate of non-performing loans and inflexible exchange rates are potential brakes on economic recovery in Central Asia and the south Caucasus, the IMF said.
With their reliance on neighbouring Russia and global commodity prices, the global financial downturn in 2009 was tough for the economies of Central Asia and the south Caucasus. This year, with Russia and commodity prices recovering and the impact of domestic fiscal stimulus taking hold, the IMF predicts steady economic growth throughout the regions, other than for Kyrgyzstan.
Remittances from workers in Russia, so important for the poorer Central Asian and Caucasus countries, grew by 26% in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.
The IMF said that inflation was generally under control at around 8%, although in Uzbekistan it was nearer 11%. For the IMF, the regions’ banking sectors are a concern. In Kazakhstan, the IMF pointed out, non-performing loans total nearly 26% of all loans.
IMF’s GDP % growth figures (2010 and 2011 are predictions):
Armenia +13.7 (2007); +6.9 (2008); -14.2 (2009); +4.0 (2010); +4.6 (2011)
Azerbaijan +25.0 (2007); +10.8 (2008); +9.3 (2009); +4.3 (2010); +1.8 (2011)
Georgia +12.3 (2007); +2.3 (2008); -3.9 (2009); +5.5 (2010); +4.0 (2011)
Kazakhstan +8.9 (2007); +3.2 (2008); +1.2 (2009); +5.4 (2010); +5.1 (2011)
Kyrgyzstan +8.5 (2007); +8.4 (2008); +2.3 (2009); -3.5 (2010); +7.1 (2011)
Tajikistan +7.8 (2007); +7.9 (2008); +3.4 (2009); +5.5 (2010); +5.0 (2011)
Turkmenistan +11.6 (2007); +10.5 (2008); +6.1 (2009); +9.4 (2010); +11.5 (2011)
Uzbekistan +9.5 (2007); +9.0 (2008); +8.1 (2009); +8.0 (2010); +7.0 (2011)
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(News report from Issue No. 13, published on Nov. 1 2010)
OCT. 20 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Thousands of supporters of a Kyrgyz party that narrowly missed out on representation in parliament after an election protested
throughout the week in Bishkek. The Butun Kyrgyzstan party, a nationalist grouping, says it has been robbed and has pledged to hold street rallies until the result is changed.
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(News report from Issue No. 12, published on Oct. 21 2010)
OCT. 15 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s parliament gave its final approval to constitutional changes which shift power away from the president to the PM. The changes will come into affect when President Mikheil Saakashvili leaves office in 2013 after his second and final term. Opponents have called the changes undemocratic.
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(News report from Issue No. 12, published on Oct. 21 2010)
OCT. 10 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) — An election in Kyrgyzstan designed to create Central Asia’s first parliamentary democracy failed to produce a majority winner. The five parties that won seats will now build a coalition. The Ata-Zhurt party, associated with deposed former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, won the most seats with 28 in the 120-seat parliament.
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(News report from Issue No. 11, published on Oct. 14 2010)
