Tag Archives: society

Biathlon team cleared of drug-taking, says Kazakh minister

FEB. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s culture and sports minister, Arystanbek Mukhamediuly, said that the biathlon team had been cleared of taking any performance enhancing drugs ahead of the World Championships in Austria. Austrian police raided the team’s hotel last week on the eve of the competition after, media reported, finding an empty box with discarded medical equipment.

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(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Uzbeks use Morgan Freeman to promote film

FEB. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s cinema licensing agency blocked the release of an Uzbek-made action movie called ‘Rogue’ because posters advertising the film had shown an image of US actor Morgan Freeman, suggesting the he played a major role in it. He didn’t, as it happens, have any role in the movie which is hooked around the story of an Uzbek police chief fighting off assassins.

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(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Georgia Healthcare posts strong 2016 results

TBILISI, FEB. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In its full year results, London-listed Georgia Healthcare said that revenue had risen by 75% and that the company was well- placed for more growth in 2017 and 2018.

The Tbilisi-based company, which is part-owned by Bank of Georgia, did say that results at its insurance business were worse than expected but this didn’t dampen investor enthusiasm for one of the Central Asia/South Caucasus region’s best- performing stocks.

The day after the results, Georgia Healthcare’s share price was up 6.3% at 379p (see Markets on page 12 for more information on Georgia Healthcare’s stock price).

Nikoloz Gamkrelidze, the Georgia Healthcare CEO, said in a statement that a combination of organic growth and acquisitions in the pharmacy and medicines distribution sectors had helped push up revenues to 426.4m lari ($161.5m) and to more than double net profit to 61.3m lari ($23.2m).

“The Group delivered a strong performance in 2016, and remains in good shape to benefit over the next few years from the combination of its position as the largest healthcare services provider, pharmaceuticals wholesaler and retailer and medical insurer in what continues to be a fast-growing, predominantly privately-owned, Georgian healthcare services market,” he said.

Georgia Healthcare listed on the London stock exchange in November 2015 for 170p. It is the largest private healthcare company in Georgia and now operates 13 regional clinics and 28 so-called express clinics. Acquisitions in 2016 in the competitive pharmacy sector has now given is a 29% share of this market.

The one blight on its 2016 results was in the insurance sector which lost 4.9m lari ($1.85m). Mr Gamkrelidze blamed a loss on one contract.

“Our medical insurance business had a more challenging year, particularly reflecting the loss- making impact of one large corporate insurance contract,” he said. “This contract has now expired and has not been renewed.”

Mr Gamkrelidze predicted that the Georgia Healthcare insurance unit will break even in 2017. It has a 35% share of Georgia’s medical insurance market.

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(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Azerbaijan applies to host UEFA Champions League in 2019

FEB. 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Baku has applied to host the 2019 UEFA Champions League final, one of the world’s most-watched sporting events, at its Olympic Stadium. Baku’s Olympic Stadium is already one of the designated hosts for the 2020 European Football Championship. If Baku did win the right to host the 2019 UEFA Champions League final, Azerbaijan would be the first country to host it without ever having had a team compete in it.

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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Georgian authorities close Gulen- linked school in Batumi

BATUMI/Georgia, FEB. 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s National Centre for Education Quality Enhancement (NCEQE) stripped the Batumi Refaiddin Şahin Friendship School, operated by a Gulen-affiliated group, of its operating licence, triggering accusations of playing politics.

The school was opened in 1994 and was one of the first Gulen-affiliated school to open in Georgia.Officially, its license is now being revoked due to violations of the student’s enrolment code but others have said that the Georgian government is bowing to pressure from Turkey which blames the Gulen movement for plotting a coup last year.

Elguja Davitadze, director of the Batumi Refaiddin Şahin Friendship School, said the authorities appeared determined to close down the school. “Georgia’s Education Ministry told us to abolish the Turkish section (of the school’s intake) if we wanted to keep our accreditation. We agreed to abolish the Turkish sector gradually, by transferring Turkish students to the Georgian sector, but the ministry said this was a violation and revoked our accreditation,” he was quoted by local media as saying.

He also said education inspectors had been hovering around the school for months, carrying out inspections.

If the Batumi Refaiddin Şahin Friendship School is closed down it will, possibly, be the first Gulen-run school in the country to close since Turkey started putting pressure on its neighbours in Central Asia and the South Caucasus to shut them. In many countries, the Gulen schools of the 1990s are still some of the best.

Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have so far refused to close them while Azerbaijan, one of Turkey closest neighbours, has appeared eager to please.

Shota Utiashvili, a Senior Fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, said that although the Turkish economy is much larger than Georgia’s, Ankara doesn’t control Georgia.

“It is not a hierarchical relationship, it is a partnership and both parts get a lot of benefits from this relationship,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Austrian police raids Kazakh team’s hotel

FEB. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Austrian police raided the Kazakh biathlon team’s hotel looking for evidence of drug taking on the eve of the World Championships. Kazakhstan wants its sports teams to be taken more seriously and this drug raid will be an embarrassment, doubly so presumably, because of its previously stated determination to host the Winter Olympic Games. Kazakh team officials have denied any wrongdoing.

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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Four transgender women attacked in Georgian nightclub

TBILISI, FEB. 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — An alleged gang of men attacked four transgender women in a nightclub just off Rustaveli, the main street in Tbilisi, once again triggering fears of a lack of acceptance in Georgia for alternative life- styles.

Transgender women have been targeted for attacks in the past couple of years, with several being killed.

The day before the latest attack a man was sent to prison for 13 years for killing a transgender woman in 2016.

But other social groups have also been attacked, including vegetarians, homosexuals and ethnic minorities.

Georgia wants to, ultimately, join the European Union but these hate crimes are likely to play against it. Georgia is renowned for having a deeply conservative society rooted in the Georgian Orthodox Church.

The Church, an important focal point for ordinary Georgians and their politicians, has campaigned against gay rights and has pushed for the ruling Georgian Dream coalition government to change the government to enshrine marriage between a man and a woman.

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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Uzbekistan to give rural households chickens and lemons to boost economy

FEB. 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Uzbek government plans to give around 2m households who live in rural areas chickens and lemon trees to feed themselves and to trade, the Reuters news agency reported quoting a document published on a government website.

The handouts are a core part of the drive by the new Uzbek administration, headed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, to kick-start the rural economy. According to World Bank data, around 14% of Uzbekistan’s 31.3m people live in poverty, mainly in rural areas where two-thirds of the population live.

Specifically, the government wants to give 850,000 families up to 100 chickens each and to help another 1.07m households to build greenhouses for lemon trees. A government agency will then buy back some of these chickens and lemons for export.

Mr Mirziyoyev has been president of Uzbekistan since September 2016 when Islam Karimov died.

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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)

Kazakhstan to block unregistered phones

FEB. 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A new law means that all unregistered mobile phones in Kazakhstan will be blocked from July 1 2017. The authorities say that the new law has been brought in to help fight potential terrorists but its detractors have said that it has been imposed to help the authorities monitor people who oppose the government more closely.

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(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Azerbaijani bank drops football sponsorship

JAN. 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), majority owned by the Azerbaijani government, has dropped sponsorship of a Baku football team as part of a cost-cutting drive.

Dropping sponsorship of Inter Baku, a top tier team, is another sign that the tough economic conditions have hit IBA hard. A few years ago such a move would have been unimaginable.

“In accordance with new strategic goals limitation of the IBA’s sports support will help the bank optimise its expenses and direct resources to the sphere of finance and banking, which are priority,” IBA chairman Khalid Ahadov said in a statement released by the bank.

“That will increase the efficiency of the recovery processes, conducted with government’s support.”

At the end of January, the Azerbaijani government increased its stake in IBA to 77% from 56% in order to ensure the stability of the bank, Azerbaijan’s biggest. Analysts have been warning for the past 12 months that an economic downturn was pressuring the banking sector in Azerbaijan. The Central Bank has also withdrawn trading licences from some of the smaller banks.

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(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)