MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan cancelled daylight saving time, first introduced in 1997. It’s unclear, specifically, why Azerbaijan decided to abandon its daylight saving time. News reports said that Azerbaijan’s time would remain at GMT +4.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kuwait Fund for Arab Development said it had agreed to give a $24m loan to finance buying urology equipment for hospitals in Uzbekistan. The Kuwait Fund is sponsored by the Kuwaiti government. Kuwait has, over the past couple of years, developed more interest in Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has approved gas price increases of 8.2% for its population from April 1, the second price rise in six months.
Utility prices across the region have been increasing over the past couple of years as local currencies have devalued and overall inflation has accelerated.
But they are still sensitive, emotive issues.
Gas and electricity have always been subsidised in the former Soviet Union, so people generally resent increases.
In October, the authorities raised gas prices by 7.2%. This time, other utilities will also rise in Uzbekistan, the government said.
The price of cold water will rise by 5.7%, central heating and hot water by 9% and electricity by 8.9%. Last year in Armenia, proposed electricity price rises triggered street demonstrations that forced the government to back down from increasing prices.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – There are two kinds of banking crises. One is when the financial sector struggles to stay healthy, as toxic assets mar the books of commercial banks, as seen most notably in Kazakhstan in 2011-2013.
The other one is a crisis of trust, when citizens start doubting the ability of their banks to provide cash and protect their savings.
This second type of crisis is now happening in Tajikistan. Our correspondent listened to angry voices from the long queues forming outside Tojiksodirotbank, Tajikistan’s third-largest lender.
A regional economic downturn has hit Tajikistan hard, especially because of the sharp drop in the value of worker remittances from Russia.
The government has put the blame on external and private factors. Notably, the Central Bank blamed exchange offices for the imbalance in the exchange rates.
Now responsibility seems to be shifting to commercial lenders, which are a channel for remittances and an increasingly popular method for paying wages among businesses.
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Editorial from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Hundreds of students at Tbilisi State University staged a sit-in to protest at what they said was the non transparent way the university decides on its management structure. The protest attracted nationwide attention, and even forced the intervention of PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili. Some analysts said that the protest could spread.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 16 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Nurali Aliyev, grandson of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, quit his position as deputy mayor of Astana to pursue his business goals, a move that draws him away from the succession debate.
His decision came just days before a parliamentary election, in which his mother, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter Dariga, was standing for re-election.
“I’m looking to work in business development in a financial niche,” media quoted 31-year-old Mr Aliyev as saying. “For many years, before working in the akimat, I was engaged in business.”
Mr Aliyev is the son of Dariga Nazarbayeva and the late Rakhat Aliyev, who was found dead in a Vienna prison in February 2015. He had been charged with the murder of two bankers at Kazakhstan’s Nurbank in 2006.
Prior to being appointed as deputy mayor of Astana in 2014, Mr Aliyev had worked in Kazakhstan’s banking, telecoms and transport sectors.
But it was his shock appointment in December 2014 to one of the Kazakh capital’s most important positions, that threw him into the public limelight and set off rumours that he was being groomed for the top job.
His grandfather, Pres. Nazarbayev, is 75 years old and has said that he is nearing retirement. What he hasn’t done is set out a clear succession schedule.
One of the theories put forward after Mr Aliyev’s appointment as deputy mayor of Astana was that his mother would take over the top job in four or five years time and, effectively, keep the seat warm for her son to take over when he was old enough. The Kazakh constitution states that the minimum age for a president is 40.
Other than citing a preference to resume a business career, Mr Aliyev didn’t say why he was quitting as deputy mayor of Astana.
What his resignation definitely has done, though, is set off renewed Kazakh presidential succession speculation.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 17 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — People in Tajikistan appear to be losing faith in their banking system, triggering a run on one of the country’s biggest banks.
This week crowds of around 100 people have been gathering at the head office of Tojiksodirotbank in Dushanbe, the only place the bank’s customers can withdraw money.
Nuriniso, a 30-year-old street-cleaner, was queuing to withdraw her salary. “Yesterday, I was at the bank until 9pm to get my money. They gave me 700 somoni (around $90) and told me to come another day for some more,” she told a Conway Bulletin correspondent.
An older woman standing next to Nuriniso explained.
“Don’t you understand that the bank is bankrupt?” she said of rumours fuelling what could, effectively be a run on the bank. “The bank will close from the first of April and money can only be withdrawn from other ATMs at 25% (commission).”
This is important for the entire Central Asia and South Caucasus region which has been hit by a worsening economic crisis. If withdrawals from Tojiksodirotbank did accelerate and it did become a run on the bank, it would be the first instance of an unplanned banking failure linked to the current economic downturn.
Tojiksodirotbank, which holds the majority of accounts for the country’s lower and middle classes such as doctors, teachers and government officials, has not commented on the queues forming outside their branches. Instead it said via its website that a technical problem was slowing down transactions.
And Tojiddin Pirzoda, the bank’s chairman has denied rumours of its impending bankruptcy. “Tojiksodirotbank holds a leading and a strong position in the banking system,” Tajik state news agency Khovar quoted him as saying in February.
But Nuriniso, the street cleaner who earns 640 somoni a month (around $80), said she had now lost confidence in Tajik banks.
“I will never keep my money in banks. My workplace has created this headache (by paying my salary into Tojiksodirotbank) ,” she said.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s parliament passed a law which will authorise officials to chemically castrate men convicted of paedophilia, AFP reported. Chemical castration is used in some countries although some human rights groups have criticised it. Without explaining why, Kazakhstan said that cases of paedophilia have doubled in the past four or five years and that it needs to increase the deterrent.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
ALMATY, MARCH 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a thinly veiled warning, an official from the Mangistau government in west Kazakhstan said that Ozenmunaigas, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s state-owned Kazmunaigas, could start cutting jobs to maintain profitability during the current economic downturn.
Elubai Abilov, representative of the local government, said that the company had not hired new staff since 2014 because it cannot afford to employ new workers.
He then said: “Ozenmunaigas will try to protect every job for its employees.”
Local analysts immediately read these comments as jobs being under threat, although there was no word from Ozenmunaigas itself.
In February, Maksat Ibagarov, Ozenmunaigas’ general director, had said: “We are not planning downsizing or wage cuts, but we are in a difficult situation. To be a profitable company, it is necessary to cut costs and increase oil production.”
Ozenmunaigas operates oil fields near Zhanaozen where riots killed at least 14 people in 2011. Employment is a highly sensitive matter at the company.
Last year, Kazmunaigas wrote off its Ozenmunaigas assets.
Kazmunaigas also said that during the first three quarters of last year Ozenmunaigas operated at a loss, as its average costs were around $65/barrel, while oil prices averaged $55/barrel.
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(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
MARCH 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Bakyt Torobayev, a Kyrgyz opposition MP, said that a drop in electricity consumption across the country proved that Kyrgyzstan’s economy was failing. He said that electricity consumption in Kyrgyzstan had halved in the past year. Reports from Kyrgyzstan have said that many industries are struggling to cope with the sharp downturn in the economy.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)
