Tag Archives: society

Kazakh government cuts flour subsidies

JAN. 6 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Bread prices are beginning to rise in Kazakhstan after the government cut flour subsidies, people working in the bread-making sector told The Bulletin.

The Kazakh government ended its subsidies for flour on Jan. 1, a move it flagged up in November as part of an overhaul of government spending designed to counter an economic slowdown. It has defended dropping subsidies as fair because it means that
the money saved can be re-focused on benefits for poorer sections of society. Asylzhan Mamytbekov, minister for agriculture, has said that flour subsidies were costing the government 9b tenge a year ($26m).

But the impact of the subsidy cut on bread-makers is already being felt.

In Almaty, Yerbol Beisembayev was going about his business buying bread from factories and re-selling loaves to shops. He said that a couple of factories had already closed because the cut in flour subsidies had made them unprofitable.

“Now everything will depend on who will get the best price for the flour,” he said. “The government has allowed bread (prices) to free float, just like the tenge.”

In August, the Central Bank ditched the tenge’s peg to the US dollar. This sent the value of the tenge crashing by around 40%.

It appears that, for now, bread producers are preferring to soak up the extra cost of the flour rather than pass it on to consumers. Most shops selling bread in Almaty said there had been a small price rise of 5 tenge a loaf — roughly 8%. This below the doubling of prices that analysts had predicted once flour subsidies were cut.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Foreign currency savings rise in Kazakhstan

JAN 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The proportion of cash in banks in Kazakhstan held in foreign currencies rose to 77.5% in November from 76.4% a month earlier, media reported quoting the Central Bank, highlighting people’s lack of confidence in the national currency. It has been a long-held Central Bank policy to try to persuade people to keep their savings in tenge. The tenge, though, lost around half its value in 2015.

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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Tajikistan imposes cash withdrawal limit

JAN. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik Central Bank imposed currency withdrawal restrictions on account holders as the Tajik somoni currency continued to lose value, media reported. It limited cash withdrawals to $400 per person. In December, the government closed down exchange kiosks, blaming them for pressuring the value of the somoni.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Kyrgyzstan expels Scottish worker after he insults horse-meat sausages

JAN. 5 2016, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan deported a Scottish welder working at the country’s biggest gold mine after he jokingly described a horse-meat sausage delicacy as a horse’s penis, an incident that highlights Kyrgyz sensitivities over their national identity.

Michael Mcfeat wrote next to a photo on his Facebook account of workers lining up at a canteen at the Kumtor gold mine on New Year’s Eve: “The Kyrgyz people queuing out the door for there special delicacy the horses penis!!” (sic).

He was poking fun at the chu- chuk, a sausage made up of horse meat and fat which is boiled and served sliced up before festive meals. Local staff, though, at the gold mine, run by Toronto-listed Centerra Gold, were outraged and called a strike.

Mr Mcfeat, 39, tried to leave the country but was detained at Bishkek airport. Media suggested that he could have been prosecuted for racial hatred but instead he was deported for visa infringements.

Mr Mcfeat did not work directly for Centerra Gold but instead for a sub- contractor.

Still, it has aggravated relations between Centerra Gold and Kyrgyzstan. The two sides are locked in a dispute over ownership.

Adil Turdukulov, a Bishkek-based analyst, said relations between foreign and local staff at Kyrgyzstan’s various mining projects are strained over unequal pay and conditions.

“Tense relations between local and foreign employees of Kumtor have been growing, and this is just an effect,” he said.

Kyrgyzstan has been independent since 1991 and, like other Central Asian states, is sensitive about its identity.

And on the streets of Bishkek, most people thought that Mr Mcfeat had gotten off lightly.

Roza, 62, said that he should think before poking fun at Kyrgyzstan as some of Scotland’s own delicacies sounded foul.

“The Scots also eat sheep’s stomach stuffed with heart, oatmeal, guts and fat,” she said referring to haggis, a Scottish national dish.

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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Russia eases visa rules for Georgia

DEC. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia said that it would ease visa regulations on Georgians, another sign that ties between the two neighbours are normalising after years of strained relations. Georgia and Russia fought a brief war in 2008 but relations have improved since Mikheil Saakashvili quit as Georgian president in 2013. The Russian foreign ministry said it may even lift visa rules for Georgians altogether.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Football-linked trial starts in Azerbaijan

JAN. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The trial of five men accused of killing journalist Rasim Aliyev in August has opened. Aliyev was beaten on the streets of a provincial Azerbaijani town and died in hospital. Before he died, he said supporters of international footballer Cavid Huseynov who he had criticised in a match report has attacked him. Mr Huseynov is not among the men standing trial for killing Aliyev.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Turkmen state workers receive salaries in bonds

DEC. 14/19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Sources working in Turkmenistan’s public sector told the opposition website Chronicles of Turkmenistan that from January 2016 the state will start paying part of government employees’ wages in bonds in order to save money.

A few days later, the state-run news agency confirmed the government was going to start issuing 5-year bonds, although it didn’t specify how the bonds would be distributed. It did say, though, that the main aim of the bonds was to develop Turkmenistan’s financial markets.

The Chronicles of Turkmenistan, which is a well-respect website, instead said that several government agencies would pay “12% or more of the salary” in government bonds.

Although rich in energy resources, Turkmenistan has had to adjust to the economic malaise that is pervading the Central Asian region.

The news flow from Turkmenistan is weak but there are signals that the economic downturn is hurting.

Chronicles of Turkmenistan also speculated that the cash withheld from government salaries would be used to pay for the 2017 Asian Indoors Games in Ashgabat.

In January 2015, Turkmenistan devalued its manat currency by 20%. Last month, the government allegedly banned public officials from withdrawing US dollars at exchange points.

Giving government workers bonds instead of cash effectively means deferring salary payments.

In October, the government said it would draft a plan for the sale of government companies in 2016, effectively an admission that it was running out of cash. The bond scheme is another attempt by to cut costs.

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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

Georgia moves towards EU visa-free entry treaty

DEC. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Commission said that Georgia had passed its benchmark test required for it to be eligible for a visa-free treaty with the EU, a major step towards the Georgian government’s key foreign policy objective of integrating more closely with the West.

It’s now expected that the European Parliament will vote sometime in the first half of next year on whether to formally allow Georgians visa-free entry to the Schengen region.

The Schengen region is named after the town in Luxembourg where EU members states struck a deal to ease travel requirements. Britain and Ireland, both EU members, declined to sign up to the deal. Norway, Ice- land, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are non-EU members who have signed up to the agreement.

And Georgia’s leaders appeared confident the European Parliament would vote to allow them easier access to Europe.

PM Irakli Garibashvili called it a historic day.

“Our country has confirmed once again that we are frontrunners among EU’s Eastern Partnership countries,” he said. “In response, Europe tells us that it is open for Georgian citizens.”

If the European Parliament did vote to allow Georgians visa-free entry it could irritate Russia which is sensitive about former Soviet states moving towards the West.

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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

Uzbekistan restricts the arts

DEC. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek government is imposing increasingly tough rules over artists and singers, the BBC reported. It said singers will have to provide quarterly reports on their performances so that the authorities can ensure that they are hitting the required level of “spiritual and cultural values and national traditions”.

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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

Armenian murder trial begins

DEC. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The trial has started of Valery Permyakov, a Russian conscript accused of killing seven members of the same family in January. The murders shocked Armenia and strained relations with Russia. Russia keeps a major military base in Armenia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)