NOV. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Possibly aimed at either cracking down on corruption or giving the under-pressure somoni currency a boost, Tajikistan’s parliament discussed a bill that would ban Tajik official from holding bank accounts or property overseas. Corruption is a major issue in Tajikistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia is not going to send guards back to patrol Central Asia’s border with Afghanistan, said Russian Colonel-General Alexander Manilov, despite worries the Taliban is spreading northwards. Russian border guards used to patrol the Tajik-Afghan border until 2005. Tajikistan has said it doesn’t want foreign border guards patrolling its frontiers.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A land transfer deal between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan which was supposed to solve the neighbour’s long-running border dispute has been postponed, media reported. The row has flared into violence over the past couple of years and could even destabilise the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon travelled to Islamabad for a two-day visit that will culminate with talks with Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif on plans to create a regional power market.
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan hope to supply Pakistan and Afghanistan with power generated by their hydropower stations in a project dubbed CASA- 1000. The project is viewed as vital for increasing trade and diplomatic links between the neighbours.
And CASA-1000 already appears to be having a positive impact on relations between Tajikistan and its neighbours. This trip to Pakistan, will be Mr Rakhmon’s sixth.
An official at the Tajik embassy in Islamabad also said that wider trade relations would be discussed.
“During the Tajik president’s visit, they will discuss energy import, transit trade and linking the region through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which will bring prosperity in the entire area,” the unnamed official told the Express Tribune newspaper.
Electricity is one of Tajikistan’s and Kyrgyzstan’s main exports. Pakistan and Afghanistan are deficient in electricity.
Tajikistan and Pakistan don’t share a land border. A sliver of Afghanistan separates the countries.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Unknown assailants armed with knives attacked four Tajik army officers in Dushanbe, killing two of them. The army has not given a motive for the attack although the officers were involved with Tajikistan’s military draft. Officially at least, all Tajik men have to serve two years in the army.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
OCT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an intergovernmental organisation set up to improve transparency in mining and oil sectors, published its first report on Tajikistan which the authors said shone some light on the murky Tajik extractive sector.
Anti-corruption lobby groups have previously criticised the Tajik government for siphoning off cash from its metals sector and while the report was considered a step forward for transparency in Tajikistan, there were still many blank spots.
And the authors of the report made this clear.
“Three of the 14 companies in the EITI Report are partially state owned. Considerable details related to these companies are missing from the report due to the currently weak government systems for recording all company payments,” they wrote in the EITI report.
Tajikistan had been supposed to present its first report to the EITI in February, a deadline it missed.
A presentation on the report will be made in Dushanbe on Nov. 25.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Tajik registered Antonov-12 cargo plane crashed in south Sudan, killing 40 people. The plane had been owned by a Tajik company called Asia Airways but operated by an Armenian company called Ala International. (See page 8 for more)
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT.31/NOV. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan as part of a tour of Central Asia. In Bishkek, Mr Kerry wanted to persuade the government that despite quitting its airbase, the US was still interested in Kyrgyzstan. In Dushanbe, Mr Kerry told the government to ease up on its crackdown of opposition parties.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik authorities asked media to refrain from reporting on the now banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT). According to officials, the IRPT had planned to overthrow the Tajik government before its leaders were arrested in September. They have said foreign media has been duped into painting them as victims of repression.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Avvalin, a joint-venture between Japan’s Cokey Systems and the Tajik government, wants to build a factory to produce liquorice root-based medicines. Tajikistan produces liquorice in the south-west of the country. The Tajik government owns 51% of Avvalin. Cokey owns 49%.
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(News report from Issue No. 254, published on Oct. 30 2015)
