DEC. 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors in Tajikistan said they had arrested 46 men who were planning to travel to Syria to fight for the radical group Islamic State, media reported. Officials in Tajikistan have previously said that 300 Tajiks are fighting with Islamic State.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Remittances from Russia have declined by around 6%, the head of the Tajik Central Bank, Abdujabbor Shirinov, told the IMF. Western media groups and analysts have said that the decline in income from Tajiks working in Russia and sending cash back home — a vital funding flow — had been greater.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan continues to attempt to increase its appeal to investors, even as its investment climate looks difficult — some would say too difficult — to all but the state-affiliated companies of its political allies.
During a recent meeting with UN Secretary-General for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Mukhisa Kituyiin in Geneva, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirodzhiddin Aslov asked UNCTAD to conduct an independent study of the country’s investment policies.
With the country’s debt at $2b according to the ministry of finance, the need for a foreign capital injection is clear. Tajikistan’s ranking in the World Bank’s Doing Business study is 167th of 189 countries with lousy scores for categories such as ‘paying taxes’ and ‘getting electricity’. Both local and foreign businessmen complain of state corruption.
Tajikistan has also applied for a sovereign credit rating for 2015. When the agencies release their verdicts next year, it could make for interesting reading.
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(News report from Issue No. 212, published on Dec. 10 2014)
DEC. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A sharp downturn in Russia’s economy has squeezed migrants, particularly from Tajikistan which is so heavily dependent on remittances, Reuters reported. Reuters highlighted one migrant worker who said that he had been paid 25,000 roubles ($536) a month but that this had been cut to 15,000 roubles.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
DEC. 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In the first eleven months of this year Tajikistan equalled its top post-independence annual production figure for gold, the country’s Asia-Plus news agency reported.
Like its record cement production figure, posted earlier this year, the increase is due to Chinese investment.
The yield of 3 metric tonnes (mt) is modest by regional standards — neighbouring Uzbekistan produces 90 mt/year and Kyrgyzstan 10-20 mt/year — but it’s still important to Tajikistan, one of the most impoverished countries in the world.
Chinese-Tajik Zeravshan Gold Company is responsible for over two thirds of Tajikistan’s total gold output. And this underlines China’s increasingly tight grip over Tajikistan’s economy. Without China, Tajikistan’s gold and cement industries would be in a far more perilous state.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prices of basic food products are rising in Dushanbe, local media reported, because of a fall in the value of the Tajik somoni. Tajik news agency Asia-Plus reported that a bag of flour now sold at 175 somoni, up from 165 somoni a week earlier, and that vegetable oil cost 44 somoni up from 40 somoni.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan is drafting legislation that will limit foreign funding to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), media reported. The laws are similar to those being passed by Kyrgyzstan and those already in place in Russia. NGOs say the laws will give the government far greater control over the NGO sector.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov made a rare trip to Astana where he met Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev to discuss plans by Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to build extra hydropower capacity, an issue that has threatened to destabilise the region. Uzbekistan relies on water from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to feed its important cotton fields.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan and the Gulf state of Kuwait are growing closer, as a recent bilateral agreement allowing visa-free travel for state officials showed.
Diplomatic delegations have been shuffling back and forth between the two countries ever since Tajikistan’s embassy in Kuwait opened in 2013.
Kuwait wants to import fresh water from Tajikistan; Tajikistan wants Kuwait’s oil, although how the logistics of that swap would work is unclear.
Currently bilateral trade is weak, registering just over $30,000 for the first ten months of this year. But a visit by Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon last year earned a promise of Kuwaiti investment in construction as well as the reconstruction of facilities in Tajikistan’s critical hydro and tourism sectors.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The deputy head of Tajikistan’s National Security Council, Akram Amonov, said there were around 300 Tajiks fighting in Syria for the extremist Islamic State group, more than previously thought. Mr Amonov said that most travel to Syria through Afghanistan or Moscow.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
