FEB. 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon travelled to Qatar for a two day state visit with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Mr Rakhmon has said that he wants to attract more investment from Qatar and other Arab countries in Tajikistan’s tourism and hydropower sectors.
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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)
FEB. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Mobile phone subscriptions in Tajikistan fell 22% in 2016 to 8.7m, the telecompaper.com website reported by quoting industry data. The drop is likely linked to the sharp economic downturn that has hit Tajikistan and its neighbours over the past couple of years. It relies heavily on Russia to power its economy but the Russian economy has tipped into a recession because of a fall in oil prices.
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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)
FEB. 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Well-established journalists in Tajikistan are leaving the country as the media environment worsens, the London-based media NGO Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) said. After a series of interviews, it said that it knew of at least 20 journalists who had quit journalism in Tajikistan in the past year, including six with IWPR training. IWPR blamed a combination of state pressure and economic insecurity for the drop out.
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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)
FEB. 8 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Prosecutors in Tajikistan have opened investigations in four banks for mismanagement, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported, adding another twist to a worsening Tajik banking crisis. The government had already said that it will bail out three of the bank — Tojiksodirotbank, Agroinvestbank and Tojprombank — before prosecutors said they were going to investigate them too. The fourth bank set to be investigated is state- owned Amonatbank.
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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)
FEB. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Somon Air flight made the first passenger flight between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for 25 years, highlighting the improved relations with neighbours that Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev has ordered his officials to develop since taking over the presidency in September. Mr Mirziyoyev took over from Islam Karimov who died on Sept. 2 after ruling Uzbekistan for 25 years. Somon Air is a Tajik airline. According to reports there were 65 passengers on the first flight.
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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)
JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to fly to Dushanbe for a state visit that Russian and Tajik media have hinted may coincide with a formal application from Tajikistan to join the Kremlin-lead Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). Mr Putin will also travel to Bishkek on the same trip which Russian media said would take place “in the near future”.
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(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)
FEB. 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Somon Air, Tajikistan’s national airline, has scheduled a first Tajikistan-Uzbekistan flight since 1992 for Feb. 10, media reported. Regular flights are expected to start up between Dushanbe and Tashkent on Feb. 20. These flights are important as they signify a sea- change in relations between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, who have quarrelled for years, since the death in September of Uzbekistan’s president Islam Karimov.
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(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)
JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Anti-corruption officials in Tajikistan opened an investigation into the former mayor of Dushanbe Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloev, RFE/RL reported. He was sacked earlier this month. The sacking and investigation, which focuses on a new housing scheme, of Mr Ubaidulloev may signal the start of a power struggle within the Tajik elite. Mr Ubaidulloev had been considered an arch loyalist. Anti- corruption campaigners have said that Tajikistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)f
BISHKEK, FEB. 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A delay in handing out a contract to build two converter stations has pushed back the start date of the CASA-1000 project which aims to send electricity generated by hydropower stations in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Express-Tribune newspaper quoted an unnamed Pakistani official as saying that French engineering company Alstom had asked for more time to put in a bid to build two converter stations.
“Four countries that are part of the project – Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Pakistan – have agreed to give relaxation in the timeframe keeping in view the request of Alstom, which is a credible name and a major supplier of converter stations across the world,” the newspaper quoted the official as saying.
“Now, this project is likely to be ready in 2020.”
CASA-1000 had been due to start up either at the end of this year or in 2018. It is backed by the World Bank and is considered a vital economic and strategic link between Central Asia and South Asia, binding the two regions together, providing an export product for Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and electricity for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The two converter stations are vital to the CASA-1000 project. One will be sited in Tajikistan and the other in Pakistan.
The value of the tender has not been released but the names of the companies bidding for it have been. They are the US’ GE, Japan’s Mitsubishi, Germany’s Siemens and Alstom.
For the West the CASA-1000 project also has major significance as the physical implementation of the north-south Silk Road trade route that Hillary Clinton touted in 2011 when she was US Secretary of State.
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(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)
JAN. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a press conference in Dushanbe, the Eurasianet website reported that Tajik interior minister Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimzoda said that the country’s security forces had stopped 36 terrorist attacks in 2016. No independent analysis of the figures was available.
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)f
