Tag Archives: Turkmenistan

Afghan protest shows sensitivity of power line routes from Turkmenistan

MAY 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Thousands of Hazara, a minority group in Afghanistan, marched through Kabul to protest against the re-routing of a section of a power line that will transmit electricity from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The protests shows just how sensitive the issue of routing various power lines and pipelines through Afghanistan has become as they generate income for communities. As well as this power line, Afghanistan will also host a power line dubbed

CASA-1000 which will send power to Pakistan from Tajikistan and the TAPI pipeline which will pump Turkmen gas to India

The government has said a route change for the Turkmenistan-Pakistan power line would cut costs.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Turkmenistan to discuss WTO membership

MAY 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A WTO delegation travelled to Ashgabat to hold talks with Turkmen officials on strengthening cooperation. Turkmenistan has been negotiating its future WTO membership since 2014. Turkmenistan is the only Central Asian state which is neither a member or an observer country in the WTO.

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(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Strong GDP growth, says Turkmen President

MAY 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said that the country’s GDP was 6.3% higher in January-April 2016 than the same period in 2015. The EBRD has predicted Turkmenistan’s GDP will increase by 6.5% this year and 7.1% in 2017. Last year, Mr Berdymukhamedov devalued the manat currency by 19% and imposed austerity measures, phasing out free gas supplies and other subsidies.

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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Russia says it needs to approve Turkmen-Azeri trans-Caspian pipeline

MAY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s ambassador-at-large for Caspian affairs, Igor Bratchikov said that the Kremlin will not allow the construction of any projects across the Caspian Sea that are not sanctioned by all littoral states. “Unilateral action on construction of Trans-Caspian pipelines is inadmissible,” Mr Bratchikov said. Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan have discussed for years the possibility of building a trans-Caspian gas pipeline.

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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Electricity output increases in Turkmenistan

MAY 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s ministry of energy reported that in Jan.-April 2016, the country produced 7.6b kWh of electricity. This is 1.6% higher than the same period last year. Turkmenistan is looking to expand electricity exports to neighbouring Iran and Afghanistan and plans to construct 15 gas turbine power plants by 2020.

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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Iran swaps oil plans with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan

MAY 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iran’s deputy oil minister, Amir Hossein Zamaninia said his country plans to swap oil and gas with Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Currently, Iran relies solely on Turkmen supplies for its northern provinces. In the past few years, Iran has signed short-term swaps with Kazakhstan and Russia. The new plan aims to turn these short-term deals into long-term agreements. Central Asian states, especially Kazakhstan, have been keen to pull Iran into their sphere of economic influence since most sanctions were lifted earlier this year.

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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Editorial: Uzbek state salaries

MAY 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Paying salaries on time to its armies of state employees is one of the Uzbek government’s central tasks. If it doesn’t, it means there are some serious cracks in the system.

According to news reports, arrears for salaries in Uzbekistan now extend to a couple of months for teachers in schools and colleges.

There is a heavy economic crisis blowing through Central Asia and the South Caucasus, but where is the government’s money in Uzbekistan?

Some sources say it is being funnelled into short-term construction and renovation projects ahead of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation coming up in June.

Last year, a leaked letter sent from the Central Bank said that the budget was short of around $620m.

Reports from Turkmenistan, another reclusive country, said that the government had been paying salaries in kind or with vouchers to some of its employees for months.

These are tough times for many Central Asians.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

ADB expects Turkmenistan’s TAPI to be completed by 2021

MAY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it expects the TAPI pipeline project to be completed by 2021. TAPI will pump Turkmen gas to India through Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Turkmen government insists the pipeline would be ready by 2019. For Turkmenistan TAPI has become a race against time. It wants to diversify its client base. The ADB, which is an adviser on the project, has offered a potential $600m loan.

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Turkmenistan’s economy needs reforming, says IMF

MAY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan must push through more structural reforms of Soviet era policies and characteristics still embedded in its economy if it is to navigate its way through an economic storm that has hit the region, the IMF said after a mission to Ashgabat.

Turkmenistan’s economy grew 6.5% last year, the IMF said, but there is likely to be a slowdown in 2016 because its economy it too tightly linked to gas.

“2016 could see another slight slowdown in growth on the back of a broadly stagnant hydrocarbon economy and slowing (albeit still massive) investment,” the IMF said in a statement.

In its assessment, the IMF praised austerity measures taken by the government over the past 18 months to counter the impact of the economic downturn. In particular, it praised the devaluation of the manat currency and the decision to phase out subsidies to the population.

“A fundamental re-orientation of the economy through a further acceleration of wide-ranging structural reforms, including in the areas of business climate and governance, as well as market-driven diversification, offers the best way to boost future growth rates,” the IMF said.

Turkmenistan devalued its manat currency by 19% on New Year’s Day 2015, its first currency devaluation for seven years and this year it said that it would scrap much cherished state subsidies of utilities.

Both policy moves were designed to bolster Turkmenistan’s listing economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)

Turkmen President woos Qatar

APRIL 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov invited Qatar’s business community to invest in the construction of the Turkmenistan- Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. The first investment agreement was signed by the consortium shareholders in April 2015. The project is considered pivotal in connecting South and Central Asia as well as for securing the long-term future of Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 279, published on May 6 2016)