BISHKEK (TCA) — The Times of Central Asia presents to its readers Stratfor’s Global Intelligence, a weekly review of the most important events that happened in the world — from Europe to Middle East to Russia to Central Asia to Afghanistan to China and the Americas.
ALMATY (TCA) — With income on oil sales down to a fraction of what they used to be until just two years ago, Kazakhstan seems desperate to fill the gap with increased income on other commodities it has in great quantities. This seems to be leading to a fresh wave of “resource nationalism” as the tendency to re-nationalise upstream assets is dubbed by western industrialists. In Kazakhstan, it was oil, in Kyrgyzstan gold – and now uranium is waiting for its turn. True: “commitments” have not been kept – but by whom?
BISHKEK (TCA) — Uzbekistan has pulled back troops and military vehicles from a disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border, ending a weeklong standoff in the area, RFE/RL reported.
BISHKEK (TCA) — A new IMF study finds that cultivating a more competitive business environment, fostering worker talent, and improving access to finance are key to boosting long-term economic prospects in the Middle East and Central Asia region, the IMF says on its website.
BISHKEK (TCA) — Kyrgyzstan’s hydropower can provide 120 million people with electricity, but due to problems in the energy sector it is not able to provide even the country’s 6 million population, said Kyrgyz MP Omurbek Tekebayev. The problems are old including poor management, corruption, and technical and commercial losses. As a result, Kyrgyzstan has become dependent on the policies of neighboring countries, and the state cannot provide energy independence.
LONDON (TCA) — Bomb attack wreckage in Europe, the plight of Syrian war refugees, the fight against Daesh on the ground and Turkey’s ambivalent role in it and Central Asia’s brewing hotbeds – where do they all come together? The question looks obvious, but it seems amidst the political whirlwinds that everybody somehow involved has a different answer to it – often a contradictory and seldom a convincing one.
