ASHGABAT (TCA) — Four classically-trained American musicians and music teachers, Derek Beckvold, Kim Mai Nguyen, Peter Thoreson, and Avery Waite are visiting Ashgabat between December 14 and 24 to train students from the National Conservatory of Turkmenistan and perform a holiday concert, the U.S. Embassy in Ashgabat said.
Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon (left) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (photo from the Indian Prime Minister website)
DUSHANBE (TCA) — Tajikistan President Emomali Rakhmon paid a state visit to India from 14-18 December where he held wide-ranging talks on bilateral and regional issues with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
ASTANA (TCA) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Board of Directors has approved a financing framework of up to €200 million which will be used to finance primarily private renewable energy projects in Kazakhstan with a total generating capacity of 300 MW within the next five years, the Bank said on December 16. Such projects can be in wind or solar power, small hydro plants or biogas. The construction of generating capacity will be allocated €160 million, while €40 million will be allotted to electricity grid modernisation, which is necessary in order to integrate these renewable projects into the national transmission system.
ASTANA (TCA) — A package of updated agreements on the creation of a joint venture, under KMG International N.V. (formerly Rompetrol), between Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company KazMunayGas (KMG) and a major Chinese energy company, China CEFC Energy Company Limited, was signed last week in Bucharest, KMG said.
BISHKEK (TCA) — The Publisher’s note: Central Asia is an important geopolitical area that is playing an exclusive role between Europe, Russia and China. It is in Central Asia that world powers have confronted each other for centuries; it is here that China needs to succeed with its new Silk Road Belt for a direct access to the market of the West; and it is here that a large wealth of raw materials has its origin. Central Asia has always been the transit point of the economic and cultural development between the East and West from the time of Alexander the Great, from centuries before Christ until the present time. Every week thousands of news appears all over the world in printed and online media and it is quite understandable that many of them may escape the attention of busy readers. At The Times of Central Asia we strongly believe that more information can better contribute to a peaceful development and better knowledge of the region, and for this reason we are presenting a Weekly Digest on Central Asia compiling what other media have written and published during the past week.
Shavkat Mirziyaev swears the oath of the Presidency on December 14 (president.uz)
TASHKENT (TCA) — As international attention is being focused on new foreign policy and economic priorities of the new Uzbek president, we are republishing this article by Umida Hashimova, originally published by The Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor:
