IFPRI CA NEWS DIGEST (JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2014)
News and Analysis
Food Contract Corporation has sent flour millers over 300 thousand tons of grain
(Kazakhstan Food Contract Corporation, 31 July 2014) The National Company Food Contract Corporation JSC (FCC) reports that it continues to subsidize the flour milling enterprises with grain at fixed price of 28300 tenge per ton in order to stabilize prices for bread, and flour. The price for grain of the commercial resources of the FCC was fixed by a relevant state committee of Kazakhstan at the level of 42 000 tenge per ton on May 16, 2014. Repayment of the difference between 28 000 and 42 000 tenge to the flour milling enterprises is provided from the state budget.
More than 460,500 people have left Tajikistan in H1 2014 seeking better employment opportunities
(Asia-Plus, 1 Aug 2014) According to the press center of Ministry of Labor, Migration and Employment of the Population, 460,560 Tajik nationals, including 371,047 migrant workers with nearly 57,000 of them being women, have left the country over the first six months of this year. Tajik seasonal workers have traveled primarily to Russia (366,000 people) and Kazakhstan (nearly 3,600 people).
World Bank Group Supports Agriculture Commercialization in Tajikistan
(The World Bank, 30 July 2014) The Minister of Finance of the Republic of Tajikistan Abdusalom Kurbonov and the World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan Marsha Olive signed a grant agreement to finance “The Tajikistan Agriculture Commercialization Project”. The new project with a grant amounted US$22 million builds on past reforms that strengthened property rights in land, restructured farm ownership, and gave farmers the freedom to choose which crops to produce. It will further expand opportunities for farmers and enterprises to increase productivity and access to domestic and export markets.
Uzbekistan criticizes WB report on Rogun HPP
(AzerNews, 4 Aug 2014) Uzbekistan has criticized the World Bank's recently- published report on Key Issues for Consideration of the Proposed Rogun Hydropower Project and use of transboundary water resources. Speaking at a recent meeting of the representatives of Central Asia in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan's First deputy Prime-Minister and Finance Minister Rustam Azimov announced the position of his country on the construction of Rogun HPP. Full speech is published in the Government Portal of Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan to take part in meeting on regional transport corridor
(Trend, 4 Aug 2014) An Uzbek delegation, headed by Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, will participate in the quadrilateral ministerial meeting to create the Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman transport corridor, to be held in Muscat (Oman), according to the Uzbek Foreign Ministry source. It was previously reported that Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Oman and Qatar signed an agreement on April 25, 2011 to establish a new international transport corridor that will connect Central Asia with the ports of the Persian Gulf. However, Qatar's withdrawal changed the plans. Currently, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Oman are working on finalizing the agreement (including Qatar's withdrawal from the project).
SCO Council of National Coordinators meets in Dushanbe
(Asia-Plus, 26 July 2014) A meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of National Coordinators kicked off in Dushanbe today. The coordinators will discuss issues related to preparations for the SCO ministerial meetings and SCO summit, which will be held on July 30-31 and September 11-12 respectively in Dushanbe. Founded by the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on June 15, 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is an intergovernmental organization.
Publications
Central Asia’s Inside-Out Foreign Economic Relations
(Cooley, A., in Pekkanen, S., Ravenhill, J. and F. Rosemary (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the International Relations of Asia, 2014)
Description: The chapter 13 of “The Oxford Handbook of the International Relations of Asia” overviews Central Asia’s foreign economic relations with its curious mix of external influences and orientations. Particularly, the chapter discusses issues such as Soviet legacies and unresolved transitions; regional integration and theories of regionalism; energy politics and energy relations; international finance and Central Asia.
Development Experience of Central Asian Countries since Their Independence
(Singla, S. K. and H. Goel, Asian Journal of Business and Economics, Vol. 4(2), 2014)
Abstract: Central Asian economies have experienced development and trend of positive foreign trade flows after their independence in 1991. The extraction of natural resources and agriculture production were the main causes for development of these five stans. The countries like Turkey, India, China, Pakistan and United States are now concentrating on this region due to its abundant natural resources. The study is partitioned into four sections: First section contains introduction of five independent economies and the general methodology used in the present study. Second section examines economies’ GDP growth, inflation and the pattern of merchandise trade in Central Asian region. Third section evaluates the growth and pattern of merchandise trade in Central Asia at country level and the last section summarize the present study.
(Janusz-Pawletta, B., Environmental Earth Sciences, 2014)
Abstract: Transboundary water governance, understood as ownership, development and management of water resources, has been developing in Central Asia since the collapse of the Soviet Union and emergence of national water legal systems. However, fairly developed water governance on transboundary basins in the region still requires strengthening through enhancing riparian states’ institutional cooperation at all levels of interstate cooperation—regional level, transboundary river basins and bilateral level. Joint management arrangements (JMA), which according to widespread international legal practice are used to facilitate interstate cooperation on transboundary water basins, still pose a sufficient challenge to all levels of transboundary water governance in Central Asia. The most developed JMA in Central Asia is the mechanism represented by International Fund for Saving Aral Sea (IFAS), representing all states on the regional level of water governance. Not a flawless legal nature of IFAS envisages current challenges to the development of JMA at all institutional levels of interstate cooperation in Central Asia. Further, it reflects the need for further development and strengthening of transboundary water governance in the region.
(Abdugaliyev, M.S., Salykova, L.N. and A.S. Sorokin, ERN Institutional and Transition Economics Policy Paper Series, Vol. 6(13), 2014)
Abstract: Local budget revenues are depended from some economic indicators, which often used in speeches by people who present government, business, politic. Some people have questioned how they can achieve growth of state wealth, through improving non direct indicators. Local budget revenues have influenced by hired employees (including hiring in the small business), bank loans to small business and loans to all Kazakhstan’s economics. Through that study government people can make prioritizing in their activity for improving wealth of regions and it will be useful to people who want to make decisions with restricted base of information in their countries.
Migrant Assemblages: Building Postsocialist Households with Kyrgyz Remittances
(Rubinov, I., Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 87(1), 2014)
Abstract: More money now flows into developing countries from the remittances of labor migrants than from official foreign aid. To make use of these crucial inflows, migrants rely upon transnational livelihoods strategies to allocate remittances. Remittance practices support individual needs and communal reciprocities by engaging a site of inter-household collaboration. While recent theories of transnational migration situate households prominently within these practices, ethnographic research in Kyrgyzstan reveals that households do not make use of remittances on their own. Communal practices span households by employing relations of debt, reciprocity, and trust. This article seeks to bridge the development literature focused on transnational livelihoods with an anthropological attunement to the social reciprocity of remittances. The resulting assemblages require constant upkeep while exposing social obligations to distortion and normative change.
Food legislation and its harmonization in Russia
(Shamtsyan, M., Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, Vol. 94(10), 2014)
Abstract: Bringing Russian legislation into compliance with international norms and standards is necessary after its accession to the World Trade Organization. Harmonization of food legislation and of sanitary and phytosanitary measures are among the problems that had to be solved first. Many Russian food and trade regulations had been changed or are still in the process of being reformed, largely owing to a policy of integration pursued by the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. However, as a member of the Eurasian Economic Community, Russia is also engaged not only in harmonization throughout the Customs Union but also Kirgizstan and Tajikistan, and Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine as observer countries. Russia also continues to coordinate policy reforms closely with the European Union, its primary trade partner, ultimately bringing Russian food and sanitary norms closer to international standards (e.g. Codex). Today, all participants in the Russian food production chain, processing and sale of foods have to deal with growing numbers of security standards. Many organizations are certified under several schemes, which leads to unnecessary costs. Harmonization of standards has helped promote solutions in the domestic market as well as import–export of foods and raw materials for production. Priorities have included food safety for human health, consumer protection, removal of hazardous and/or adulterated products and increased competition within the domestic food market as well as mutual recognition of certification in bilateral and multilateral (inter)national agreements.
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