Central Asia

The tightening of the Astana government's fiscal policy to cover the budget deficit has led to an explosion of black transactions. Entrepreneurs believe that the fiscal limits need to be revised, which has not happened for over four years, and what could have been adjusted in 2020, today seems decidedly lacking in credibility.

The Keremet Bank, the country's main financial institution, has been sold to bankers from Kazakhstan, with a total turnover of management staff, many members of which have been arrested on charges that have yet to be clarified. According to many sources, it laundered illegal money from the family of Kurmanbek Bakiev, president of Kyrgyzstan from 2005 to 2010.New buyers shrouded in mystery.

In view of the growing difficulties in Russia, it is becoming increasingly important to find effective alternatives, considering that money from working abroad constitutes a very important slice of the GDP of Central Asian countries, ranging from 10% in Uzbekistan to 40% in Tajikistan. An issue that is intertwined with the question of Afghans in Germany.

The region's main river flows through Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and finally empties into the languishing Aral Sea. Its flow is steadily decreasing due to climate change but also due to intensive exploitation for agricultural purposes, aggravated by competition between individual countries. But according to experts, with bottom-up initiatives it would still be possible to snatch it from its decline.

On trial behind closed doors are the leaders of the opposition movement Group 24, Sukhrob Zafare and Nasimdžon Šarifov. Having disappeared from Istanbul where they had been living in exile for ten years, the Prosecutor General announced last August that they were in a prison in the capital of Tajikistan. Banned as an ‘extremist association’ the organisation is not allowed to participate in any way in the political and social life of the country.

Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have together faced many problems in the cooperation and economic development of the region. Turkmenistan, on the other hand, always appears to be rather reticent, as in transit difficulties at the borders.

A trip that marks how much the interest of the Germans and the entire European Union in the region has increased, especially on the issue of an alternative trade corridor to Moscow. But many companies are extremely cautious about investments, frightened by the economic damage done by the war in Ukraine and by a local context in which corruption dominates.

After a recent renovation, it attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world to Khudžand, the country's second largest city. It testifies not only to local traditions, but is also a landmark of a still faltering economy that wants to find its way back to regional and global trade.

The eldest daughter of Uzbekistan's President Mirziyoyev has continued to climb the rungs of the ladder of power in recent years, reaching the highest position after her father. Confirming the ‘tradition’ of Central Asian countries.

The Montaigne Institute in Paris ranks Kazakhstan - the ninth largest country in the world - among the emerging regional powers. With activism today ranging from energy issues to the green economy.

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The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Kazikastan has presented a draft law on the promotion of restricted funds, an instrument used worldwide to promote the activities of educational and cultural institutions but still little used in Central Asia. The intention is to promote the growth of ‘social charity’ at all levels.