Today's news: UN 'deeply alarmed' by renewed violence in Rakhine State in Myanmar; Officials from Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan met after mob violence in Bishkek; Two Chinese warships docked in Cambodia for joint military exercises; Over 130 people died over the weekend in Afghanistan from flooding in the north and centre.
The 13th Usaid-sponsored trade forum with the five countries of the region was held in Almaty. Agreements were signed for 10.8 million dollars of credit for companies in strategic sectors, such as IT and green energy, which will provide work for over 8,000 citizens, with particular attention to women, young people, and the most marginalised groups.
The Muftiat's condemnation of Ajnura Sagynbaeva's statements on sexual relations outside marriage: ‘an open distortion of the precepts of Islam’ that contradicts ‘the moral values of the entire Kyrgyz society’. But there are those who argue that by allowing themselves to be dragged into the media controversy they risk producing the opposite effect, giving her only great publicity.
With its 200,000 workers it is an important component of the local industry, but it can no longer compete on international markets. The collapse of the rouble is weighing on it, but also the higher labour costs compared to Bangladesh or Vietnam, which requires a qualitative leap in the promotion of its products.
Top executives of the main transnational criminal organisation, which was responsible for transporting drugs abroad, arrested, while local consumption is also growing. Drug trafficking continues to travel the so-called 'northern route' through Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Russia to finally reach Europe, with widespread connivance among law enforcement agencies.
Moscow is pushing to extend the free trade area created in 2014 with Belarus and Kazakhstan and already extended to Armenia and Kyrgyzstan to all non-hostile former Soviet countries. But the Eurasian countries are gaining big economic benefits from geopolitical tensions. With the oil sector, in particular, now poised between traditional routes and new prospects of collaboration with Westerners.
