News Digest
| Media Digest | Apr 08, 2020 |
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| Biweekly CAW Media Digest. | |
| Coronavirus has reached Central Asia, with governments taking different paths to addressing it. | |
| Caspian Pipeline Consortium set a new monthly crude loading record in March, playing its part in the continuing volatility of world oil markets. The price war that broke out between the Russian and Saudi sides is impacting producers like Kazakhstan, who leans heavily on the sale of oil and gasses to prop up its economy. | |
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| Chinese internal struggles with COVID-19 have had knock-on effects on Central Asian economies. Shuttered industries and closed borders have meant a rapid slashing of trade with local neighbors, with Chinese-made goods disappearing from the markets and stores of countries like Kyrgyzstan that have thrived on the resale of cheap Chinese goods.
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| Cathleen Putz makes the point that Turkmenistan has not literally banned the use of the word coronavirus. However, Turkmenistan has no real recourse for dealing with the disease - no partners, no transparency, and no public health infrastructure or effort to get out ahead of the pandemic.
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| Uzbekistan's Shavkat Mirziyoyev has been assuming a role as regional coordinator, making calls to other national leaders to discuss options for cooperation in combating the disease. This is relatively in keeping with Mirziyoyev's presidential image as a reformer and a sharp departure from the hostile isolationism of the country under Islam Karimov.
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The Central Asian Watch (CAW) Project monitors economic, social, and political developments in Central Asia. The data generated by the Project is made freely available to the research community (view the data now under the "Data" tab). Please credit us when using our products and data.
