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Каспинфо октябрь 2000 |
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Название: Материалы на английском Главные Пункты: * Президент Туркменистана заявил, что приватизация нефтяной и газовой промышленности страны не произойдет еще в течение 10-15 лет. * Экспорт черной икры из России в этом году на 60% меньше. чем в прошлом. * Россия не собирается вводить визовый режим с Азербайджаном, такие намерения есть только по отношению к Грузии. * Уволенный директор казахского НПЗ обвиняет канадскую компанию в противозаконных действиях. * Отключение интернета препятствует развитию экологических организаций в Туркменистане. * Обзорная статья. Попытки создать не вредящую окружающей среде экономику, породили множество новых профессий и создали много новых рабочих мест в частности отрасли "альтернативной" энергетики. * В Азербайджане считают, что угроза Туркменистана выставить юридические претензии по поводу спорных месторождений не будет претворена в жизнь. * Грузия подписала соглашение о проведении ТЭО проекта трубопровода Баку-Джейхан; днем раньше аналогичное соглашение подписано Азербайджаном. * 19 октября в Казахстане прошел семинар по экологическому состоянию Каспия. (17.10.2000) Полный Текст Материалы на английском МАТЕРИАЛЫ НА АНГЛИЙСКОМ ***** RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC ___________________________________________________________ RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 4, No. 200, Part I, 16 October 2000 PRESIDENT OF TURKMENISTAN RULES OUT EARLY PRIVATIZATION OF OIL, GAS SECTORS. Niyazov also said in his 13 October closing address that Turkmenistan's oil and gas industry will not be privatized within the next 10-15 years, ITAR-TASS reported. He said those industries will remain a key component of the country's economy and contribute funds to the social sector. LF ***** RUSSIAN BLACK CAVIAR EXPORTS EXPECTED TO PLUNGE 60% MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax) - Russia will be able to export no more than 40 tonnes of black caviar this year, which is 60% less than in 1999. The fall fishing season has ended in the Caspian and Azov sea basins, and the results are "very depressing," the deputy head of the State Fisheries Committee, Vladimir Izmailov, told Interfax. A sharp rise in world prices for black caviar is "simply inevitable," Izmailov said. The committee's latest figures show that Russian fishermen caught less than 400 tonnes of beluga, sturgeon and starred sturgeon in the Volga River delta in the summer and fall seasons, 160 tonnes less than the quota for the year. Fishermen also failed to use 100 tonne quota for Azerbaijan under which Russia catches fish for that country under an intergovernmental agreement between four Caspian states - Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. ***** RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC ___________________________________________________________ RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 4, No. 199, Part I, 13 October 2000 RUSSIA WILL NOT INTRODUCE VISA REGIME WITH AZERBAIJAN... Presenting his credentials to Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliev in Baku on 12 October, Russia's new ambassador Nikolai Ryabov said Moscow will not introduce a visa requirement for Azerbaijani citizens, Turan reported. Ryabov added that his acceptance of the post of ambassador was contingent on the non-imposition of a visa regime between the two countries. He confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Baku next month, adding that one of the issues to be discussed during that visit is the Karabakh conflict. LF ...BUT PLANS TO DO SO FOR GEORGIA. Newly appointed Russian ambassador Vladimir Gudev said in Tbilisi on 12 October that it is in Russia's interest to impose a visa requirement for persons wishing to enter the Russian Federation from Georgia in order to prevent Chechen and "international terrorists" from entering the country, Caucasus Press reported. A Russian consular official had said earlier this month that Russia will introduce such a visa requirement unilaterally if Tbilisi does not agree to a mutual visa regime. Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze predicted on 9 October that Moscow will not impose a visa requirement for Georgia as doing so would hinder communications between Georgia's breakaway Republic of South Ossetia and the neighboring Republic of North Ossetia in Russia. LF FIRED KAZAKH OIL REFINERY DIRECTOR ACCUSES CANADIAN COMPANY OF MALPRACTICE. Nurlan Bizaqov, who was fired in August as director of the Shymkent Oil Refinery after the refinery was taken over by the Canadian company Hurricane Hydrocarbons, told journalists in Almaty on 11 October that the Canadian company is engaging in unspecified illegal operations, RFE/RL's bureau in the former capital reported. He added that he has taken legal action demanding to be reinstated as director of the refinery. Bizaqov also accused Hurricane Hydrocarbons of maintaining two separate pay scales, one for local and one for Canadian personnel, and of repatriating all its profits rather than reinvesting them in oil extraction elsewhere in Kazakhstan. He suggested that the Kazakh government consider renationalizing the refinery, according to Interfax. LF ***** Kazakh News, October 12, 2000 FORMER CHIEF OF SHYMKENT REFINERY BLAMES CANADIAN COMPANY. Former Director of Shymkent Oil Refinery - Nurlan Bizaqov held press conference at National Club of Almaty yesterday, October 11. Mr. Bizaqov accused Canadian Hurricane Hydrocarbons Company of its, as he said, "illegal activities on the Kazakh territory". According to Mr. Bizaqov he had been sacked from the position of the Refinery's Director by HH officials without preliminary consultations with the Directors' Board. He also said that he as going to sue the Canadian HH Company officially, adding that he was ready to "reveal more illegal operations of the company in Kazakhstan". He also said that HH was pumping large amounts of cash out of Kazakhstan to the Western part of the world instead of investing into the Kazakh economy. ***** ENVIRONMENT October 11, 2000 Internet Shutdown Hampers the Development Of Turkmen Environmental Groups By Beatrice Hogan: 10/04/00 Last May, Turkmenistan's Ministry of Communications summarily revoked the licenses of all independent Internet service providers in the country. While switching to Turkmen Telecom may have been annoying for the foreign businessmen, journalists and diplomats who had subscribed to independent providers, the move had a devastating impact on the development of local environmental non governmental organizations (NGOs). "The system when the NGOs had a free access to Internet at the expense of commercial users was unique and very exciting," writes Andrei Zatoka, director of the Dashkhovuz Ecological Guardians. "Therefore the attack of Turkmen Telecom brought serious damage for NGO development." Zatoka's group is just one of fifteen Turkmen environmental NGOs -- more than half of the country's total of 28 third-sector groups -- that use e-mail, according to the Initiative for Social Action and Renewal in Eurasia (ISAR). E-mail allowed these NGOs, located in one of the most physically and politically isolated areas of the former Soviet Union, to publicize their activity and solicit donor support for ongoing initiatives. It all started back in 1997, when ISAR, a USAID sub-contractor, supplied the seed money, a grant of about $20,000, to set up ISP Ariana, Ltd., which wired Turkmenistan?s environmental NGOs. When the grant money ran out, Ariana extended its services to paying customers in the international community. It then used the fees it collected to continue to underwrite e-mail service for Turkmenistan?s environmental NGOs. Through quality service and competitive rates, Ariana soon became the largest and most dynamic ISP in Turkmenistan. It attracted close to 350 customers, compared to the relatively paltry 100 users of Turkmen Telecom, its main rival. But Ariana may have been a victim of its own success. "There are many in the government who believe that if a sector is profitable, then they should monopolize that sector or business," says a Western observer based in Ashgabat. "They believe that only they can offer the best prices and service or product, and that this is in the best interest of the country." The Ministry alleged that Ariana and other ISPs, in filing official reports, had omitted and distorted information. In a May 25 letter, signed by a Ministry of Communication official, Ariana received notification that it had three days to turn in its license. The letter went on to say the company had failed to disclose details about the placement of its equipment, its data transfer process and its billing and firewall software. In June, protest letters condemning the shutdown started circulating on the world wide web. The Socio-Ecological Union, the Catena Ecological Club, and the Law and Environment Eurasia Partnership appealed for financial assistance to help keep the ISPs operating. "We retain hope that reason will prevail," one protest letter said, "but we also know that in this case we have no guarantees." Meanwhile, the Journalists? Trade Union in Azerbaijan called on "all international freedom of expression groups to support independent ISPs in Turkmenistan." The appeals had little influence. Most of the Internet service providers dutifully closed down. Only Ariana tried to resist the government?s ruling. Vagif Zeynalov, Ariana's co-founder and technical director, kept the ISP afloat for about a month after the ministry's ruling. Since only for-profit businesses officially needed licenses, Ariana provided free service to all its customers, while company officials sought an appeal. Those efforts proved futile, however. "The Ministry of Communication switched off our phone lines and switched off our satellite equipment," Zeynalov said. Ariana's demise allowed Turkmen Telecom to secure a monopoly of the country's telecom services, which many regional experts and watchdog groups say was the plan from the outset. Environmental NGOs are back online, but they are finding their service is significantly curtailed. Zatoka reports that "we found a way to continue an e-mail system for NGOs, but it works not so fast, forces us to economize the traffic (an accordingly to renounce from subscription newsletters), and we completely lost full access to the Internet." After a brief period of self-sufficiency, the environmental groups are now completely dependent again on Western donors. The local NGOs have scaled back their projects accordingly. "Before monopolization, I had a plan to develop Internet access in Dashkhoguz; now I can think only about saving of previous e-mail system," Zatoka said. This is the first of a two-part series examining the impact of the Ministry of Communication's decision to revoke the licenses of independent ISPs Editor's Note: Bea Hogan is a journalist who is an expert on Central Asian political, economic and environmental affairs. ***** Environmentally Friendly Economies are Vibrant Economies, Study Concludes View this story with photos at: http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2000/2000L-10-02-07.html By Brian Hansen WASHINGTON, DC, October 2, 2000 (ENS) - Efforts to create environmentally sustainable economies have created millions of new jobs worldwide, concludes a new study unveiled last week by the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, DC based research organization. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) employs researchers conduct who study the aerodynamics of wind turbines (Two photos by Warren Gretz, courtesy NREL) The study, "Working for the Environment: A Growing Source of Jobs," bluntly rejects the argument that environmentally friendly economies go hand in hand with a net loss of jobs. In fact, in contrast to the claims often articulated by the energy processing and extractive industries, creating green economies will actually spark a boom in job growth, the study concludes. "Investing in renewable energy, using energy and materials more efficiently, and designing products to be more durable and repairable will generate more jobs than continuing to invest in extractive industries and fossil fuels," said Michael Renner, the study's chief author. "The challenge to society is to provide a just transition for workers who will lose jobs in industries like fossil fuels and mining." According to Renner and the Worldwatch Institute, efforts to creating an environmentally sustainable economy have already generated an estimated 14 million jobs worldwide, with the promise of millions more in the 21st century. Some of the most rapid job growth is taking place in the development of wind-generated electricity, solar photovoltaics, and the expansion of recycling and remanufacturing, the study found. For example, the study found that: In 1999, there were an estimated 86,000 jobs worldwide in manufacturing and installing wind turbines, a number that has doubled in the last two years. By 2020, wind power may account for 10 percent of all electricity generation and employ some 1.7 million people. The U.S. solar photovoltaic industry directly employs nearly 20,000 people now. European solar thermal companies employ more than 10,000 people, a number that could grow by at least 70,000 in the next decade, and perhaps to 250,000 with strong governmental support. The worldwide recycling industry now processes more than 600 million tons of materials annually, has an annual turnover of $160 billion, and employs more than 1.5 million people. In the United States, remanufacturing is already a $53 billion per-year business and employs some 480,000 people directly-double the number of jobs in the U.S. steel industry. Other areas of job growth linked to efforts to establish sustainable economies include recycling and the remanufacturing of goods, the study found. The study attributes hundreds of thousands of new jobs to environmentally sustainable economies Renner acknowledged that jobs in the logging, mining and other extractive industries are being phased out as a result of the push towards building a sustainable economy. But those industries provide only a small number of jobs to begin with - while they account for some 84 percent of all the toxic pollutants released in the United States each year, Renner said. But workers in the extractive industries cannot blame environmentalists for all of their job related woes, Renner said. Renner noted that most mining and logging jobs are at risk even in the absence of tougher environmental laws, and increasing mechanization and automation have translated into fewer jobs, even as output continues to rise. For example, from 1980 to 1999, U.S. coal extraction rose 32 percent, but employment fell 66 percent, the Worldwatch Institute study notes. In the European Union's chemical industry, production grew by 25 percent from 1990 to 1998, but jobs declined by 14 percent, the study found. "Jobs are more likely to be at risk where environmental standards are low and where innovation in favor of cleaner technologies is lagging," Renner said. "Our research shows that a huge potential to create jobs (exists) outside the extractive industries - jobs that do not depend on processing enormous one-way flows of raw materials and turning natural resources into mountains of waste." According to Renner, boosting the efficiency with which resources are used could save hundreds of billions of dollars that would otherwise go into purchasing fuels and raw materials. Investing that money into more environmentally benign sectors of the economy will generate more jobs than investing it in resource extractive industries, he said. Women making solar panel controllers in China (Photo by Simon Tsuo, courtesy NREL) But that is difficult to do - especially in this era of free trade, Renner acknowledged. "The trouble is that human labor appears too expensive, while energy and raw material inputs appear dirt cheap," said Renner. "Businesses have long sought to compete by economizing on their use of labor. To build a sustainable economy, we need to economize on the use of energy and materials instead." Fiscal policy can be a powerful tool for increasing the productivity of energy and materials, Renner said. Current tax systems are misguided, because they encourage high resource use and discourage job creation, he explained. An ecologically-driven reform of tax policy would reduce payroll taxes while simultaneously raising taxes on resources use and pollution, he said. It is also important for labor unions and environmentalists to work together in order to build a stronger political base, said Renner, who noted that environmental dangers often translate into health and safety issues at the workplace. A consortium of computer chip manufacturers is studying whether detoxification technology can be applied to waste streams produced during the making of semiconductors (Photo courtesy NREL) "Strong, independent unions are far more likely to engage in a serious give-and-take on what it takes to create a sustainable workplace than weak, embattled ones," said Renner. "Environmentalists should be supporting labor rights and endorsing measures that give worker representatives a meaningful voice in determining how environmental issues are being dealt with." To read the full text of the Worldwatch Institute's report, visit the group's Web page at www.worldwatch.org. ***** RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC ___________________________________________________________ RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 4, No. 203, Part I, 19 October 2000 AZERBAIJAN DISMISSES TURKMEN THREAT OF LEGAL ACTION OVER CASPIAN. Azerbaijan state oil company vice president Ilham Aliev said on 18 October that Turkmen presidential adviser Boris Shikhmuradov's threat that Ashgabat will take legal action against an oil consortium currently developing two Caspian oil fields to which Turkmenistan lays claim are "not serious," ITAR-TASS reported. Turkmenistan has been threatening such action for three years (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 July 1997).Azerbaijan claims the fields in question lie in its sector of the Caspian. LF GEORGIA SIGNS OIL PIPELINE AGREEMENT. The president of the Georgian International Oil Corporation, Gia Chanturia, signed an agreement in Tbilisi on 18 October with representatives of seven international oil companies that have agreed to conduct a feasibility study for the planned Baku-Ceyhan oil export pipeline, Caucasus Press reported. Those companies had signed an analogous agreement with Azerbaijan the previous day (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 October 2000). Speaking at the signing ceremony, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze confirmed that he has held talks with his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbaev, on exporting up to 25 million tons of Kazakh crude via the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. The "Financial Times" reported on 5 October that the U.S. is pressuring Kazakhstan to make a firm commitment to doing so. Nazarbaev will discuss the Baku- Ceyhan option with visiting Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in Astana on 19 October. LF ***** RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC ___________________________________________________________ RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 4, No. 202, Part I, 18 October 2000 AZERBAIJAN SIGNS AGREEMENT ON OIL PIPELINE FEASIBILITY STUDY. Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR signed an agreement on 17 October in Baku with a group of seven international oil companies that have undertaken to finance a $25 million feasibility study on construction of the planned Baku-Ceyhan oil export pipeline, Reuters and Turan reported. To date, no investors have expressed readiness to fund construction of that 1,730 pipeline, which will have an initial annual throughput capacity of 17 million tons, eventually rising to 50 million tons. The estimated cost of construction, which will begin in late 2001 and take 32 months, is $2.4 billion. David Woodward, head of the Baku office of BP-Amoco, which has a 25.41 percent stake in the feasibility study, told journalists at the 17 October signing ceremony that "we all believe that the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline will be commercially viable and competitive." LF ***** Kazakh News, October 19, 2000 ECOLOGICAL SITUATION IN THE CASPIAN AREA DISCUSSED TODAY IN ALMATY. Correspondents of RFE/RL report that an international seminar on ecological situation in the Caspian Sea's area was held today, October 19, in Almaty by Kazakh Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology. Kazakh Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Serikbek Daukeyev told correspondents of RFE/RL that experts from all the Caspian states, namely Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Turkmenistan were participating in the work of the seminar. He added that ecological situation in the Caspian area was getting worse, adding that it was not fully clear what had caused mass death of 11 thousand seals in the Caspian sea earlier this year. According to Minister Daukeyev one of the main problems was the reluctance of the outer world to pay more attention to the ecological problems of the Caspian sea area. |