South Korea has earned international plaudits as a model for its success in COVID-19 mitigation. Employing systematic approaches for testing, contact tracing, segregation, and quarantine, South Korea has, throughout the pandemic, managed to …
By limiting access to health, education, social protection, and jobs, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse human capital gains in Azerbaijan. In a recently published report, Survive, Learn, Thrive: Strategic Human Capital Investments to Accelerate Azerbaijan’s Growth, the government of Azerbaijan and the World Bank identify the main challenges to building and activating human capital and put a spotlight on high-impact interventions that respond to constraints, Modern Diplomacy writes. Fadia M. Saadah, World Bank Human Development Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, reflects on the success and challenges of the past, and opportunities for the World Bank Group to partner with the government of Azerbaijan in ensuring resilient growth, powered by human capital investments
Airazat Kazaryan and colleagues describe the unfortunate rise in COVID-19 cases in Armenia during the recent Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. However, Azerbaijani scientists Samir Babayev, Sabina Hajiyeva, Leyla Baghirzada, Sait Ashina and Tural Alekberli in the world-renowned medical journal, the Lancet, argue that this Comment is an attempt to politicise scientific data via misrepresentation of COVID-19 statistics, distortion of facts, and omission of important historical context
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the travel industry, countless destinations around the world are rolling out vaccines to their most vulnerable citizens. According to CNN, the UK has already vaccinated over 15 million people, while the US is currently administering 1.6 million shots a day. Meanwhile, Denmark has announced plans to launch a coronavirus digital passport by the end of February that will act as documentation the holder has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19
Starting from February 15, the quarantine regime will be weakened in the Kostanay region. Today, regional Akim Archimedes Mukhambetov held a special meeting of the operational headquarters for preventing the spread of coronavirus infection in the …
Azerbaijan, the incumbent chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the largest international organization after the United Nations, has played an active role in the global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Vasif Huseynov, a senior advisor at the Center of Analysis of International Relations and Adjunct Lecturer at Khazar University in Baku, writes in the article for Eurasia Review
New births slipped 15% across China in 2020 despite stay-at-home lockdowns and state media baby-making cheerleading, Asia Times writes. During China’s de facto nationwide lockdown in early 2020, when Beijing issued a sweeping shelter-in-place edict to stop the spread of Covid-19 from Wuhan, state media Xinhua entertained the thought that a “Covid lockdown baby boom” could be one upside. The new coronavirus forced the Chinese population, including couples in their prime ages, indoors, it noted
Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine gives around 92% protection against Covid-19, late stage trial results published in The Lancet reveal. It has also been deemed to be safe - and offer complete protection against …
We’ve known for decades that in order to curb the impact of perpetually rising carbon emissions, we would have to radically disrupt the machinations of global industry and change the way we live, think, and dream. We have to actually buckle down and make behavioral and systematic changes instead of hedging our bets on futuristic technological innovations that will save our butts at the last second, Oil Price writes
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted Sunday to extend the country’s national coronavirus lockdown until at least Friday morning as Israel continues to face high infection rates. …
Georgia’s Infrastructure Minister Maia Tskitishvili announced that shopping malls will open their doors starting from 1 February, with dressing rooms working and already purchased products allowed to be exchanged as well, following a meeting with the representatives of shopping malls and retail centres, Caucasus Watch writes. She said that the negotiations were underway with the Labour Inspection Office to agree on the requirements before opening malls and noted that some restrictions like the amount of people accessed to one square meter of commercial space may be eased
Roughly 1 million tons of cargo are to be transported via railroad between Turkey and Iran this year, Turkish authorities said on Tuesday, Financial Tribune writes. Turkey’s Transport and Infrastructure Ministry said in a statement that a recent memorandum of understanding signed in a gathering of railroad representatives in Turkey's capital Ankara on Jan. 12-13 would open a new era for the transit railroad, Anadolu Agency reported
The governments of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and the United States have launched the Central Asia Investment Partnership under the umbrella of the C5+1 format, in order to promote private-sector growth and strengthen regional economic cooperation, The Diplomat writes in the article Why Kazakhstan Joined New Investment Partnership With Uzbekistan, US. The new initiative comes at a time when Kazakhstan is looking to diversify its economy to deal with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and achieve its long-term goal of becoming one of the most developed nations by 2050
Relations between the United States and Iran are in a “period of opportunity” following the inauguration of President Joe Biden, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East said during his first swing into the region under the new administration
Oil in New York inched higher with investors assessing the impact of supply curbs from Iraq and Libya on the near-term outlook. Iraq pledged to cut output in January and February after pumping more than its OPEC+ quota last year, and Libyan guards halted some crude exports after a pay dispute
Not surprisingly, the words “COVID-19 mutations” stir up worry. We have felt the very real consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, and the vaccine rollout brought an inkling of hope. Will new strains of the virus threaten …
Azerbaijan sees economic growth rebounding this year as it emerges from a Covid-19-induced slump and the war with neighboring Armenia that restored its control over formerly occupied territories, Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov said, Bloomberg writes in the article Azerbaijan Sees Economy Bouncing Back After Covid-19 Slump, War. Gross domestic product is forecast to increase by 3.4% after contracting 4.3% in 2020, Jabbarov said in an interview Tuesday. “Our projections for 2021 are more optimistic than those of” the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, he said
What will the world of travel look like after COVID-19? As much of the globe continues to battle a deadly virus that has all but brought tourism to a standstill, several cities have banded together in order to find technological solutions to revive the ailing industry, The Jerusalem Post writes in the article Jerusalem, Dubai, Barcelona look to travel tech to save tourism industry. Jerusalem, together with the cities of Lisbon, Barcelona, Dubai, Johannesburg and Paris, are set to launch the International Travel Tech Forum, which will promote travel tech startups and tourism innovation worldwide
Oil prices have tripled in nine months. Brent averaged just US$18/bbl last April, as demand collapsed and the market was swamped with crude. As the effects of the pandemic unfolded, the mood turned increasingly bearish. Ann-Louise Hittle, Head of Macro Oils, was among those who saw light at the end of the tunnel, anticipating that it wouldn’t last and that oil prices would stage a strong recovery inside 12 months
A total of 3.5 billion barrels of crude oil had been shipped to the global markets as of the end of 2020 from the marine terminal in the Ceyhan district of Adana province in southern Turkey, the last stop of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) …
