Ashgabat, 7 August 2015 (nCa) — President Berdymuhamedov completed Thursday his two-day official visit to Kyrgyzstan and traveled from Bishkek to Istanbul for a working trip to Turkey.
In Istanbul, the president addressed a gathering of the top business leaders from Turkey, Japan and Korea, to bolster investment activity in Turkmenistan and drum up support for TAPI, a gas pipeline mega project for which Turkmenistan has now decided to act as the consortium leader.
Here is the summary of the speech of Berdymuhamedov:
I am grateful to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu for the opportunity to meet the Turkish business leaders here today.
Turkmenistan, as a neutral country, is developing productive relations with all the countries of the world. We are observing the 20th anniversary of neutrality and I invite everyone present here to participate in the celebrations in December this year in Ashgabat.
Turkmenistan with its abundant natural resources, mainly the hydrocarbon resources, the favourale conditions and open doors policy, offers the opportunity for further expansion of mutually beneficial business relations.
The abundance of the mineral wealth of Turkmenistan was confirmed with the discovery of the Galkynysh gas field, certified by independent international auditors as the second largest in the world with reserves up to 26.2 trillion cubic meters.
Turkmenistan, as a global energy leader, seeks to serve the entire mankind. Energy security is an important factor of our policy. We have initiated projects to diversity routes for the energy resources to the world markets.
The adoption of the UN resolutions in 2008 and 2013, on the initiative of Turkmenistan, on reliable and stable transit of energy and its role in ensuring sustainable development and international cooperation were landmark events.
Of particular importance is TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline project that will make significant contribution to the sustainable development of the Asian region as a whole and contribute to the strengthening of the global energy security.
This project will help restore the economy and social infrastructure of Afghanistan and expectedly create 12000 new jobs.
A number of well known companies including those from Japan and Korea have expressed interest in the implementation of TAPI. I would like to invite the Turkish partners in consider participation in TAPI.
Currently, 23 national development programmes are underway in Turkmenistan for the total modernization of the industry and economy, creation of a powerful and well developed industrial infrastructure and improvement of the housing sector. These include the national programme for the uplift of rural areas up to 2020, and the comprehensive industrialization programme up to 2030.
Turkish companies contribute significantly to the implementation of these programmes. Starting with small investments, they have expanded gradually and significantly, and received solid dividends and wide acclaim.
The strategy of fundamental reforms is in place in all areas. Turkmenistan pays attention to the introduction of advanced technologies and practical implementation of the best international practices. There is great potential for cooperation at the level of entrepreneurship.
Turkmenistan is a stable and rapidly developing country. The GDP growth for the first six months of this year was 9.1%. IMF has endorsed the economy of Turkmenistan as stable, predictable and inspiring confidence in the positive economic growth.
The large scale reforms in all areas including legislation add to the attractiveness of the country to the foreign investors. In 2014, Turkmenistan received US $ 15.7 billion of investments.
The textile industry of Turkmenistan, in collaboration of Turkish partners, is undergoing modernization and reconstruction.
Agriculture is among the priority areas for Turkmenistan and there are great opportunities for cooperation here.
Energy (power generation) is a strategic area for us, with huge scope for exports.
We will continue to implement the projects of social nature such as availability of clean drinking water, healthcare and education sectors and information services. There are also plans in the current year to more facilities oriented to social welfare, education and culture. We also plan dozens of water treatment and sewage facilities, water supply networks, roads, gas systems, power lines and communications networks stretching for thousands of kilometers. There is opportunity for the Turkish partners to join in the implementation of major projects in these areas.
Transport and communication sector is another important area for the cooperation with Turkish business community.
Turkmenistan, located at the cross roads, has huge potential in transport and transit. Unprecedented work is being done in the creation of transport infrastructure. Our country is successfully integrating in to the international transport and communications systems, and emerging as logistics centre and regional coordinator of multimodal transportation drives.
The already functional Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway line and the under construction Ashgabat-Turkmenbashy highway add to the potential for international cargo and passenger flow.
We are actively working on the Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman transport and transit corridor, the Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia corridor, and the Turkmeninstan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway line. All of these, while facilitating the integration of the regional economies to the global system, create opportunities for coordinated and efficient cargo and passenger movements at large scale.
The chemical industry is another attractive area for large investment projects. Turkmenistan will significantly expand its position not only in the market of primary energy resources but also take its rightful place in the more lucrative area of chemical products.
In the chemicals sector, we plan more facilities for the production of technical iodine, bromine and bromine products in the Boyadag and Uzboy areas of Balkanabat, iodine plant in Hazarn caustic soda, chlorine and chlorine products plant in Uzboy, iodine, phosphoric acid and ammonium phosphate plant in Turkmenabat.
We also plan to develop mineral resources at Garabogaz Gulf, and the potash deposits at Garabil in Koytendag district of Lebap province. We will expand the capacity of ammonium nitrate plant in Mary. These projects will increase the export potential of Turkmenistan.
The oil and gas industry, with investment and participation of foreign partners, especially the Japanese and Korean companies, will get several new plants and facilities. These will include the projects for the production of synthetic liquid fuels by processing natural gas, gas chemical complex for the production of polyethylene and polypropylene, sodium sulfate, synthetic detergent, and synthetic oil from associated gas, etc.
The Chinese companies are making large investments in the energy sector of Turkmenistan.
In the plans to diversify energy exports to the world markets, the work is underway for the supply of the Turkmen gas to Turkey.
An important goal of the economic policy of Turkmenistan is to create favourale conditions for the entrepreneurs. The state aims to ensure more active involvement of the business community to meet the challenges of sustainable economic development.
The Turkmen businessmen, having gained valuable experience in cooperation with the Turkish companies, are now in a position to offer their products and services to the foreign markets, particularly the construction industry.
We are planning a lot of work and together with our reliable partners – the Turkish brothers – we are confident of meeting our goals.
Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu Mustafa, the chairman of the union of chambers and commodity exchanges of Turkey, expressed full support to the idea and proposals of President Berdymuhamedov.