nCa News and Commentary
Ashgabat, 25 January 2018 (nCa) — President Berdymuhamedov attended Wednesday a presentation about new projects. Some of the projects are related to capacity building in the tourism and hospitality industry and some are in the framework of phase 16 of Ashgabat development plan.
Here are the details:
Hotel complex: The hotel complex will be in a semi-circle, occupying an area of 22.9 hectares in the green area between the Archabil and Chandybil Roads. It will have a business centre, an apart-hotel, and other facilities. One of the restaurants will be on the 13th floor, affording a panoramic view of the capital. There will be a swimming pool with spa on the second floor and conference halls on the third floor.
The landscaping will make the best use of the territory, with a 725-meter manmade canal and an artificial lake. The area will boast a hydropark, fountains, summer restaurant and care, and an internal road of 600 meters.
International congress centre: The congress centre, also in the southern part of Ashgabat, will have facilities for high-level meetings and conferences including in the format of the UN, CIS etc, complete with press conference halls and signing ceremonies.
International receptions centre: The international receptions centre will provide the space for official banquets. It will also have specially furnished rooms for negotiations.
Office buildings for Senagat Bank Turkmenbashy Bank: The office buildings for these two banks will be loaded with all the facilities and equipment necessary for modern banking and customer service.
Monument complex dedicated to the national poet, Maktumguly Fragi: The Maktumguly Monument Complex will be at the foothills of Kopetdag Mountain. It will be 60-meters high. The diameter of the pedestal will be 25 meters. The overall area of 6 hectares will be developed as a park.
Tribune for official parades and ceremonies: This tribune complex, in the general area of other projects mentioned here, will replace the present tribune which located in front of the presidential palace. It will be the venue for parades and other major ceremonies on the national holidays and days of special importance.
Construction and Reconstruction of sports facilities: There would be major reconstruction of the administrative building of the state sports committee, the Olympic Sports Institute, and the national institute of sports and tourism. A new 5-storey hotel with capacity for 450 guests, and a 2-storey multipurpose sports complex will be built.
Second campus of Nusay Hotel: The second campus of the Nusay Hotel would be built at the intersection of the Turkmenbashy Avenue and Galkynysh Street. It will have 134 rooms of various configurations. The entire hotel complex would be designed for ease of access for the disabled persons. There will be a restaurant with seating capacity of 150, a banquet hall for 180, beauty salon and fitness centre. The hotel will have a swimming pool and outdoors dining area.
Sanatorium in Ak Bugday district: The sanatorium and health improvement centre in Ak Buday district of Ahal province will have a number of departments including consultative-diagnostic, physiotherapy, therapeutic, active recovery of the respiratory, cardiovascular, nervous, digestive systems. There would be a number of 3-storey buildings, with total capacity for 200 indoor patients.
Burn Centre in Ashgabat: The burn centre would be located at Bekreve Street in Ashgabat. It will have a polyclinic, emergency department, conference hall, labs, intensive care unit, administrative unit, patient wards, dining areas, warehouse and other facilities.
Housing estate in Buzmeyin district: The housing estate in Buzmeyin (formerly Abadan) district of Ashgabat will cover an area of 32 hectares along Senagat Street. In two stages over a period of five years, it is planned to built 35 buildings with 32 apartments each with total capacity for 1120 families, a comprehensive school for 600 students, a kindergarten for 160 kids, a multipurpose shopping centre, and related communications and infrastructure facilities.
Stage 16 of Ashgabat development plan: The projects related to Ashgabat development plan phase 16 would be located at Maktumguly Avenue, between the Taslama and Tehran Streets, covering an area of 35 hectares. There would be 10 buildings with 72 apartments each and 12 buildings with 48 apartments each. In all, 1008 families would be accommodated in the planned estate. There would be 6 underground pedestrian crossings with total length of 5564 meters.
Shopping and entertain centre at Tehran Street will also feature a business centre and children’s play area. The landscaping will include a canal 500-meters in length and 15 meters in width.
Another shopping and entertainment centre at the intersection of Maktumguly Avenue and Taslama Street will have a supermarket, shopping complex, service points, a hall for celebrations, cafes and restaurants, and children’s attractions.
Garagum Hotel: The Garagum Hotel, occupying a land plot of 6.9 hectares, will be located at the intersection of Niyazov Avenue and Khoja Ahmet Yasavi Street. It will have 87 rooms of various configurations, sports and children’s play areas, swimming pool, shopping centre, restaurant with seating capacity of 150 and celebrations hall for 500.
Training school for airport staff: A school would be built for the training of the airport staff.
nCa Commentary
In addition to the intended purpose of each project, one obvious benefit would be that they would generate employment opportunities for the next five years. This would help keep the skilled labour force on top of their skills while providing them with handsome means of living.
In the general policy of import substitution and export promotion, the nature of job market will change over the years and these projects will provide a cushion for the interim period.
Equally important is that the new projects will keep the local construction industry in good shape, both financially and in terms of know-how. This aspect should be viewed in the context of the government’s efforts to bag construction projects abroad. The level of expertise required for some of these projects would prepare the local builders to compete confidently in the international market.
The projects would be awarded through open bidding but it is expected that the local companies would win most of the jobs mainly because of their ability to offer lower costs. This would be the first time that the local builders would be taking up these type of projects that were previously done by the foreign companies. It will have two advantages: 1. Since some construction must be imported from abroad, the local companies will gain valuable experience in sourcing; and 2. They will be able to evaluate which of the construction materials, in whole or part, can be produced locally.
As we know already, the union of industrialists and entrepreneurs is in the process of establishing its offices in some countries that are key partners of Turkmenistan. Together with the activity related to these projects, there would be the opportunity to build international network of partnership. This can lead to the formation of multilateral consortiums for joint bidding in international projects. /// nCa