The President of Turkmenistan, who is on the visit to Doha, had a meeting with the Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Investment Authority.
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani discussed the prospects of cooperation given the ambitious programmes on the modernization of the national economy and introduction of innovative technologies.
The fuel and energy sector � the strategic area for the both countries, ranking among the world energy powers, the establishment of the high-technology oil and gas chemical industries, transport and communications sphere among others were specified as the priority areas of cooperation.
It was noted that the large infrastructural projects implemented with the participation of foreign partners on the initiative of Turkmenistan opened up wide opportunities for investment cooperation. Among them is the construction of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) transnational gas pipeline with the annual capacity of 33 billion cubic metres of 'blue fuel'. Famous foreign companies express huge interest in this ambitious project, which is co-financed with such authoritative international structure as the Asian Development Bank.
The projects on the further development of the Galkynysh gas deposit and hydrocarbon resources on the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan rank among the promising areas for cooperation.
As for the cooperation in the sphere of transport, there are wide opportunities for the partnership given the earlier signed Agreement on the establishment of the transport and transit corridor that will connect the countries of the Central Asia and the Middle East and will become the important link of the multimodal transport infrastructure in the region and the continent as well.
Turkmenistan carries out large-scale complex work in this sphere, including the construction of modern highways and railways, relevant engineering and industrial facilities. It was underlined that Turkmenistan was always ready for active and close cooperation in such strategic sector as transport.
Moreover, there are favourable conditions to build up cooperation in other areas, including the textile industry.
It was noted that businessmen in the State of Qatar expressed the growing interest in the Turkmen market. The course on the formation of innovation-based economy, the most favored nation treatment regime created for foreign investors, the guarantees for the protection of foreign investments - all this open up wide opportunities for consolidating the efforts and developing new areas of cooperation and joint implementation of investment projects.
Source: Turkmenistan: the Golden Age Online Newspaper