OREANDA-NEWS. July 29, 2009. The Turkmen-Austrian intergovernmental commission held the second meeting in Vienna. The Turkmen delegation led by Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan P. Taganov had arrived in Austria to participate in the forum on the instructions of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

Cordially greeting the guests Co-Chairman of the commission, Director General for Foreign Economic Relations of the Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth Johann Sachs focused on the significant role of the bilateral commission established on the initiative of the Turkmen leader in encouraging mutually advantageous cooperation and creating incentives to further development and enhancement of the traditionally friendly relations between Turkmenistan and Austria.

The participants presented the reports on the implementation of the bilateral agreements, in particular the recommendations of the first meeting of the joint commission which had been held last April in Ashgabat.

Stating with satisfaction that in the past period the large-scale work had been done to update and extend the legal framework of intergovernmental cooperation the participants highly appreciated the significance of the official visit of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov last November and the documents signed during this visit including the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Economy and Development of Turkmenistan and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour of the Republic of Austria and the Agreement between the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber.

The current condition and prospects for development of economies of the two countries and the measures taken to overcome and mitigate the impact of global financial and economic crisis were the focus of the talks.

Highly appreciating the businesslike, constructive approach to cooperation the sides focused with satisfaction on evident intensification of trade and economic cooperation that was proved by dynamic increase in turnover between the two countries. The participants were unanimous that this fruitful cooperation had every requisite to become closer and more effective in the framework of enhanced partnership between Turkmenistan and the European Union in compliance with the EU Strategy for Central Asia.

Focusing on the need to increase steadily the volume of mutual exports and imports the sides harmonized the common approaches to further intensification of cooperation and elaborated the relevant recommendations. Thus, the sides suggested establishing the joint Turkmen-Austrian expert group that would conduct various exhibitions and fairs, exchange the information on tenders on a regular basis, organizing the Turkmen-Austrian business forum in 2010 that would promote establishing direct contacts between economic organisations and business communities of two friendly countries.

Focusing with satisfaction on the increasing mutual interest in expanding traditional cooperation the members of the official delegations signified the need to employ the existing profound potential in full and expressed the willingness of their countries to expand and diversify mutually advantageous partnership in a broad range of field including the fuel and energy sector, textile and food industries, telecommunication and communication, construction.

A focus of the talks was cooperation in the strategic – energy sector that was conditioned by Turkmenistan’s profound hydrocarbon potential and Europe’s increasing interest in transit of Turkmen energy. In particular, the Turkmen partner invited the Austrian companies to collaborate in designing the mutually advantageous projects on maintenance services of oil and gas enterprises and exploration and extraction of oil and natural in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea under production sharing agreements. 

Particular attention was paid to cooperation in the humanitarian sphere, in particular education, science, culture and healthcare where concerted efforts would promote strengthening the ties of friendship and mutual understanding between two peoples. The members of the commission welcomed establishment of the Turkmen-Austrian Friendship Society and Galkynysh Joint Turkmen-Austrian Symphony Orchestra and called for maintaining scientific and cultural contacts.

The participants discussed the aspects of cooperation in tourism industry that was deemed very promising for the project implemented in Turkmenistan on establishment of Avaza national tourism zone on the Caspian seaside that opened up vast opportunities to implement joint investment projects

The recommendations and proposals were set forth in Protocol signed by the sides upon concluding the meeting.

The programme of the visit of the Turkmen delegation to Austria included a series of the bilateral talks aimed at offering qualitatively new incentives for cooperation built on long-term mutually advantageous basis.