OREANDA-NEWS. December 21, 2009. The agenda of the roundtable organized by the Mejlis of Turkmenistan in collaboration with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) focused on the issues of further development of local self-governance in Turkmenistan. The members of the interagency working group, the deputies of the national Parliament and the UNDP experts participated in the forum that was a continuation of the national conference, which had been conducted in the Turkmen capital a day before.

The participants discussed the outcomes of the joint Local Self-Governance Project in Turkmenistan aimed at further improving the activities of local government bodies in compliance with the best intentional practice in this field. Evaluating highly the achieved results the participants identified the specific ways of collaboration to meet modern requirements. As is known, development of the local self-governance system in the country was of particular concern to the Turkmen leader. The ongoing large-scale reforms in the country, particularly the National Programme of the President of Turkmenistan on the improvement of the living and social conditions of rural areas assigned a special role to local self-governing bodies. In this regard emphasis was put on the need to study the best international practice in this field.

The presentation made by the international expert Professor of the University of Warsaw P. Svianievich provoked a lively and rich exchange of views.

Underscoring the topicality of the issues under discussion the participants unanimously called for continuing the Turkmenistan-UN constructive dialogue in this field.