OREANDA-NEWS. August 30, 2010.  President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov chaired a regular meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan. Abiding by the lofty traditions of humanism and mercy of our ancestors, the Turkmen leader devoted special attention to discussing and adopting the decision to render emergency humanitarian assistance to friendly neighbouring countries to who Turkmenistan had always given a helping hand in the hour of necessity. The important issues of the national policy were considered during the government meeting.

The floor was given to Vice Premier, Minister of Foreign Affairs R. Meredov, who reported on the outcomes of the second meeting of the joint Turkmen-Pakistani intergovernmental commission, which had been held on 24-25 August in the capital of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Islamabad. It was noted that the meeting agenda had focused on the priority issues regarding further development of interstate cooperation, including trade and economic sphere that was intensified considerably in recent years. In this context, R. Meredov reported that the prospects for holding Turkmen-Pakistan business forum had been considered in a constructive atmosphere.

The key issues put on the meeting agenda included Turkmen-Pakistani partnership in the fuel and energy sector, in particular the prospects for implementing the large-scale project for construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. Pakistani partners had reaffirmed their keen interest in implementing the international project of considerable political, economic and social significance initiated by Turkmenistan.

Bilateral cooperation in the energy sector was deemed quite promising. In this regard, the commission had considered the possibilities for supplies of Turkmen electric power to Pakistan through Afghanistan.

The Vice Premier noted that the aspects of cooperation in the agricultural sector, in particular seed growing, had been discussed during the meeting in Islamabad.

The partners had given paramount attention to further cooperation in the spheres of education, health care and advanced technologies, expansion of fruitful contacts in the field of science, including historical science, and enhancement of collaboration among higher educational institutions. The mutual intent to promote cooperation in the spheres of sport and tourism had been spotlighted. Emphasis was put on Pakistan’s intense interest in collaborating in the international project on creation of the Avaza national tourism zone on the Caspian seaside initiated by the Turkmen leader.

The Commission members had characterized collaboration in the spheres of culture, information technologies and mass media as another major vector of Turkmen-Pakistani relations. R. Meredov reported that the partners had called for intensifying cultural exchanges through holding the days of culture, joint exhibitions, forums, etc. It was emphasized that the willingness of the two friendly countries to expand in every possible way and intensify traditional partnership for the benefit of the Turkmen and Pakistani peoples had been expressed during the meeting of the intergovernmental Commission.

In conclusion the Vice Premier conveyed the sincere gratitude of President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari to President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov for his condolences for numerous deaths and injuries caused by natural disasters in the country.

Commenting on the report, the national leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized that Turkmenistan committed to the strategy of wide mutually advantageous cooperation with all countries of the world intended to develop further the constructive dialogue with friendly Pakistan. Noting that Pakistani people seriously suffered from the devastating floods, the President of Turkmenistan said that abiding by the traditions of humanism and mercy that underlay the mentality of the Turkmen nation from time immemorial the decision to render emergency humanitarian assistance to people of Pakistan on behalf of the Turkmen people had been adopted. About 40 tons of baby food, condensed milk, drinking water, medicaments and other first aid means would be delivered to this country.

In this regard, the relevant instructions were given to Vice Premier R. Meredov. The President instructed Vice Premier N. Shagulyev to send a cargo aircraft loaded with humanitarian relief goods to Pakistan. Vice Premier H. Muhammedov was instructed to ensure prompt loading and transportation of humanitarian goods.

The President instructed Vice Premier N. Shagulyev to ensure that a truck convoy would deliver flour to Afghanistan in accordance with the decision adopted earlier to render humanitarian assistance to the neighbouring country. Vice Premier R. Meredov togther with high-ranking officials of local authorities was instructed to distribute humanitarian aid and address other organizational issues.

The Turkmen leader noted that our forefathers said that a neighbour will help in a dark day. From ancient times the Turkmen people had followed the tradition to help neighbouring in their hour of need. Today, in the new historical epoch the Turkmen people were committed to this noble tradition, the President of Turkmenistan said.

Chairperson of the Mejlis A. Nurberdyeva congratulated heartily and cordially the leader of Turkmenistan on behalf of the deputies on the election of Honorary Member of the German Society of Implantology. The head of the Turkmen Parliament said that event had become the recognition of the Turkmen leader’s profound personal contribution to the development of medicine and international cooperation in the health sector and wished good health, long life and new accomplishments in the titanic efforts fro the benefit of the motherland and the Turkmen people to President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

The Chairperson of the Mejlis reported on the ongoing activity of the national Parliament aimed at updating further the national legislation in compliance with the current priorities of the national policy and the activities of the deputies in regions.

Focusing on the importance of improving the national regulatory framework, the President put emphasis on the role and place of the deputies of the Mejlis in the sociopolitical life of the country and underscored the need to intensify the parliamentarians’ activity.

Then the floor was given Vice Premier T. Japarov, who reported on the work carried out to expand further cooperation with leading international financial institutions. The Vice Premier informed on the proposal of the Asian Development Bank for Turkmenistan's participation in the technical assistance programme under the project "Promoting Gender-Inclusive Growth in Central and West Asia Developing Member Countries" coherent with the UN's Millennium Development Goals. In this regard, T. Japarov put forward the proposal to appoint the State Statistics Committee Project Coordinator for Turkmenistan to the President of Turkmenistan for consideration.

Commenting on Turkmenistan’s participation in the project of the Asian Development Bank, the Turkmen leader underscored the importance of intensifying a constructive dialogue with the authoritative international financial organisations, including the ADB that one of the long-standing and reliable partners of our country.

Vice Premier H. Mukhammedov reported on the preparations for the third meeting of the Turkmen-Austrian joint commission, which would be held in Ashgabat on 30-31 August. The Vice Premier informed that the ceremony of opening the export commodity exhibition of the Republic of Turkey at the Exhibition Centre in Ashgabat was scheduled for August 30. Well-known Turkish companies operating in various sectors would participate in the exhibition. The first Turkmen-Turkish business forum would be held in the framework of the exhibition. Reporting on the preparations for the second International Investment Forum Turkmenistan, H. Mukhammedov noted that it would be attended by businessmen from all over the world.

Commenting on the report, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized that the development of mutually beneficial economic cooperation with foreign partners was an important aspect of Turkmenistan’s foreign policy strategy. The President said that the scheduled activities with the participation of Austrian and Turkish partners would contribute to enhancing further traditionally friendly relations between our countries. Focusing on the preparations for the International Investment Forum, the Turkmen leader instructed to ensure the high level of organisation of this event for its aim was to promote fruitful collaboration and attract new potential partners and investors.

Vice Premier D. Orazov reported on the ongoing work in the construction sector. The Vice Premier reported on the outcomes of the working visit to the capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Hanoi paid on the instructions of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on August 23-24 to study marble production technologies and the architectural and urban planning practices in this country.

The Turkmen leader said that the major task set to Turkmen construction companies today was to study best international practices in this spheres and advance technologies for producing environmentally friendly building materials. The President noted that the large-scale programme of construction of industrial, social, economic and housing facilities had been launched throughout the country. Turkmen enterprises that should ensure the high quality of construction work through adopting high technologies got involved more actively in this activity. The capacity in production of high-quality materials for the domestic construction sector should be increased. The President emphasized that it was important that when producing environmentally friendly building materials through using foreign advanced technologies finished products must fully conform to quality standards but also local climatic conditions.

Acting Vice Premier in charge of the oil and gas, chemical ad fishing sectors Ya. Kakaev reported on the work done in these sectors, the results of the working visit to the Republic of Korea paid on the instructions of the President of Turkmenistan on 22-26 August to participate in a special meeting of the heads of national oil companies of the Asian countries.

The Vice Premier reported that the meeting participants had called for furthering close cooperation between leading energy producers and consumers taking account of the facts that the energy demand grew on world markets with every passing year and Asian countries consumed one third of the aggregated volume of energy. In this regard, during the meeting emphasis had been put on the paramount significance of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s constructive initiatives to ensure reliable and stable transit of energy to world markets.

The meeting participants had expressed belief that Turkmenistan’s role in the Asian region would be increased steadily due to the Turkmen leader’s pragmatic fuel and energy policy aimed at diversifying hydrocarbon exports, integrated development of the Turkmen oil and gas industry and expansion of international energy cooperation,. In this regard, the leaders of many foreign companies had expressed keen interest in mutually advantageous partnership with hydrocarbon-rich Turkmenistan.

Commenting on the report, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized that Turkmenistan’s energy strategy was aimed at using most effectively its abundant reserves of hydrocarbon resources in the interests of many generations of the Turkmen people and for the benefit of the whole of mankind.

In this regard, the Turkmen leader focused on the need to maintain international energy cooperation and actively implement the plans for diversification of transit of Turkmen energy to the international markets, including the Asian region that consumed great quantities of oil and natural gas.

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said that Turkmenistan supplied natural gas to China and Iran noting that through implementing the large-scale project for construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline would facilitate enhancing natural gas exports to Asian countries. The Turkmen leader emphasized that the TAPI project would bring economic benefits to both energy exporters and consumers as well as give a powerful impetus to strengthen stability and peace in the region providing vast opportunities to create thousands of new jobs and the conditions conducive to enhancing the production potential, etc.

Vice Premier M. Yazmuhammedova reported on the preparations for cultural actions and the celebrations of the coming national holidays.

Underscoring the importance of conducting international actions that would promote the national culture and the arts and the rich spiritual heritage of the Turkmen people all over the world and contribute to strengthening the ties of friendship, fraternity and multidimensional cooperation, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov demanded that the celebrations be held in a proper manner and widely covered in mass media.

Vice Premier M. Akmammedov reported on the progress in the winter crops sowing and cotton picking campaigns. The Vice Premier said that the sowing campaign and other agricultural work were carried out according to schedule. M. Akmammedov said that the grain elevators had been put into operation in Ruhubelent Etrap in Dashoguz Velayat and Kaahka Etrap in Ahal Velayat, and the new grain elevator with the capacity of 50,000 tons would be put into operation in Yoloten Etrap in Mary Velayat.

Commenting on the report, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov focused on the shortcoming revealed in the grain growing sector. The Turkmen leader said that the reforms launched in the agricultural sector considerably boosted wheat yields that required developing relevant infrastructure. However, there were not enough grain elevators and flour mills to store grain in a proper manner.

In this regard, Vice Premier M. Akmammedov was instructed to prepare the concrete proposals on construction of grain elevators and flour mills and their optimal location in etraps as soon as possible.

Vice Premier N. Shagulyev reported on the work done in the transport and communications sectors. The Vice Premier reported on the progress in drafting the Resolution on licensing shipping and sea and inland freight forwarding operations.

Focusing on the importance of the effective and well-coordinated functioning of transport enterprises for dynamic social and economic development of Turkmenistan, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized on the growing role of sea and river transport in the country. In this regard, the Turkmen leader underscored the timeliness of the Resolution aimed at facilitating expansion of the transport services market and providing new opportunities for developing further the potential of water transport.

Focusing on the need to increase operating efficiency of every enterprise and all sectors of the national economy in whole, the Turkmen leader noted that the recent working meeting had focused on the approaches to widely introducing the electronic document management system in Turkmenistan as a critical component of the activities aimed at improving public administration. In this regard, the Turkmen leader set the task to give paramount attention to introducing this system at all institutions, departments, enterprises and organisations in the capital, velayats and etrap centres to the relevant high-ranking officials.

Vice Premier H. Saparlyev reported on the results of entrance examinations to higher and secondary special educational institutions, the preparations for the celebrations in honour of the Knowledge Day and Students’ Day, including the ceremonies of opening the buildings of the State Medical University, the health centres affiliated with the Directorate of the Centres for Communicable Diseases of the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan.

The Vice Premier said that 4,455 first-year students would enter lecture rooms in throughout the country in the new academic year. 2,806 boys and girls from Turkmenistan would study at the higher schools in foreign countries including Russia, Belarus, China, Turkey, Romania, Malaysia and Japan. 1,758 students had been admitted to specialized secondary schools.

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stated that the Government would continue to give special attention to training and education of highly qualified specialists and make substantial investments in this important sphere focusing on the need to promote vocational training at schools throughout the country in this regard. Underscoring the importance of the Knowledge Day and Students’ Day traditionally celebrated on the first day of the new academic year, the President said that these celebrations should be organized widely and solemnly so that this day would become truly joyful and unforgettable for students and teachers, all those who discovered the world of knowledge.

During the meeting, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov signed a decree "On creation of the, Turkmenistan and several other documents.

In conclusion the Turkmen leader wished good health, wellbeing and every success in their activity to those present.