OREANDA-NEWS. October 3, 2011. The Third Turkmen-Russian Economic Forum is being held in the Mizan Business Centre in Ashgabat. The forum is organized by the chambers of commerce and industry of Turkmenistan and the Russian Federation in accordance with the top level agreement agreements achieved at the governmental level.

The forum entitled “A New Level of Interregional Cooperation is a Guarantee of New Life Quality in Turkmenistan and Russia” has brought together participants representing government organisations and the business, scientific and social circles of the two countries for the third time. It focuses on the approaches to extending the geography of bilateral relations and making them more intensive and effective – the aspects that the leaders of the two states regard as important. The forum organizers paid particular attention to involving small and medium businesses from the regions of Russia and Turkmenistan in economic cooperation.

The Russian delegation consisting of the representatives of the committees of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and its regions, the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Economic Development, major Russian companies and other organisations had arrived in the Turkmen capital to participate in the forum. The delegation is led by Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation Aleksander Rybakov.

Turkmenistan is represented by heads and leading specialists of the state structures, including the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral Resources, the Ministry of Textile Industry, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Communication, the departments of the transport, banking and other sector and the Union of Manufacturers and Industrialists.

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev gave the welcome address to participants of the Turkmen-Russian Economic Forum. “Cooperation with the Russian Federation that has the tremendous economic potential is a priority aspect of the foreign policy strategy of the Turkmen state,” said the leader of Turkmenistan mentioning successful cooperation with St. Petersburg, the Republic of Tatarstan and the Astrakhan Oblast as a worthy example of promoting fruitful contacts with the largest regions and industrial centres of the Russian Federation. He noted that the other regions of Russia, in particular the Altai Territory and the Sverdlovsk Oblast were also interested in establishing business contacts with Turkmenistan.

“Today we have all prerequisites for sustainable and dynamic development of multifaceted collaboration in the trade and economic and humanitarian spheres and implementation of ambitious high-tech projects. Interregional contacts which are enhanced year by year significantly contribute to expanding contacts between our citizens and encouraging small and medium business initiatives”, said President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev in his address to participants of the Turkmen-Russian Economic Forum expressing belief in that the proposals and recommendations of the forum would facilitate the further intensification of mutually advantageous between our countries for the benefit of the peoples of Russia and Turkmenistan.

This meeting is new vivid evidence of the growing mutual interest in widening mutually beneficial partnership based on a firm foundation of long-term relations of friendship and mutual understanding between the two nations.

Speaking at the forum, the participants underlined that wide opportunities for further diversification of effective cooperation had been opened up today. The promising options for collaboration include development of transport and communications infrastructure and the industrial, construction and agricultural sectors along with the fuel and energy sector, the traditional area of cooperation. The ongoing versatile programmes of reforms and large-scale projects in Turkmenistan such as the Avaza national tourism zone project provide the vast opportunities huge prospects for cooperation. The foreign guests appreciated highly the favourable investment climate created in Turkmenistan on the legislative basis.

The Turkmen and Russian delegations exchanged the proposals for cooperation and discussed its most effective options. In particular, it concerns the collaboration with the Russian companies in design, construction and reconstruction of a number of important facilities in Turkmenistan and joint projects in the agricultural, processing, food and light industries.

The roundtable on the role of business in modernization of economy of Turkmenistan and Russia took place within the framework of the forum. Those speaking underlined that an encouraging factor for fostering contacts between small and medium businesses of Russia and Turkmenistan was the adoption of the Law “On the Union of Industrialists and Manufacturers of Turkmenistan” which allows natural and legal entities of foreign states registered in accordance with Turkmen laws to join the Union and carry out entrepreneurial activity as the private form of ownership.

The Russian businessmen demonstrated the keen interest in Turkmenistan’s initiatives to establish joint ventures and its willingness to participate in the tenders. They also made the presentations of the projects for cooperation in the priority spheres for Turkmenistan and reaffirmed that they stood ready to implement them.

The high-level of the forum and the wide spectrum and topicality of the issues put on its agenda vividly illustrated the mutual willingness of Turkmenistan and Russia to use the existing potential to promote cooperation on a long-term basis.