Turkmen Entrepreneurs to Build Ashgabat–Turkmenabat Highway

Turkmenistan: A Land of Prosperity is a slogan chosen for 2019 that celebrates the major events marking the beginning of a new stage in the life of our country. Being fully aware of the leading role that business plays in the development of the national economy, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov continues his initiatives that include taking unprecedented preferential measures to support the non-governmental sector, to promote its capacity and encourage active participation in major projects. 

Here is but one example of that: Turkmen entrepreneurs will construct the Ashgabat–Turkmenabat highway worth 2.3 billion US dollars. 

The decision was taken by the head of state at the cabinet meeting. According to the Presidential Resolution, the Türkmen Awtoban closed joint stock company, a member of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan, will construct the highway between January 2019 and December 2023. This is a project of strategic importance for the development of the country, as the highway will link Ashgabat to to Turkmenabat, the city close to the border with Uzbekistan and the center of one of the most dynamically developing provinces of the country. This is the largest and most expensive project undertaken by Turkmen businessmen to the date. 

Some 10 years ago such a technically complex project was likely to be awarded to foreign partners with great authority and experience in this field. To their credit, however, Turkmen businessmen quickly understood the rules of operating under new, market conditions, which is invariably called for by the Turkmen leader. 

Generally speaking, a decade is not too much when it comes to fundamental shift from importing construction services to awarding projects to local companies that had managed to enter the foreign markets in the meantime. 

During this period, Turkmen companies have come a long way from constructing residential buildings, social and cultural facilities in the provinces of Turkmenistan to constructing major residential areas in the country’s capital, important transport and infrastructure facilities and industrial enterprises of various complexity throughout the country. 

Currently, Turkmen construction companies are involved in the construction of major facilities, including comfortable hotels and resorts in Avaza tourist zone, food business facilities, and in the launch of new production capacities in agricultural and industrial sectors. 

Local businessmen showed a high level of expertise in building the city of white marble, Ashgabat, that has a reputation of one of the most comfortable cities of the world. Marvelous new buildings mostly constructed by Turkmen specialists – architects, designers, engineers and builders – are admired by the capital’s visitors. 

Now there is no need for our customers to look for contractors abroad when it comes to complex infrastructure projects. And the fact that the head of state, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, decided to award the project for the construction of the Ashgabat–Turkmenabat highway to Turkmen companies and to grant them 2.3 billion dollars is yet another evidence of that. 

This is a considerable sum, given the fact that many countries are still under the impact of the global crisis. But the President of Turkmenistan organized the policy accordingly and managed to preserve economic stability to be able to advance along the path of sustainable development and prosperity, the path of improvement of living standards and implementation of all scheduled social and industrial investment projects. 

The project for the construction of the Ashgabat–Turkmenabat highway is one of them. Today this road is of specific significance in the context of diversification of Turkmenistan’s transit and logistics network, its economic complex, business and the whole system of international relations. 

It is no coincidence that, while signing the Resolution on the Construction of the Ashgabat–Turkmenabat Highway at the cabinet session, the head of state, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, said that it was a historical moment in the development of local business that was advancing to the new level of professionalism and social responsibility.