OREANDA-NEWS. October 30, 2009. A meeting under the aegis the Turkmen-American Business Council (TABC) marking a new step to strengthen fruitful intergovernmental cooperation was held at the President Hotel in Ashgabat. This meeting was a continuation of the dialogue with American businessmen that had been started during the Turkmen leader’s visit the September, where President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov had taken part in the 64th session of the UN General Assembly.

An American business delegation led by Eric Stewart Executive Director of the Turkmen-American Business Council had arrived in the Turkmen capital to participate in the forum. The delegation consists of the vice presidents of the American large companies such as Chevron, Boeing, Case New Holland, John Deere. The cabinet ministers, the high-ranking officials of the national ministries and departments, the heads of the diplomatic missions accredited to Turkmenistan, the Turkmen diplomats and the members of the Humanitarian Association of the World Turkmen, who had taken part in XII Conference of the Humanitarian Association, participated in the meeting.

It was noted that this meeting was conducted during the period of intensifying very promising partnership based on equality and mutual respect.

During the meeting, emphasized that the meeting comes at a time significantly enhance long-term partnership, which is inherent in equitable and mutually respectful nature.

In his opening remarks Eric Stewart Executive Director of the Turkmen-American Business Council expressed gratitude to President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and the Government of Turkmenistan for active assistance in organizing the meeting and an opportunity to take part in the celebrations in honour of the 18th anniversary of independence, which had greatly impressed the visitors. It was noted that Turkmen-American cooperation at the current stage was remarkable for consistency and dynamism that was conditioned to a larger extent by the scale of the ongoing reforms in Turkmenistan. The adoption of the new Constitution, the Law of Turkmenistan "On Hydrocarbon Resources", the unification of the exchange rate had offered powerful incentives to foster mutually advantageous economic relations. Highly evaluating Turkmenistan’s profound potential, its rapid progress and resolute advancement on the path of reforms the guest emphasized that American business community stood ready to employ its profound expertise and high technologies in common interests.

The meeting turned into a constructive exchange of views on the ways to intensify mutually advantageous cooperation on a wide range of fields to foster modernization and diversify Turkmen economy.

In their reports the forum participants noted that the Turkmen leader’s initiatives were aimed at strengthening peace and global energy security, creating the conditions conducive to investment in the national economy. It was stated that to date 101 investment projects amounted to over USD 1.6 billion had been registered in the country.

The focus of discussion was further improvement of the legislation to make the investment climate in the country more attractive. The video about Turkmenistan and its economic potential, the detailed information on development of tourism in the framework of the long-term project on creation of Avaza tourism zone were demonstrated to the forum participants.

The participants of the meeting of the Turkmen-American Business Council highly appreciated our country’s readiness to expand mutually advantageous partnership in such fields as oil and gas sector, energy, development of the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea, agriculture, communications and telecommunications, industry and transport infrastructure.