OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2010. The first meeting of the Turkmenistan-UK Trade and Industry Council was held at the President Hotel in Ashgabat. The specialists of ministries and departments, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Union of Manufacturers and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan and the British businessmen participated in the meeting.

The high-level delegation led by Co-Chair of the Turkmenistan-UK Trade and Industry Council Ronald Nash had arrived in Ashgabat to participate in the business forum. The UK business circles were represented by the top managers and leading specialists of such large companies as British Petroleum, Shell, Gaffney, Cline & Associates, Denton Wilde Sapte, Arawak Energy, CWR Oil & Gas, Worley Parsons, De La Rue, Rolls-Royce, Agusta Westland and other firms.

During the meeting businessmen focused on the dynamic nature of interstate cooperation built on mutual confidence and benefit. Forum participants expressed belief that the activity of the Turkmenistan-UK Trade and Industry Council would contribute to developing fruitful partnership between Turkmenistan and the United Kingdom.

Addressing the forum, Co-Chair of the Turkmenistan-UK Trade and Industry Council Ronald Nash noted that the priority vectors of further wide-ranging partnership in such spheres as power and processing industries, development of transport infrastructure, adoption of advanced technologies and personnel training had been a focus of the fruitful talks with President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. Also, Mr. Ronald Nash said that the Turkmen leader had put forward the important initiative to conduct monitoring of the progress of projects on a regular basis that would promote effective project implementation.

The key issues put on the agenda of the meeting of the Council included the issues regarding the implementation of the bilateral agreements, the current state and prospects for further development of partnership between Turkmenistan and the United Kingdom.

Noting with satisfaction that collaboration in a number of key fields had been intensified in recent years, meeting participants focused on the need to fully implement the enormous potential of cooperation and called for diversifying mutually advantageous contacts in the fuel and energy sector, economic, trade, banking, transport, communications and telecommunications , agricultural, construction, tourism and private sectors.

Focusing on the great prospects of the oil and gas sector in Turkmenistan and the success of the Turkmen leader’s energy strategy for diversifying energy transit to world markets, UK Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in Turkmenistan Keith Rennie Allan emphasized that the British companies were intensively interested in collaborating in investment projects aimed at supplying Turkmen gas to European market and in particular the United Kingdom. The Ambassador said that fundamental changes taking place in Turkmenistan, which boost the growth prospects of all sectors of the national economy, opened up new opportunities to facilitate comprehensive cooperation between the two countries.

Meeting participants expressed belief that the exchange of views, which had enabled to elaborate on new opportunities to develop effective cooperation in compliance with the policy priorities of the Turkmen state, would be a new step to promote active partnership in a number of fields.

The members of the UK business delegation held the talks at the Government of Turkmenistan. The talks focused on the priority fields of Turkmen-British cooperation in the context of new opportunities opened up to expand it further.