ASHGABAT, August 13 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia and Turkmenistan are about to agree on new cooperation projects in the oil, gas and transport industries. Their discussion was central to a working meeting of the co-chairs the Russian-Turkmen intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation at Hasin hotel in the tourist zone Avaz on the Turkmen coast of the Caspian on Friday, the press service of the Turkmen government said.
Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov and Turkmenistan’s Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov “confirmed the readiness of their countries to build up mutually beneficial cooperation in such priority areas as fuel and energy sector, agriculture, education and science, where there has been accumulated positive experience of teamwork.”
“The commission agreed on the agenda of the sixth meeting of the Russian-Turkmen intergovernmental commission, to be held in Moscow in November,” Zubkov said in an interview on the Turkmen national television.
“In general, it is related to projects in oil and gas and maritime and air transport, where there were reached certain agreements. We also discussed the possibility of wider partnership in the agricultural sector and the banking system. In the end, there was prepared an extensive program of building mutually beneficial partnership, which will significantly increase trade between our countries,” Zubkov said.
About his meeting with Turkmen president on Thursday at one of the hotels in the Avaz zone Zubkov said it was “productive.” He emphasized the interest of the Turkmen president in the effectiveness of the intergovernmental commission’s efforts to tap the existing profound potential of cooperation.
According to the Turkmen Economics Ministry, Russia is currently second largest export trading partner of Turkmenistan and third largest importer of local products. The country has registered more than 100 offices of Russian companies operating in trade and industry. Active positions on the Turkmen market are taken by Russia’s Gazprom and truck manufacturer OJSC KAMAZ. The supplies of trucks from Tatarstan since 2006 have exceeded 4,500. In January-July 2011 Gazprom purchased more than 6.4 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas.
The most promising area of ··Turkmen-Russian partnership in science is the processing of hydrocarbons. Currently work is in progress on about 20 bilateral scientific and engineering projects at academic institutions and universities. The number of Turkmen students trained in Russia grows with every year. The universities of St. Petersburg alone have a total of 1,100 students from Turkmenistan. In Ashgabat, a branch of the Russian State Oil and Gas University named after Gubkin has successfully operated for the past three years.