President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov takes part in the International Caspian Forum at the Avaza National tourism zone

The International Conference “The Caspian Sea: in the interest of developing international economic cooperation” opened in the Congress Center of the Avaza National tourism zone. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov takes part in the conference meeting. 

The agenda of the Conference - the main event of the First Caspian Economic Forum (FCEE), initiated by the Turkmen leader, includes important issues related to enhancing the fruitful interaction of the littoral states and all interested foreign partners. 

Welcoming all those present, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov thanked everyone for the response to the invitation to participate in the First Caspian Economic Forum. 

The President noted that the conference brought together the heads of the governments of the Caspian littoral states and other countries, the envoys from dozens of countries, representing various spheres - politicians, diplomats, businessmen, environmentalists, scientists, journalists among others. 

“We are all like-minded people, united by the understanding of the importance of a multifaceted and systemic dialogue on the development of the Caspian region, determining the prospects for international cooperation in the Caspian Sea”, said the President of Turkmenistan. “The new meaning of such a partnership, based on modern views and criteria, is intended to lay a solid foundation for the future joint creative work”. 

In this regard, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov expressed gratitude to all the Caspian countries for supporting Turkmenistan's initiative to hold the First Caspian Economic Forum, as well as for the active participation in the preparatory work. This initiative was the result of a deep analysis of modern processes of global and regional development, the place and role of the Caspian Sea as the most important geopolitical and geo-economic space. Today, the objective interests of not only littoral states but also other countries are concentrated there due to the fact that the Caspian region is a large natural source of hydrocarbon resources, a transport and transit hub of a continental scale, and a promising territory for expanding international trade.

 

“The Caspian Sea is a unique natural complex with its own unique ecosystem that requires scientific research in the environmental sphere”, the President of Turkmenistan said at the International Conference “The Caspian Sea: in the interest of developing international economic cooperation”. 

According to the President of Turkmenistan, putting forward the idea on holding the Caspian Economic Forum, Turkmenistan based on the possibilities of taking all these factors into account, creating conditions for joint work through the broad, ongoing platform for cooperation with the participation of states, international organizations, business structures, scientific centers. 

“Today, this idea is close to its embodiment. A new, promising format of international partnerships is emerging, based on shared values and united by common goals and objectives”, the President emphasized. 

The President of Turkmenistan underlined that various aspects of the Caspian agenda would be discussed during the forum. The very name of the Forum - “economic” implies a particular emphasis on the issues of economy, trade, investment, innovation and technology. Having expressed confidence that the Forum participants will have something to say to each other, exchange views and assessments, the President of Turkmenistan focused on the main thing, without which no project, no initiative could take place. 

It is peace, security, friendship and mutual understanding between the littoral states and the peoples residing there. In this context, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov recalled that in order to ensure the peaceful and stable development of our region, to create new political and legal foundations for multilateral cooperation on the Caspian Sea the first Summit of the Caspian littoral states was held in Ashgabat in April 2002 at the initiative of Turkmenistan. The Summit laid the solid foundation for the systemic, multi-level and regular negotiation process on the Caspian Sea. 

In the future, the littoral states, their government, showing exceptional foresight and political will, the commitment to understand and take into account the interests of each other, achieved significant results. A really long way has been traveled, the most important agreements in the political and diplomatic sphere have been reached, a broad, substantial legal basis for cooperation has been formed. The result of this work was the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea - a document that opens up enormous prospects for partnership that was signed by the Presidents of the five states in Aktau last year. Over the past years, a solid package of five-sided agreements on specific areas of activity in the Caspian Sea has also been signed.

 

Today, we should focus our efforts on tackling practical tasks of the Caspian Sea development, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said, speaking at the International Conference entitled ‘The Caspian Sea: Development of International Economic Cooperation”.

The head of state set an important task of giving powerful impetus to energy cooperation.

- The Caspian Sea is extraordinary rich in hydrocarbon resources; its vast untapped offshore and onshore reserves, if used effectively, can lend strong impetus to the dynamic and sustainable growth of the littoral states’ national economies and those of their neighboring countries and provide everything necessary to build new production and industrial facilities, the Turkmen leader said.

The Caspian Sea’s energy resources should serve as a basis for the region’s economic development, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stressed.

The head of state emphasized that this will lead to job creation, quality-of-life improvements for the people, and will ensure building social facilities, such as schools, kindergartens, and hospitals.

The industrial development, which depends, to a large extent, on increased hydrocarbon production, can substantially change the entire economic landscape in this part of the world and integrate the Caspian Sea into the global economic space as an equal and effective partner, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said.

 

The Caspian Sea is located at the crossroads of continental routes. The coastal nations have direct access to South Asia and the Asia-Pacific Region in the east; to the Black and the Mediterranean Sea in the west; to the Middle East via Iran in the south; to the Baltic Sea via Russia in the north. The geographical position offers the advantage of creating routes in the cardinal directions, the Turkmen leader said, speaking at the international forum in Ashgabat.

As stressed, the coastal states have to establish an efficient transport system linking them all, building modern seaport infrastructure and ensuring adequate logistics support.

More active steps should be taken to work out action plans aimed to promote transport cooperation, with clearly defined objectives and realistic time frames, the head of state said with an emphasis on the idea of setting up the Caspian Sea Logistics Center that could coordinate joint efforts to build and make good use of new transport-transit corridors, linking Asia with Europe.

The Economic Strategy of Turkmenistan for the Caspian Sea is intended to implement large-scale and long-term projects in the fields of energy, industry, transport, and trade. Today, massive efforts are being made to develop onshore and offshore hydrocarbon reserves. Hydrocarbon processing plants and plants producing mineral fertilizers, polymers, liquefied gas and petrochemicals are well under construction on the Caspian coast (Turkmenistan) in close collaboration with foreign companies.

Along with that, Turkmenistan is building a contemporary and extensive transport-communications network. Thousands of kilometers of highways and railways have already been built in the country over the past years. The new International Turkmenbashi Seaport with annual freight tonnage of 25-27 million officially opened last year. The Turkmen Maritime Merchant Fleet was established in a relatively short period of time.

These examples aptly illustrate the littoral nations’ plans aimed at gaining access to the international markets and major transport corridors, and they have everything necessary for this, including competitive advantage, the President said.

In this context, efficient trade relations of the Caspian Region with the foreign markets assume special significance. The head of state necessitated encouraging closer cooperation with the UN Economic Commission for Europe, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the World Trade Organization, and other specialized international agencies, and promoting a common vision and solidarity. It also makes sense to explore the positive work experience of a number of regional international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

 

Speaking during the International Caspian Forum, the President of Turkmenistan emphasized that the decisive condition for the successful economic development of the Caspian region, its integration into the world economic relations as a competitive and promising participant is reliance on science, intelligence. The rapid technological breakthrough observed today, in fact, changes the usual aspect of geoeconomics, the quality and level of managerial decisions, the very content of global economic processes.

“To integrate into these trends, and even to influence them here in our region - this task should be considered as one of the priorities for the development of the Caspian region”, the President of Turkmenistan noted.

“It is necessary to pay paramount importance to the creation of a systemic technological component, allocating the necessary funds, mobilizing the intellectual, organizational potential”, emphasized President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. “We should consistently fill our cooperation with innovative meanings so that they determine the vectors of the future development of the region, its economy and social sphere”.

As a first step, the President of Turkmenistan called for reasonability to establish a real base platform for the technological and innovative start. In this regard, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov suggested to create an international innovation and technology center, which can be called the “Innovative City of the Caspian Sea”. This laboratory of ideas will provide a platform for scientists, specialists, representatives of fundamental and applied science from the Caspian littoral states and other countries can work together to create a new technological structure for the Caspian Sea, develop models for innovative cooperation, advances solutions to a wide range of issues on the Caspian Sea - energy, industrial, logistic, infrastructural, environmental areas.

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov emphasized that all activities on the Caspian Sea should be based on scientific research, accompanied by technological developments. The Turkmen leader also spoke about the necessity to create the Digital Economy cluster under the Innovative City of the Caspian Sea.

 

Speaking at the International Conference “The Caspian Sea: in the interest of developing international economic cooperation”, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov highlighted the special role of science in maintaining the ecological balance of the Caspian Sea, the unique biodiversity of the sea.

“It means that all economic projects in the Caspian Sea basin should be carried out on the basis of high international environmental standards”, the Turkmen leader said.

“We are going to create a new Caspian environmental programme as a set of environmental measures aimed at the conservation and efficient use of the rich natural resources of the Caspian Sea.

“At the same time, this Programme could monitor the environmental situation in the Caspian Sea and give relevant recommendations to the governments of the littoral states.

“Turkmenistan is ready to consider this issue with all interested partners. At the same time, we hope for the full support of the UN and, first of all, its specialized environmental institutions.

“We strongly believe that ecology cannot become a hostage of economic and commercial benefits. This is a principled and responsible position that our country has consistently supported from the rostrum of the most respected international organizations and strictly followed, when developing national plans”, emphasized the Turkmen leader.

In this regard, the President of Turkmenistan called for the establishment of effective channels of ‘green diplomacy’ for the Caspian Sea with participation of international agencies, environmental centers and the media.

“Speaking about the future of the Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan considers it in the context of the future of the entire planet and correlates its work with the activities of the United Nations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”, said President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

“We see the Caspian Sea, both in geographical and socio-economic terms, as one of the directions of the UN Strategy until 2030. Sustainability of the economy, energy security, environmental balance are the main framework of the common Caspian home”, emphasized the Turkmen leader.