People’s Council of Turkmenistan was held

ArmInfo.On September 25, 2018, the first session of the People’s Council chaired by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov was held.The initiative of the President of Turkmenistan to organize the highest representative authority- thePeople’s Council was supported and adopted in October last year at the meeting of the Elders Councilwhich was held in Ahal velayat.

 Elected members of the People’s Council, heads of the government authorities, political parties and public organizations, deputies of the Mejlis, hyakims of the velayats, etraps and cities, ambassadors of our country to foreign states, honored elders, representatives of all layers of the population as well as invited guests took part in the first session.

The agenda of the national forum, which became a landmark event in the life of the country, discussed the priorities for the further comprehensive development of the Turkmen state and society, the steady implementation of progressive reforms, the key goal of which is to ensure the prosperous life of the people, to lay a solid and long term foundation for the prosperity of the Turkmenistan.

The President of Turkmenistan, in his speech, noted with satisfaction the great importance of creating an independent state in the history of the Turkmen people and supporting its permanent neutral status throughout the world. In particular, over the years of independence, Turkmenistan has become a reliable partner, has become a coordinating center, which is the guarantor of openness and security in Central Asia, the leader of the nation said.

Within short period of time Turkmen nation could demonstrate itself to the whole world as peace-loving, friendly and creative nation. Therefore, our country is proud of achievements made during independence years and historical successes, the head of State stated.

National Leader expressed his sincere gratitude to the whole nation, especially esteemed elders for supporting domestic and foreign policies, active involvement to develop our country and underlined that new pages are created in the history of our nation where ancient trade caravans passed across our territory. 

Huge investments, including foreign ones, were attracted to diversify the economy and improve the entire infrastructure.    

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov drew attention to the formation of a deep base of powerful economic development. Over 27 years of independence, the volume of major investments in the country's economy has grown more than 350 times and reached about 500 billion manat, or 185 billion US dollars. Of these, 68 percent, which is about 335 billion manat, or 124 billion US dollars, is directed to the production sphere, which made it possible to build over 2,600 facilities for industrial, technical and socio-cultural purposes.

The result was a formed diversified economy, which incorporated such areas as the electric power industry, the oil and gas industry, engineering, metallurgy, the chemical industry, construction, electronic, light and food industries and other spheres.

Focusing on long-term plans, the head of Turkmenistan noted that, despite the continuing negative circumstances in the world and the difficult financial and economic conditions, this year and next year will see a growth in gross domestic product of 6.2 percent.

The development of mutually beneficial foreign economic relations is facilitated by the intensification of bilateral government commissions, the holding of trade forums and exhibitions, and the opening of Trading Houses in dozens of states.

In Turkmenistan, the development of medium and small businesses is ongoing. Excluding the fuel and energy complex, the share of the non-state sector in the country's GDP reached 68 percent, the head of state said. The members of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs make a worthy contribution to ensuring the commodity abundance of the domestic market, diversifying the economy, strengthening the export potential of the state.

In his speech, the Turkmen Leader, noting the important tasks of the state strategy, highlighted the need to improve the fuel and energy sector, in particular the oil and gas and petrochemical industries. From this point of view, investment projects carried out in recent years, in particular, the construction of new gas pipelines to China and Iran, as well as the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, which are viewed as the contribution of our state to the development of international energy partnership. This, in turn, has a positive impact on the overall situation and progress in the Central Asian region, turning it into one of the energy centers of world importance, the President of Turkmenistan said in his speech.

For the raise of the material and technical base of the transport industry to the modern level, the expansion of existing and the creation of new directions of the transport and communication network, national programs have been developed and are being successfully implemented. The favorable geographical location of our country creates opportunities for the formation of large logistics centers for combined multimodal transport. In this context, the importance of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway was noted, as well as the establishment of combined road, rail and sea links between the CIS and Central Asia, opening up wide opportunities for both our state and neighboring countries. The commissioning of a diversified modern port in the city of Turkmenbashi allowed to increase several times the number of transit traffic through our country and increase the export potential, the leader of the nation said.

As the leader of the nation noted, it would be expedient to transfer agricultural land of unprofitable daihan associations, which have extremely low production indicators, to transfer to agricultural producers who are able to work best on the land. To this end, it was proposed, in accordance with the law, to create a special land fund, and on the basis of the decision of the working committee, to allocate land to those who wish for a period of 99 years.

Speaking about improving the agro-industrial complex under the leadership of the national leader, the forum participants noted the ongoing work to further reform the agriculture, scientifically based regulation of crops, in the current period of transition to a market economy, the introduction of new technologies is important.

In this regard, the President of Turkmenistan expressed confidence that the implementation of the relevant document adopted in this direction will produce good results. Noting its great importance, the President of Turkmenistan, the Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty, signed the Resolution “On the Further Improvement of Reforms in the Agricultural Sector”.

Turkmenistan today at the UN level has been recognized by the state with developed economy. The consistent increase in the size of wages and profits in the years of independence is a good example of ensuring social security and protection from the state, and raising the standard of living of the people. This, in turn, is a vivid example of the consolidation of the rights and responsibilities of residents, the result of the implementation of the “State for Man!” policy in reality. In this regard, the leader of Turkmenistan, taking into account the approval at the national forum, signed the Resolution “On streamlining the provision of Turkmenistan’s population with electricity, gas, drinking water and table salt”, and also on streamlining payment of housing and communal services. Also in his speech, the President of Turkmenistan noted that the most important task is to ensure social protection of the population by increasing wages, pensions and scholarships (at the level of at least 10 percent), indicating that the amount of social financing should be at least 75-80 percent of the total the volume of state budget expenditures. The emphasis was also placed on the importance of adopting measures to protect mothers and children.

In the speech of the President of Turkmenistan, special attention was paid to the protection and promotion of cultural heritage, the development of health care, and the improvement of education and science. In all regions of the country and in the capital, modern clinics and research and clinical centers have been built. The reconstruction of health and medical institutions has been carried out. In recent years, the Cardiological Center, the Scientific Clinical Center for Mother and Child, the Centers for Neurology, Morphology and Prevention of Infectious Diseases, Public Health and Nutrition, the International Educational and Scientific Center, the International Center for Surgery and Endocrinology have been built. A children's hospital in the city of Mary, a multi-disciplinary hospital in the city of Turkmenabat, a sanatorium “Avaza” in the city of Turkmenbashi, and ambulance centers in the provinces were commissioned.

Currently, Turkmenistan clearly shows an example of sports cooperation. In this regard, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov expressed his firm conviction that, having a strong sports base and support from the people, representatives of the national team in the future will successfully perform at the Asian and also the Summer Olympic Games.

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov proposed to convene a regular meeting of the Halk Maslakhaty on September 25, 2019 in Ashgabat and signed the relevant Resolution.