Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, November 26 / Trend, H. Hasanov /
The foreign trade turnover of Turkmenistan in first 9 months of the year was equivalent to $19 billion, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov stated at a meeting with representatives of business circles of Hong Kong yesterday, the Turkmen Government reported on Saturday.
The Turkmen leader visited Hong Kong at the sidelines of his state visit to China on November 22-25.
Apart from that, the export of products from Turkmenistan to foreign countries in the observed period increased by $4 billion compared to the import, the Turkmen President noted. Turkmenistan has trade relations with 103 countries of the world.
Berdymukhamedov continued to say that the volume of investments and the number of investment projects grow subsequently in the gross domestic product. The pace of growth of Turkmenistan's GDP in first 9 months of 2011 was 114.6 per cent at a time when the pace of industrial growth was 124.1 per cent.
"Turkmenistan's legal provisions complied with international legal norms really matters in the attraction of foreign investments to the country," the President said.
A series of new legal acts on taxation, investments, and free entrepreneurship adopted in Turkmenistan over several recent years provided different kinds of preferences to companies working jointly with foreign partners.
Besides, there were implemented effective measures over the provision of stability of Turkmenistan's financial system, primarily, calculation of the common exchange rate of national currency and its subsequent strengthening, particularly, through denomination of the Turkmen manat.
In the opinion of Berdymukhamedov, the Turkmen market is attractive primarily due to its huge raw material base and modern legal system guaranteeing stable public and political situation, sustained development of the national currency, and reliability of investments.
As the President noted, economy diversification alongside with an increase of production was an important condition of Turkmen economy's growth. Foreign investments in the country are currently equivalent to one third of total investments. The investments flow primarily to the field of production.