Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, March 10
By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend
President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has approved the draft state program on support to small and medium-sized businesses for 2018-2024, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reported on March 10.
This issue was discussed at a government meeting. "This program is aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the national economy, both regionally and globally, increasing the country's export potential, strengthening food independence, stimulating production, innovation and investment activity of the private sector," the report reads.
The head of state stressed that entrepreneurship plays an important role in the progressive development of the national economy, in the process of its transition to market relations. Approving the draft program, the head of state ordered to control the implementation of measures of the state support to the private sector.
In March 2017, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that in this challenging external environment, maintaining strong, sustainable, and inclusive growth will require Turkmenistan to improve the business and regulatory environment to support further private sector development.
The IMF noted that the Turkmen authorities have been adjusting their strategy to the new reality of lower hydrocarbon prices. In the near term, the key policy challenge is to re-calibrate the policy mix to reduce the sizable external imbalances.
“Options include gradual but significant cuts in public investment expenditures that remain among the highest in the world, combined with other policy measures which would help adjust domestic demand to a more sustainable level. The pace and composition of policy adjustment should be designed to reduce the adverse impact on economic growth and vulnerable segments of the population," the IMF said then.
According to the report of British Petroleum (BP), Turkmenistan ranks fourth in the world for its natural gas reserves and presently, the country has the opportunity to export it to China and Iran.
Meanwhile, Russia, a traditional buyer of Turkmen gas, stopped buying Turkmen gas in 2016. On the backdrop of this, Turkmen entrepreneurs began to experience difficulties due to currency conversion restrictions.
Turkmenistan seeks a gradual transition to a market economy, which is reflected in the Constitution. Presently, a relevant regulatory and legal framework is being created, while the commodity and raw materials exchange and the labor exchange are formed, and conditions are created for free wholesale trade. The goals were set for creation of a commodity market, a stock market, a securities market, information, advisory and audit centers in the country.