Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 12
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
Comprehensive measures to develop small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for the manufacture of import-substituting products are being implemented in the Lebap region of Turkmenistan, Trend reports referring to the newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan.
In the coming years, there are plans to build factories in the Charjew district to produce canned goods, distribution boxes for light fixtures, aluminum window and door profiles, polyethylene pipes, as well as facing bricks.
Mini-factories for the production of ceramic tiles will appear in the city of Gazachak, in Halach, Dyanew, Khojambaz and Sayat districts. Two production facilities will be built in Dowletli district, each with a capacity of 50,000 tons of mixed building materials per year.
The program also covers the agricultural sector. Construction of a rice cleaning and processing plant with capacity of 10,000 tons per year entered the final stage in the Kerki district. A farm will be built in the Koytendag district, designed to produce 500 tons of poultry meat and more than two million eggs per year.
Livestock complexes are under construction in the Halach and Sayat districts.
Turkmenistan holds one of the key positions in the region in terms of the supply of natural gas - China and Iran are importers. The Turkmen entrepreneurs began to experience difficulties due to currency conversion restrictions since 2016.
Turkmenistan needs to ease foreign exchange regulations on imports and other current international payments, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said following the visit of the IMF mission to Ashgabat during February-March 2018.
Real sector reforms should focus on significantly simplifying administrative procedures and regulations, accelerating reforms and privatization of the state-owned enterprises, and attracting foreign direct investment, according to the IMF.
Turkmenistan set a course to 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.