Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, April 26 / Trend H. Hasanov /
Ashgabat has hosted a meeting of the joint Turkmen-German working group on trade and economic cooperation dedicated to the issues of further expansion of bilateral cooperation, local media reported on Thursday.
German deputy minister for economy and technology Karl Ernest Brauner attended the meeting.
The attention was paid to Turkmenistan's investment opportunities, cooperation in financial-banking sphere, supply of machinery.
"The representatives of the German side expressed the desire of leading German companies to expand their presence in the Turkmen promising market, to actively participate in the projects, particularly in the reconstruction of the Turkmenbashi sea port, the construction of the international airport in Ashgabat," Turkmen Dovlet Khabarlary state news service said.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov have recently focused attention on the need to accelerate the reconstruction and modernization of the Turkmenbashi port, designed to become a major transit hub of the Europe-Caucasus-Central Asia international transport corridor (TRACECA).
This will increase the freight flow of local products via new international routes. According to experts, a full-scale reconstruction of the Turkmenbashi sea port will require investments worth several billion U.S. dollars.
Regarding the Ashgabat airport, German companies EWC and Hoshtief, French companies Bouygues and VINCI Construction, Turkish company Polimeks are also involved in the international tender on this project.
Such companies as Siemens, RWE Dea AG, BOSCH, CLAAS, Liebherr, Leica, Hospitalia International, BASF and others work in Turkmenistan.
The cooperation develops in trade-economic, fuel-energy, transport-communication, scientific and educational spheres, as well as agriculture, health, tourism and environment.