Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Nov.19 / Trend, H. Hasanov /
President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov will pay a state visit to China on Nov.22-25, the Turkmen government said on Saturday. The upcoming visit was discussed at a recent government meeting in Ashgabat.
During the visit, President Berdimuhammadov is planned to meet with the Chinese President Hu Jintao, government officials and business circles.
Besides Beijing, Berdimuhammadov will visit the Shenzhen city and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
According to the report, Berdimuhammadov stressed "the importance of the upcoming visit to China, which aims at boosting cooperation between the two countries, bringing their economic and trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian cooperation to a new level, that meets modern realities."
A key trend in Ashgabat and Beijing's relations is cooperation in energy sector.
It is expected that during the Beijing visit a contract may be signed to increase the supply of Turkmen gas to China via the pipeline, commissioned in 2009. The pipeline was built by the Chinese CNPC, which has a license to extract raw materials on the Turkmen right bank of the Amu Darya.
According to the Chinese media outlets, 17 billion cubic meters of gas is supposed to be supplied from the Central Asia to China in 2012. Moreover, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region may receive access to the Turkmen fuel imports in 2012. In this regard, CNPC is laying a gas pipeline branch on the seabed with length of 29.3 kilometers, which will link mainland China and Hong Kong.
About 40 companies operate in Turkmenistan and about 60 investment projects involving Chinese companies are registered in Turkmenistan.