BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 21. The ADB and the Government of Turkmenistan are considering investment projects in the energy, transport, finance and healthcare sectors, Country Director of the Asian Development Bank for Turkmenistan Artur Andrysiak, told Trend in an exclusive interview.
"The ongoing National Power Grid Strengthening Project is supporting the establishment of an interconnected national transmission grid to improve reliability and energy efficiency of the network, and support electricity exports," Andrysiak said.
He noted that the ADB helped strengthen power transmission infrastructure with significant physical progress made in implementation of the ongoing 'National Power Grid Strengthening Project' in 2022, and also added that under this sovereign loan, $166.4 million was disbursed.
"The ADB has been a reliable partner of Turkmenistan since 2000 and is focused on supporting the efforts of its Government. At the moment, the bank's support is aimed at making Turkmenistan a key catalyst for regional cooperation and integration by diversifying its markets, as well as strengthening the country's role as a trade and transit hub," he said.
Andrysiak noted that the ADB-financed North-South Railway Project improved broader connectivity to corridors linking Iran, Russia, and South Asia and supported more than doubling of international traffic to about 7.1 million tons, and helped reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 27,000 tons.
"At the same time, the ADB is also working on new projects in energy and transport, including in the railway sector, to help Turkmenistan expand its trade and investment ties with other countries under the Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program," the country director said.
He stressed that the ADB-supported 'CAREC 2030 Strategy' opens additional areas for Turkmenistan to participate in regional initiatives, such as economic and financial stability, climate change and environment, health and education, tourism, digital connectivity, disaster risk management, and agriculture and water resources.
"ADB has committed $625 million for two investment projects in energy and transport sectors since the beginning of 2000 and $10 million in technical assistance grants for Turkmenistan. Furthermore, ADB topped up by $225,000 its existing transaction technical assistance portfolio to help prepare bankable projects in Turkmenistan. With that, ADB’s valid transaction and knowledge technical assistance portfolios for the Turkmenistan reached $3.7 million and $500,000, respectively," Andrysiak said.
Regional technical assistance complements ADB's efforts to achieve stimulating the development of Turkmenistan, and also added that within the framework of one of such regional technical assistance programs, the bank supports Turkmenistan in the process of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), he said.