THE IMPORTANCE OF TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION SPHERE FOR THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ON THE ECO SPACE AND BEYOND HIGHLIGHTED

The President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov drew the attention of the participants of the 14th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization to the necessity of developing transport and communication sphere.

“We consider the ECO space as a system of optimal, feasible and highly technological transport and communication hubs and routes on the Eurasian continent,” said the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

 It was stated that Turkmenistan actively works on the given vector.  As an example, the President noted the commissioning of the power transmission line from Kerki (Turkmenistan) to Sheberghan (Afghanistan), opening of 30 km long railway between Aqina and Andkhoy stations in Afghanistan, as well as the commissioning of the international fiber-optic communication line from Ymamnazar (Turkmenistan) to Aqina (Afghanistan) and from Serhetabat (Turkmenistan) to Torghundi (Afghanistan) in January of current year.

In this regard, the President of Turkmenistan proposed to consider the development of similar multilateral projects in various spheres in participation of other ECO countries.  He also urged to focus on the combined transit and transport routes along “East-West” from the Asian-Pacific region to the European part of the continent, leading to the Near East.

The Caspian Sea was not left aside too. The President of Turkmenistan noted that as the four of five Caspian states are the Members of the ECO, “we must actively move through the Caspian in west and north directions, reaching the ports of Black and Baltic Seas.