RIA OREANDA, RUSSIA
Economic News
February 12, 2009 Thursday

Turkmen-Armenian Economic Development Commission Meets in Ashgabat

Ashgabat . OREANDA-NEWS . February 12, 2009. The Turkmen-Armenian
intergovernmental commission for economic development consisting of
the high-ranking officials and government officials of the leading
sectoral ministries and departments of Turkmenistan and Armenia held
the first meeting in Ashgabat.

The commission was co-chaired by Vice Premier of Turkmenistan
H. Saparlyev and Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of the
Republic of Armenia A. Movsisian.

Opening the meeting the heads of the delegations put emphasis on
mutual interest in diversifying and intensifying mutually advantageous
cooperation and expressed belief that the commission would create
powerful incentives to further traditional partnership between
Turkmenistan and Republic of Armenia. It was noted that the important
bilateral documents had laid the solid foundation for the maintaining
the fruitful dialogue which had been brought today up to a higher and
filled with a new concrete content. The agenda of the first day of the
meeting included a wide range of the issues of bilateral collaboration
prioritizing such fields as trade and economy, chemical industry,
transport and communication, agriculture.

Exchanging views on the further trends in fuel and energy partnership
the hosts invited the Armenian partners to take part in the
international conference Reliable and Stable Transit of Energy and Its
Role in Ensuring Sustainable Development and International Cooperation
which would be held in Ashgabat this April. The guests accepted the
invitation with great enthusiasm.

A focus of the talks was humanitarian cooperation particularly in the
spheres of education, science and healthcare.

Emphasis was put on the importance of enhancing and expanding cultural
contacts as well through participating in international festivals and
other cultural forums organized in Turkmenistan and Armenia. The
partners unanimously called for establishing effective contacts in the
sphere of sport and tourism as the priorities of national development.

The aspects of the draft Agreement between the Government of
Turkmenistan and the Government of the Republic of Armenia on the
Turkmen-Armenian intergovernmental commission for economic development
were touched upon during the meeting held in the businesslike and
constructive atmosphere

On behalf of the Armenian delegation Minister Armen Movsisian
expressed sincere gratitude to the President and the Government of
Turkmenistan for the heartfelt welcome extended in the Turkmen land
and emphasized that the establishment of the commission vividly
illustrated the countries intention to develop full-scale partnership
in the interests of two friendly peoples.