Turkmenistan

The Kazakh-Turkmen bilateral trade turnover almost doubled in 2012 compared to the previous year and hit $345 million, Kazinform quoted Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev as saying within the talks with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in Astana on Friday.

"The key sphere in the Kazakh-Turkmen relations is the trade and economic cooperation. Despite the negative trends in the global economy, the trade turnover between the two countries has significantly increased. Last year it hit $345 million and doubled compared to 2011," Nazarbayev said.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stressed the need to intensify work on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) transnational gas pipeline, Turkmen television said today.

According to the report, the issue was discussed at a government meeting," the statement said. "A report on the operations of equipping "Galkynysh" gas field in Mary region with the necessary facilities was also voiced. It is the future key raw material source for a number of alternative projects.

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has received the Minister of Energy of the United Arab Emirates Suhail Mohammed Al Mazrui, the Turkmen government said on Monday.

"The UAE Energy Minister reiterated the readiness of Arab companies to expand mutually beneficial cooperation with Turkmenistan, which successfully implements the forward-looking energy strategy aimed at the fundamental modernization of the sector and the diversification of export routes for energy supplies to world markets," a statement said.

In Turkmenistan, summed up the results of the elections of new members of the local authorities, khalg maslahaty and gengeshs, to replace the leaving ones, took place on April 13, the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda of Turkmenistan announced on Thursday.

At a meeting of the Central Election Comission in Ashgabat the elections were declared valid at all polling stations; extremely high turnout was detected. Two or more candidates ran for one mandate in all constituencies, candidates receiving more than half of the votes were considered to win.