ZCZC
BCN-02
TURKMENISTAN-TRANSPORT-ECONOMY
Turkmenistan launches $2.3bn highway in bid for Asia-Europe transit
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Jan 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Isolated Turkmenistan on
Friday launched construction of a new $2.3 billion national highway, state
television reported Friday, as it looks to international cargo flows to ease
dependence on gas exports.
The 600-kilometre-long highway will extend east from the ex-Soviet
republic’s capital Ashgabat to Turkmenabat near the border with Uzbekistan
and then south to the rail hub of Tedjen close to the country’s border with
Afghanistan.
State investments in transit-related infrastructure — including a $2.2
billion airport in Ashgabat completed in 2016 — are part of a bid to
diversify an economy strongly dependent on hydrocarbon revenues.
Unusually Turkmenistan’s strongman president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov
did not attend the televised groundbreaking ceremony outside Ashgabat for the
highway, which is due to be completed in 2023.
Presiding over the ceremony instead was his son Serdar Berdymukhamedov,
37, who analysts say is being lined up as his successor and was recently
appointed deputy governor of his father’s home region.
Serdar Berdymukhamedov called the highway an example of Turkmenistan’s
“great support to the private sector, which is developing rapidly in our
country.”
The road will be constructed by a little-known private company called
Turkmen Awtoban, with a loan provided by the national bank.
Turkmenistan later plans to build a highway connecting Ashgabat to the
country’s new $1.5 billion Turkmenbashi seaport on the Caspian coast.
It positions the seaport as a new node in China’s trillion-dollar Belt and
Road trade and infrastructure vision.
Turkmen state television said the road construction aims to build up cargo
transit along key trade corridors leading to Europe and the Middle East.
Turkmenistan’s manat currency lost a fifth of its value after the collapse
of hydrocarbon prices in 2014 while Russian energy giant Gazprom’s decision
to cease purchasing Turkmen gas at the start of 2016 caused further pain.
The move left Turkmenistan even more reliant on demand from China which
last year imported 35 billion cubic metres of Turkmen gas via the Central
Asia-China pipeline.
BSS/AFP/HR/0925