Turkmen President urges deepening of public-private partnerships, expresses keen interest in learning from Georgia’s tourism success

“Business can play a paramount role in further developing the partnership between our countries across logistics, infrastructure, international supply chains, and terminal development. Our focus should not be confined to state-level cooperation; instead, the private sector must be actively engaged in infrastructure development and other key areas,” declared the President of Turkmenistan, Serdar Berdimuhamedow, during his address at the Georgia-Turkmenistan Business Forum.

The Turkmen Head of State added that dialogue between Georgia and Turkmenistan, as well as between their respective business entities, must become systemic and regular.

“Today’s forum provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate our current standing and map out prospects for trade, economic relations, and investment. I would highlight the mechanisms driving our economic development. Under our newly approved national programme, our country’s GDP growth is holding steady at 6.3%. Our economic policy prioritises diversification, the modernisation of the agricultural sector, infrastructure development, and robust support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To deliver this long-term, large-scale economic development programme, more than 41 billion manats, equivalent to 12 billion dollars, have been allocated in capital investments.

This state-approved framework allows us to execute targeted economic programmes, directing substantial funds into construction and heavy industry. Concurrently, our state budget remains deeply committed to social welfare, with 77% of public spending dedicated to the social sector.
We also place exceptional importance on supporting entrepreneurship and protecting the private sector, which is projected to generate 73% of GDP.

A core priority for our government is to accelerate state support for the energy sector. I must emphasise that Turkmenistan’s energy strategy is geared entirely towards modernisation. We are focusing heavily on raw material processing, natural resource development, and maximising our overall potential to solidify our country’s position as the world’s fourth-largest holder of natural gas reserves. This includes opening new processing plants and thermal energy facilities.

Exploiting the hydrocarbon resources of the Caspian Sea remains a top priority. Our strategic partnerships with foreign oil and gas majors focus on developing our energy sector, deploying advanced hydrocarbon production methods, and expanding the export of liquefied petroleum products from Asia to Europe.

Simultaneously, a strong emphasis is being placed on the chemical industry. We are constructing some of Central Asia’s largest industrial plants to produce mineral fuels and agricultural fertilisers for both domestic consumption and export markets. Furthermore, our private sector production is being diversified to boost the manufacturing of high-quality construction materials, metals, and plastics for the building sector, targeting both local and export markets where international quality standards are paramount.

Today, Turkmenistan’s textile industry is also vitally important, utilising local raw materials for garment manufacturing. Turkmenistan processes 133,000 metric tonnes of cotton per year, with 80% of our textile production destined for export and only 20% retained for local consumption. This sector offers immense potential for private sector growth. We are also prioritising food production, particularly the cultivation and export of fruit and vegetables. Turkmenistan is already a leading supplier of tomatoes, exporting over 200,000 tonnes annually.
Distinguished participants, I take this opportunity to call upon the business communities of both Turkmenistan and Georgia to build on our close ties and forge new commercial partnerships. The upward trend recorded in recent months reflects the vast scale of our economies, which generated 260 billion dollars in trade volume last year. We can clearly see that our mutual potential is being harnessed at an accelerating rate, and I am confident that new partnerships will be established today. Businesses can play a crucial role in expanding our partnership across logistics, infrastructure, international supply chains, and terminal development.

We are currently discussing the establishment of a Turkmen logistics terminal on Georgia’s Black Sea coast to bring our nations even closer and to ensure public-private partnerships flourish. The business community plays a vital role in this endeavour by driving the foreign direct investment that benefits both nations. This is the very foundation upon which our government’s long-term strategic partnership rests.

I am confident that cooperation between our business circles will also extend to cutting-edge technologies, with the agri-industrial sector remaining a top priority. A closer partnership between the entrepreneurs and industrialists of Turkmenistan and Georgia will be highly mutually beneficial. This will manifest in concrete projects, plans, and initiatives dedicated to advancing agriculture and other sectors. Turkmenistan is deeply interested in learning from Georgia’s development experience so that we can apply similar expertise. In particular, we aim to establish major tourism hubs of our own. Georgia achieved outstanding tourism figures in 2025, and we seek to replicate that success by maintaining a substantial, regular, and systematic dialogue between our states and business entities. I wish you all a highly successful forum and a productive exchange of ideas, expertise, and knowledge. I wish you the very best,” the Turkmen President concluded.

Note: This text has been translated based on simultaneous interpretation.