Caspian Business Journal

CBJ Exclusive: First US-TBC Mission to Ashgabat

It is “America Week” in Turkmenistan.  The name is a propos considering the U.S.-Turkmenistan Business Council’s first mission to Ashgabat finishes its third day today and the Obama Administration is wrapping up its first Annual Bilateral Consultation (ABC) in the country.

Eleven companies – Belam, Boeing, Case New Holland, Caterpillar, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, GE, Honeywell, John Deere, and Parker Drilling – sent delegates with the US-TBC mission.  According to US-TBC Executive Director Eric Stewart, the visit began with a traditional warm welcome, and will finish tomorrow with a business and U.S. government delegation flying to Awaza to tour the development of their large scale tourism center on the Caspian.

Stewart, meanwhile, met yesterday with President Gurbanguly Berdymuhummedov and Deputy Prime Minister Rashid Meredov to discuss enhancing and strengthing bilateral economic relations.  “We met for more than 1 hour,” said Stewart.  “The President told me he is very happy with the US-TBC and he is especially pleased we have brought the first-ever business mission to Ashgabat and that we have doubled the number of companies on the Council in less than 1 year.”

According to Stewart, President Berdymuhummedov “went into great detail about how pleased he is with American companies and their impact on Turkmenistan, creating jobs, technology transfer, quality and excellence.”  Meanwhile, delegates from the eleven companies on the mission have had a combined total of 30 meetings with various Deputy Chairmen and Ministers.

It is by now obvious that Turkmenistan’s government is courting a far greater variety of foreign investors than under the previous president, Niyazov.  The U.S., meanwhile, has made it clear that its energy policy for the region is aimed at developing a gas pipeline across the Caspian and through the Caucasus to Turkey and into Europe.  It is against this background that the US-TBC mission and the ABC finishes this week, and, with it, “America Week.”  Any long-term gains by the mission may not emerge for some time, but the CBJ will have follow-up coverage with an exclusive with Director Stewart in July.