Turkmenistan and Austria open new horizons of cooperation
Head of the Austrian-Turkmen Society, Neda Berger, after a meeting on Wednesday with chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty, the Upper House of the Turkmen Parliament, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, shared her emotions and thoughts with ORIENT:
– I want to express my deep gratitude to highly respected Gurbanguly Myalikgulyevich Berdimuhamedov for the fact that, despite his busyness, he took the time to meet with me, which was a complete surprise for me. I am very touched by such a warm attitude towards the activities of our Society
I am very grateful to this outstanding person for all 14 years during which he patronized our projects. Our Society was established in November 2008, when President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov paid his first official visit to Austria. This is where our activity began.
During today's reception, the speaker of the Turkmen parliament paid much attention to cultural and humanitarian projects between Austria and Turkmenistan. He recalled the four Viennese balls that we held in Ashgabat before the pandemic swept the whole world, and recommended continuing this wonderful tradition, as well as the release of the Turkmen-Austrian magazine "Galkynysh", concerts of the Turkmen-Austrian symphony orchestra and much more what our Society does, promoting the original culture of the two peoples…
And our Society, which includes well-known cultural figures from both countries, is already working in this direction. Moreover, 2023 marks the 15th anniversary of the Austrian-Turkmen society, at the origins of which is Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.
I arrived in Ashgabat as part of a delegation to participate in the regular meeting of the Turkmen-Austrian commission, within the framework of which a business forum, bilateral meetings and a number of other events were held. And the chairman of the Upper House of the Turkmen Parliament, despite the fact that he was on an official visit to the Republic of Korea, was aware of all our affairs and activities that were carried out as part of the visit of the Austrian economic mission to Ashgabat.
During our meeting, Gurbanguly Myalikgulyevich spoke about the upcoming plans for the further development of the country, about grandiose construction projects that will make Turkmenistan even more beautiful. The projects are large-scale, the programs are long-term, and large Austrian businesses are certainly interested in participating in these historic transformations.
The chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty also spoke about the prospects for Turkmen-Austrian contacts at the inter-parliamentary level.
I told about the delight felt by those members of our delegation who visited Ashgabat for the first time. And those who have visited Turkmenistan before were also surprised by such rapid changes in the country.
After a three-year break, almost 40 largest Austrian companies came to Ashgabat to participate in a meeting of the joint commission, a business forum and interdepartmental meetings, where issues of further development of Turkmen-Austrian relations were discussed
Many large world-famous companies show great interest in Turkmenistan. For example, with my colleagues from Waagner Biro steel and glass GmbH, I took part in business discussions with representatives of the Ashgabat City Hall.
In addition, the owners of such well-known pharmaceutical companies as Sigmapharm and DiproMed are ready to implement joint projects with Turkmenistan, expanding existing contacts.
Undoubtedly, huge opportunities for cooperation are opened up by such mega-projects as the construction of a new administrative center of the Akhal region and Ashgabat City. This list can be continued… I am sure that we are at the very beginning of the path that will open up new horizons of interaction.
In general, there are many areas for cooperation between Turkmenistan and Austria, including communications in the field of information, to which, for example, I am directly related as an accredited correspondent from the ORIENT website at the press service of the Austrian Chancellor.
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