Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Ashgabat last week hosted one-on-one talks between Presidents Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan and Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who arrived in the Central Asian state for an official visit.

The sides discussed prospects for mutually beneficial partnership in various fields. Berdymukhamedov and Al Nahyan confirmed the willingness of Turkmenistan and the UAE to continue the full-scale interstate dialogue and search for new areas of trade and economic cooperation.

Following the high-level talks, the presidents made a joint statement on the results of Al Nahyan's official visit to Turkmenistan.

The statement says that Turkmenistan and the UAE aim to expand and improve cooperation in sectors such as oil and gas, oil refining, chemical industry and renewable energy.

Furthermore, the two countries signed a package of documents, including a cooperation program for 2013 between the Turkmen and UAE Ministries of Foreign Affairs and an agreement on cooperation in the field of standardization, metrology, certification and accreditation between the Turkmen and UAE governments.

Turkmen media reports that the UAE is one of Turkmenistan's largest trading partners, which is confirmed by the annual increase in bilateral trade. Since 2006, the volume of bilateral trade, which then stood at $267 million, increased by more than four times and in 2012 amounted to $1.423 billion.

As of January 1, 2013, 54 enterprises with UAE capital were registered in Turkmenistan. Currently, UAE companies implement 96 projects in Turkmenistan. UAE companies are represented well in the Turkmen energy market.

In particular, Dragon Oil has operated in Turkmenistan since 1999 under a production sharing agreement (PSA). Investment in this project amounted to $2.4 billion as of the first quarter of 2012. Until 2015, the company intends to attract over $1 billion for the development of projects.

Another company, Petrofac, received a major contract to provide services amounting to nearly $4 billion to develop the Galkynysh field in Mary area, the second largest natural gas field in the world.

Also, Mubadala is in talks on prospects for cooperation in the Turkmen part of the Caspian Sea. A relevant international tender involves 32 licensed blocks with estimated resources of 11 billion tons of oil and 5.5 trillion cubic meters of gas, excluding contracted blocks.

The projects implemented by UAE companies in Turkmenistan also include the International Treatment Centre of Internal Diseases (nephrology centre), which has already been built, the reconstruction of the Archman Sanatorium, as well as a runway at the airport in the city of Mary.

The two countries are also cooperating in investments, town planning and trade. One of the world's major mobile operators from the UAE -- Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) -- is interested in the Turkmen market.

A joint cooperation committee run by the two countries held its first meeting in November last year in Abu Dhabi and was supported by agreements in trade, oil and gas, energy, agriculture, transport and communication sectors.