Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Turkmenistan's Minister of Economy and Development Babamyrat Taganov has said all the conditions have been provided in his country to attract investment.

Speaking at a meeting of the World Economic Forum (Davos Forum) in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, on Monday, Taganov said Turkmenistan realizes the importance of the liberalization of trade for integration.

"Currently, the issue of joining the World Trade Organization is being examined," Taganov said, adding that environmental issues including those relating to the situation in the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea are important for Ashgabat.

Turkmenistan is expressing its intention to join the WTO and has set up a working group to study the issue and analyze the economic implications of its potential accession to the organization.

The European Union earlier voiced its readiness to support Turkmenistan's accession to the WTO. During his visit to Turkmenistan in 2011, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso suggested that the country join the organization, saying that this would increase its share in regional and global trade.

The minister added that Turkmenistan is working on further diversification of energy supplies, as the relevance of energy remains an important issue for the country.

Taganov added that Turkmenistan in recent years has worked on the diversification of hydrocarbon supplies to China and Iran.

"Moreover, we are working on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, which is of great importance for the development of the region," he noted. "The Kazakhstan-Tajikistan-Iran railway is also being rapidly constructed. [Also], a road leading to Afghanistan and Iran is planned to be constructed from 2016."

The TAPI pipeline project with design capacity of 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year will extend from Galkhynysh -- the largest gas field in Turkmenistan -- through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandagar to the final point, a settlement on the Pakistani-Indian border.

The basic document for the promotion of the TAPI project is the Ashgabat interstate agreement on the commencement of actual implementation of the TAPI project signed in late 2010 by the four participating countries.

In fall 2012, Turkmenistan held a series of international road shows for TAPI with the participation of the Asian Development Bank. It was reported that Chevron, Exxon Mobil, BP, BG Group, RWE, and Petronas expressed plans to participate in the project.