centralasiatradetransportfacilitationaudit.doc

CENTRAL ASIA TRADE TRANSPORT FACILITATION AUDIT NATIONAL REPORTS TURKMENISTAN Initiated by: The Worldbank, USA Written by: NEA Transport research and training, The Netherlands Our reference: (23060) Status: Draft March 2003 CONTENTS Page 1 Introduction 2 2 TRADE TRENDS, TRANSPORT FLOWS AND THE INFRASTRUCTURE 2 3 ONGOING REFORM PROCESS 2 4 TRADE AND TRANSPORT FACILITATION 2 5 TRADE AND TRANSPORT ACTION PLAN 2 Annex 1 Major technical assistance and investments projects Introduction The study This is the country report for Turkmenistan in the framework of the Central Asia Trade and Transport Facilitation Study. The project has been financed by the World Bank and commissioned to NEA Transport research and training in The Netherlands. Main objectives of the study are to: Identify and describe the main impediments in the domain of trade and transport facilitation to increased international trade for Central Asian countries; Formulate priority actions to be taken by Central Asian governments to remove these impediments. During the project three experts on transport and logistics of NEA have been travelling through Central Asia, visiting Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Each country has been visited by one expert for at least one week. During this week numerous meeting have been arranged with the Government and the business circles. The project has resulted into one Synthesis Report and a Country Report for each of the Central Asian states. The result was only possible thanks to the excellent support of the World Bank including its regional offices, and the people whom contributed during all the meetings that were organised in Central Asia. We are grateful that we were able to work with them. This report has been elaborated by Arthur Gleijm (team leader), Harrie de Leijer, Menno Langeveld and René Meeuws. Turkmenistan general Turkmenistan is bordering the Caspian Sea, its neighbouring countries are Iran