The development of cooperation in the areas of healthcare, energy, transport and other areas was discussed on September 19 at a meeting between the President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov and the head of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Mohammed Al Jasser, TDH reports.

During the meeting, the guest confirmed the readiness of the IDB to strengthen long-term cooperation with Turkmenistan.

As Serdar Berdimuhamedov noted, cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank is effective and long-term. This September marks the 30th anniversary of Turkmenistan's membership in the IDB. Over the past period, the bank has participated in the financing of more than 20 important projects in the country in such areas as healthcare, education, transport, communications, and energy.

The President emphasized that strengthening the health of the people and increasing life expectancy of the population is one of the priorities of the state policy of Turkmenistan. At the same time, the role of the IDB in the implementation of projects for the construction of medical infrastructure facilities was noted.  At the same time, there are good opportunities for further investment cooperation with the bank in this area.

Among other promising areas of partnership, cooperation in the energy sector was named. In this regard, it was noted that Turkmenistan, which has the richest natural resources, is committed to the development of this area. In this context, the possibilities of cooperation in the oil and gas sector were considered. Turkmenistan is also carrying out comprehensive work in the field of clean energy, which creates great opportunities for cooperation with the IDB in implementing projects in the field of sustainable energy.

The transport sector was also identified as one of the promising areas of cooperation. It was noted that Turkmenistan is developing multimodal regional and international transport corridors along the North-South and East-West routes.

In this context, it was noted that there are ample opportunities for activating international transportation through the Caspian Sea. There is enormous potential for increasing the capacity of the Turkmenbashi International Sea Port, connecting Asia and Europe. For its part, Turkmenistan is ready to consider specific proposals from the bank for participation in projects to create transport and transit corridors.

 Within the framework of cooperation with the IDB, projects were also allocated for the development of the Internet and telecommunications system, strengthening contacts with banks and the private sector of Turkmenistan.