Last Friday, Mary city hosted an international conference dedicated to the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline and the impact of the project on the socio-economic development of the region, ORIENT reports with reference to the organizers of the forum.

 The representative office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan in the Mary region gathered at the event at the State Energy Institute the diplomatic representatives of the countries participating in the TAPI project and the specialists involved in its implementation.

 The head of the region representative office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Gadam Ilamanov, emphasized in his speech that the TAPI project will make a huge contribution to the prosperity of the Asian region and ensure the socio-economic development of Afghanistan.

 Charge d'affaire ad interim of Afghanistan in Turkmenistan Fazal Muhammad Sabir confirmed that nowadays his country needs the economic support that the construction of the gas pipeline can provide.  In the provinces through which the TAPI pipeline will pass, it is planned to open many enterprises and create thousands of jobs, which will ensure an overall increase in the standard of living of the population.

 Now the Afghan side is working on resolving a number of issues related to the successful implementation of the project in the Afghan sector.  After the implementation of the first stage of the project in Afghanistan, residents of the whole country will be able to clearly see and feel the positive socio-economic effect from TAPI, after which it will receive even greater support from the population, and its implementation will continue at an even faster pace, Fazal Sabir expressed confidence.

As Pakistani Ambassador to Turkmenistan Irfan Ahmed noted at the meeting, the successful negotiation process on the projects of the TAPI gas pipeline and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) power transmission line inspires great optimism.  He recalled that in January of this year, the delegation of Turkmenistan held successful negotiations on the TAPI and TAP projects at the Ministry of Energy of Pakistan, at which an agreement was reached on the need for their speedy implementation.

 The head of the Center for Strategic Studies of the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Shiri Shiriyev in his speech drew attention to the economic efficiency of natural gas, which is a cleaner and cheaper source of energy compared to others.  In this regard, it was noted that the establishment of supplies of Turkmen «blue fuel» to the countries participating in the project will provide them with the necessary raw material base to accelerate industrialization, attract additional investment in the economy, and create thousands of new jobs.

 Deputy Head of the Department for the Implementation of TAPI of the State Concern «Turkmengas» Baky Charyev spoke about the progress of the project.  In particular, work was carried out to prepare a preliminary technical design of the gas pipeline in accordance with international standards, a technical audit and nine different studies were successfully carried out.

 As a result of the work carried out, events were organized aimed at attracting additional investment in the project, in which large financial structures showed interest.  The Asian Development Bank expressed its readiness to invest 1.1 billion US dollars in the implementation of TAPI.  Currently, 25 agreements have been concluded at the government level and one legislative act has been adopted, which are aimed at the construction of the TAPI gas pipeline.  Another 10 agreements are under development, and Afghanistan is preparing a special law «On the TAPI project».

 For the construction of the pipeline, tenders were announced for the purchase of material and technical resources and the involvement of contractors, however, in the first half of 2020, due to the difficult epidemiological situation, they were temporarily suspended at various stages.

 Interest in participating in the project was expressed by various companies from Europe, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other countries.

 Thus, the international conference held demonstrated that the TAPI project is supported by the governments of all participating countries.  Since the gas pipeline is of strategic importance for the region and is able to have a positive effect on the socio-economic and environmental well-being of the peoples of Asia.