Friday, July 27, 2012 -
The Turkmen government said Thursday it will hold two big business forums in an attempt to lure new foreign investment to the Central Asian republic this year.
TurkmenTEL 2012, an international conference on telecommunications, telemetry, and information technology, will take place this September in the capital Ashgabat, organizers said.
The sixth annual event that kicks off September 17 hopes to entice some 200 delegates to explore the current and future prospects of the information and communication sector in the reclusive nation.
The two-day forum is backed by the communications ministry and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), with organizational expertise from the UK firm Summit Trade Events, according to the statement posted on Turkmenistantelecoms.com web site.
The announcement of the event just happened to coincide with a notice from Russian mobile telecoms firm MTS Thursday that it was given the green light to reenter the market after a 20-month hiatus.
Authorities in Turkmenistan evicted MTS from the country without warning in December 2010, leaving 80 percent of Turkmenistan’s cellphone users scrambling for alternative service providers. State mobile company Altyn Asyr has since then utterly failed to meet the massive demand.
TurkmenTEL 2012 will be followed a month later by the investment show TurkmenistanInvest 2012.
The Turkmenistan Investment Forum will run from October 17-19 and highlight opportunities to develop the national economy, according to TurkmenistanInvest.com web site.
Participants of the event will discuss ways to improve the nation’s competitiveness and strengthen its economic potential.
Potential investors will also get a chance to talk with senior officials on implementation of large scale projects as part of the national economic expansion strategy.
The forum is organized by the economy ministry and Chamber of Commerce.