:: Shingetsu Institute ::

Newsletter No. 746
News-Analysis
September 24, 200

TURKMEN-JAPANESE ECONOMIC COMMITTEE HOLDS MEETING IN ASHGABAT

Turkmenistan.ru reports that the 7th Meeting of the Turkmen-Japanese Committee for Economic Cooperation was held in Ashgabat on the 20th and 21st. The focus of this two-day forum, not surprisingly, seems to have been the oil and gas industries. The reports make clear that representatives from the JBIC, JETRO, Itochu, Mitsubishi, Marubeni, Mitsui, Komatsu, and JGC attended the forum.

Four specific joint projects mentioned in the reports were as follows:

-- Japanese involvement in polypropylene production at the Turkmenbashi complex of refineries.

-- A JGC proposal to supply a gas desulfurization plant.

-- Proposals by Komatsu and the Itochu Corporation to provide machinery for digging and road paving, as well as the training of Turkmen personnel.

-- The construction of desalinization plants on the Caspian Sea.

The Turkmen-Japanese Committee for Economic Cooperation was established in 1994, but this would be the first meeting of the committee since the death of Saparmurat Niyazov -- “Turkmenbashi the Great” -- and the rise of the administration of Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.

So far the Berdymukhammedov regime has shown few signs of wanting to release the Turkmen population from heavy doses of political repression, but it does seem to be opening up its foreign policy to players other than Russia -- which may portend bigger changes in the future.