The trade turnover between Turkmenistan and Austria in the first six months of this year increased by 34% compared to the same period last year, the Orient news outlet reported citing the Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov as saying during a meeting with his Austrian counterpart Michael Linhart in Ashgabat on Tuesday.
“Despite the pandemic, bilateral trade in 2020 grew 2.5 times compared to 2019, according to our statistics. At the same time, I would like to say according to Austrian statistics for six months of this year, trade with Turkmenistan increased by 34% compared to the same period in 2020,” Meredov said during the talks.
“Speaking about the prospects for trade-economic cooperation between our countries, I would like to mention the presence of great potential in such areas as investment, industry, logistics, tourism, digital technologies, trade and healthcare,” Meredov said and highlighted the importance of developing bilateral contacts between the countries’ private companies in these areas.
The Turkmen diplomat also proposed to hold the upcoming meeting of the Turkmen-Austrian commission, scheduled for next year, in Ashgabat.
Following the talks, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan and the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs of Austria signed a Cooperation Program for 2022-2023.
Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Linhart’s visit to Ashgabat is part of his tour of Central Asian countries. He is accompanied by a business delegation consisting of representatives of companies operating in the fields of healthcare (VAMED, AME International GmbH), financial services (Österreichische Kontrollbank AG), energy (Solkav E.V., Geppert GmbH), printing industry (Heidelberger), construction (Waagner-Biro).