OREANDA-NEWS. April 18, 2011. Universal Exhibition and Conference White City – Ashgabat continues its work at the Exhibition Centre in Ashgabat.

Each year this important event in the urban development and management sector demonstrated its considerable importance in addressing the topical and priority tasks of economic and social development of the capital and the country as a whole. Involvement of foreign companies and representative offices in this sector contributes to enhancing international relations, studying international practices and latest technologies aimed at creating the optimal living conditions in urban and rural areas.

The forum organizers – the Ashgabat Khyakimlik and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry took a comprehensive approach to spotlighting the current situation in this sector and arranged the thematic expositions on the vast exhibition area, including urban planning and management, engineering, supply networks, transport and communications, industry, fabricating industry and social infrastructure, construction and building materials, equipment and municipal engineering, ecology and landscaping.

The exposition section of the forum allowed showcasing at a representative level the achievements, plans and reserves of the Turkmen capital to speed up modernization of the national economy, illustrating practical contribution of different sectors to promoting the ongoing reforms and implementing national projects and fulfilling the priority tasks of the state policy to intensify international cooperation by example of successful joint projects and new business proposals presented by foreign partners.

It should be noted that the exhibition drew particular attention to the issues related to municipal economic development in Turkmenistan. The significance of these issues rises given the establishment of the government agency – the Ministry of Communal Economy on the initiative of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. In this context The White City – Ashgabat conference and exhibition offer good incentives to adopt innovations, take innovative approaches in this sphere and study positive practices of different countries.

The exhibition and conference give an idea of the modern urban development market in our country, help foreign commodity producers and service providers to build a partnership strategy through contributing in a worthy manner to concerted efforts of professionals to develop the approaches to creating an optimal urban environment.

According the exhibitors participants, the forum became an opportunity to showcase their products and provide potential partners with the information about the potential and expertise of companies, firms or enterprises as well as lay the groundwork for effective collaboration and implementation of new joint projects. Presentations, meetings and consultations and the conference that had brought together specialists of the state-run and business organisations, top managers and experts of large foreign companies firms were conducted in the framework of the exhibition.

Those speaking at the meetings emphasized that the prospects of development of the Turkmen capital were quite impressive as evidenced by substantial investments allocated for development and adoption of automated management systems, latest energy efficient technologies, production of energy efficient equipment and materials for industrial and civil construction projects. Large companies and potential investors showed their interest in collaboration on these projects.

For example, Director General of OAO Konversmil (Russian Federation) Alexander Rafailov made the presentation on the use of modern building materials and provided the detailed information on the possibilities for procurement of metal products and manufacture of building materials from local raw materials.

The Russian businessman presented the package of the company’s business proposals on the projects developed jointly with the Turkmennebitgazgurlusik State Concern and the Ruhabat pipe plant. This project is aimed at establishing the experimental and production (pilot) plants which will produce basalt and glass continuous fiber, epoxy resin, basalt- fiberglass pipes and fittings – the products I high demand in the domestic industrial, power and construction sectors.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Vozrozhdenie Company Igor Bukata made the presentation of the potential of the Russian holding to beautify city parks, streets and squares and build fountains. The businessman said that the holding intended to intensify partnership on the project of the Avaza national tourism zone and put forward the concrete proposals for procurement of granite products to Turkmenistan. A focus of the presentation was collaboration in implementing the Turkmen leader’s initiative to build the East-West transport corridor in order to modernize the transportation infrastructure in Ashgabat in particular.

The discussions covered such issues as further development of electric power infrastructure in Ashgabat, enhancement of the role of the private sector in promoting the urban development programme, water supply, management, investment policy, etc.

The second day of the conference was devoted to the issues related to protection of the environment and the health of citizens. The reports on further improvement of the environmental wellbeing, application of advanced technologies at treatment facilities, infrastructure networks, including water supply networks, comfort of housing estates in new territories and reconstruction of old parts of the city in compliance with the national peculiarities of the way of life of the Turkmen people were presented at the forum.

Such themes as balanced development of industrial, housing, administrative and park zones in Ashgabat in their interrelation and improvement of the living conditions for citizens of the Turkmen capital, the prospects for forming new industrial segments of the city through applying advanced technologies that use renewable energy sources and local mineral resources, etc aroused particular interest of the forum participants.

In general, the foreign participants presented the comprehensive overview and in-depth analysis of international best practices in the construction sector, the possibility to adopt them in Turkmenistan in compliance with environmental safety, energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness requirements. The issues related to planting trees and shrubs in big cities and the conceptual aspects of urban greening under current economic and environmental conditions.

Thus, the discussions covered the most important aspects of development of the city and opened up the vast opportunities to present latest achievements and new ideas to a target audience as well as evidenced once again that the information technologies and knowledge-intensive products predetermined the vectors of development of the city as well as the society and country.

The forum participants highly evaluated the importance of the information presented at the conference and the possibilities to use it at a qualitatively new level.