Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, April 6 / Trend H. Hasanov /
Ashgabat prepares for Turkmen-Austrian business forum to be held April 14, official Turkmen source reported.
He said that this issue was discussed at the last governmental meeting.
'The upcoming forum is of great practical significance in terms of familiarization with advanced technologies and latest developments of leading European companies. It will serve to establish direct contacts," Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov said.
He said that Turkmenistan is aimed at the advancing movement of economic partnership with the EU countries.
Turkmenistan has invited Austrian companies to conduct exploration and extraction of hydrocarbon resources in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea upon the conditions of the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). A proposal to participate in development projects for servicing the Turkmen fuel and energy complex was also stressed.
In particular, the Austrian oil and gas company OMV, a member of Nabucco consortium, shows interest in these projects. Turkmenistan is regarded as one of the key supplier of natural gas after Azerbaijan for this transnational project - the construction of a gas pipeline to Austria through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary.
Turkmenistan has recently intensified partnership with the European Union, primarily within the EU Strategy in Central Asia, which was developed with the participation of Austria.