On February 27, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov conducted a regular session of the Cabinet of Ministers to consider some draft documents, and a number of priority issues of state life. After reading out the session agenda, the leader of nation gave the floor to Cabinet Deputy Chairman A. Gochyev to report on the state of affairs in the financial and economic sector, as well as on preparation of a draft Order on presenting money gifts on behalf of the President of Turkmenistan on the occasion of International Woman’s Day. As informed, to implement the relevant Resolution of the head of state, certain amounts of financial resources had been provided for in the State Budget of the country and this year’s financial plans of self-financing organizations and private enterprises. Having signed the Order on presenting money gifts to women of the country in honor of the remarkable spring holiday, the head of state assigned the Vice-Premier and relevant officials to ensure timely payment and a high organizational level of all the festive events, which should be held in the solemn atmosphere countrywide. Next speaker, Cabinet Deputy Chairman, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan R. Meredov informed about the ongoing work of the Ministry, and in this context - preparations for the official visit by the head of Turkmen state to the Republic of Turkey on March 3-4. As noted, the Turkmen-Turkish top-level talks are intended to promote further all-round development of the fruitful cooperation based on the indestructible bonds of friendship and brotherly relations, historically established commonality of the cultural and spiritual traditions of the Turkmen and Turkish peoples. The talks are expected to result in signing a set of bilateral documents aimed to strengthen the solid normative legal framework of the interstate partnership. The visit’s official program also includes a trip of the leader of nation to Istanbul, where the International Investment Forum of Turkmenistan in the Republic of Turkey is to be held. Having highly appraised the interstate Turkmen-Turkish dialogue, which successfully develops in the bilateral and multilateral format within the authoritative international organizations, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov noted that in the last few years, the traditional partnership had been given refreshed powerful impulse both in the trade-economic and humanitarian-cultural spheres. In this connection, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov gave the Minister of Foreign Affairs a number of concrete commissions on preparations for the forthcoming official visit by the Government Delegation of Turkmenistan to the Republic of Turkey, destined to become another landmark in the history of the interstate relations and to give new incentive to the bilateral cooperation in the interests of the two countries, and universal well-being. Chairperson of Mejlis A. Nurberdyeva focused her report on the preparations for a regular session of the national parliament to be held to consider some new draft laws. Among them are draft Laws of Turkmenistan on “On the Chamber of Commerce and Industry”, “On counteracting extremism”, “On organizing and holding meetings, mass meetings, demonstrations and other mass events”, “On the railway transport” and “On protecting the national non-material cultural heritage”. Draft laws on making amendments and additions to some legislative acts, intended to advance intensive development of the national economy, to strengthen law enforcement, to legally regulate the environmental issues and to enhance the legislation in the field of foreign policy. In the after-report comments, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov stressed the importance of systematic and regular work of Mejlis on tackling the tasks aimed at the country’s further progress on the road of democratization of public and political life, fundamental socio-economic reforms, and adoption of the positive international experience in the legislative activity. The report of Cabinet Deputy Chairman, Manager of the Presidential and Cabinet Administration Office of Turkmenistan Sh. Durdylyev covered the work of the supervised sectors, as well as implementation progress of the assignments given earlier by the head of state. After the report, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov focused on the priority objectives connected with construction of new facilities in etraps of Ashgabat city, specified by the working plans in the frames of preparations for the 20th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s neutrality and the V Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. In that connection, the leader of nation demanded to exercise strict control over the course of construction and take every measure to ensure high quality of works. Then, Cabinet Deputy Chairman A. Yazmyradov informed about the construction progress of a new water storage reservoir on the Gozganchai River in Kaahka etrap, Akhal velayat, which is being built in accordance with “The National Program of the President of Turkmenistan for the country’s socio-economic development for 2012-2016”. The new facility, in construction of which modern technologies and materials are used, includes a water reservoir with a capacity of 500,000 cubic meters, designed to supply pure drinking water to the population. The hydrotechnical complex also consists of a man-made reservoir for collecting mudflows, with a storage capacity of 5.2 million cubic meters of water. At present, rainwater is being collected there. More than 1, 200,000 cubic meters of water have already been accumulated. The construction of water collectors for diverting water from the Gozganchai River and water-retaining structures are well under way. On the whole, putting into operation of the facility will enable to supply drinking water to daikhan associations. Irrigation water will be supplied to 1.5 thousand hectares of farmlands. Summarizing the report, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov placed special accent on the need to ensure a science-based approach to handling the issues of uninterrupted supply of potable water to the population, farmland improvement, and use of new irrigated areas. The head of state gave the Vice-Premier a number of commissions on further improving supply of irrigation water to farmlands, by applying the latest technologies in the water industry and collecting water in artificial reservoirs during seasonal floods. Reporting on fulfillment of the earlier presidential commissions, Cabinet Deputy Chairman B. Hojamuhammedov focused on the work ongoing in the frames of modernization and reconstruction of the Turkmenbashi Refinery Complex. At present, a crude oil distillation plant (with an annual capacity of 3,000,000 tons) and a polypropylene film production plant (with an annual capacity of 21,000 tons) are under construction at the complex. Besides, a complex of facilities for production of high-octane gasoline is being built. The new complex includes facilities for production of high-octane components of gasoline (from 250,000 tons of liquefied gas) and 230,000 tons of A-80 low-octane gasoline, as well as a gasoline blending plant (with a capacity of 2.3 million tons). Reconstruction of a catalytic reforming plant is under way at the Seidi Refinery; it will make it possible to produce 450,000 tons of А-95 gasoline from straight-run gasoline. An international tender was held for building a road bitumen plant (with a capacity of 300,000 tons) and a building bitumen plant (with a capacity of 50,000 tons) at the Turkmenbashi Refinery Complex. Thus, given the facilities in operation, the production output of road bitumen and building bitumen at the plants of the complex are projected to increase up to 600,000 tons and 56,000 tons, respectively. On the whole, the oil refining capacity of the Turkmenbashi Refinery Complex will increase to 10.5 million tons a year. The processing depth will make up 95 percent at the Complex, and 97 percent at the Seidi Refinery. In total, 1.632 million tons of desulfurized gasoline and 3.775 million tons of hydrotreated diesel fuel that will meet the Euro 5 International Fuel Quality Standards will be produced in the country. The President of Turkmenistan emphasized the importance of wide application of innovative technologies in the fuel and energy complex, which are aimed to ensure rational use of the country’s hydrocarbon resources and facilitate tackling of the environmental issues. The Vice-Premier was given concrete assignments on timely putting into operation the new facilities at the Turkmenbashi Refinery Complex and speeding up the work on infrastructure projects planned for implementation in the oil-refining industry in the short term. The report of Cabinet Deputy Chairperson M. Yazmuhammedova was an extensive coverage of preparation of a new website devoted to the 20th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s neutrality and announcement of 2015 the Year of Neutrality and Peace. With the help of video and photographic materials, the Vice-Premier presented detailed information about the structure and informative content of the new site to be launched into cyberspace in the Turkmen, English and Russian languages. The new portal is intended to present information about large-scale festive events, including the international forum on the 20th anniversary of neutrality. The web site will provide visitors with documentary and interesting materials about our country, the grandiose progressive reforms under way in Turkmenistan under the leadership of President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, the ongoing work carried out in the context of implementing the Turkmen state’s foreign policy strategy on the international cooperation development, popular articles and others. Having approved the proposal on setting up the new information site on the global Internet, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov has stressed its great socio-political importance. The status of permanent neutrality delegated to Turkmenistan by the Community of Nations 20 years ago, the head of state said, not only reflects peacefulness and tolerance, which have always been so characteristic of the Turkmen people, but it also obliges us to actively contribute to achieving main goals of the third millennium, such as ensuring of universal peace and sustainable development, strengthening of constructive international cooperation. The leader of nation also assigned to ensure a high organizational level of the website devoted to the 20th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s neutrality as well as of all the upcoming international events and other festivities, having given the Vice-Premier the issue-related instructions. The state of affairs in the supervised spheres, the preparations for mass sporting, recreation and socio-cultural activities to be held from April 1 to April 30, 2015 under the slogan “Health and Happiness” in honor of World Health Day in compliance with the Resolution of the President of Turkmenistan (signed in January 2014) were key issues the report of Cabinet Deputy Chairman S. Toilyev was centered on. In this connection, a Program of Activities for the month’s campaign, to be held in combination with celebrations on the occasion of 20th anniversary of adopting the “Saglyk” Program and announcement of 2015 the Year of Neutrality and Peace in Turkmenistan were submitted for consideration by the leader of nation. Summing up the report, the head of state has emphasized the great significance of the planned mass sporting, recreation and socio-cultural events under the slogan “Health and Happiness”, having noted that they are aimed to actively promote the principles of healthy lifestyle in the society, popularize and develop sports, to strengthen international cooperation in the field of healthcare and physical activities, and to keep up the initiatives on organizing similar activities to mark World Health Day. Having highlighted the importance of our citizens’ active participation in the events, intended to stimulate sporting enthusiasm of the Turkmen people, the head of state gave the Vice-Premier specific commissions on holding the activities at a better and higher level in terms of organization and content. Then, Cabinet Deputy Chairman B. Ereshov reported on the state of affairs in the national economy’s industrial sector, fulfillment of the assignments given earlier by the head of state, in particular, the measures aimed at developing the country’s fish industry. As reported, 840 tons of fish are planned to be raised in water reservoirs of the “Ahalbalyk” State Enterprise (with the total area of 1,100 hectares) in 2015. To fill the country’s water reservoirs with sufficient quantity of fish in the running year’s spring, 2,440,000 of young fish (carps and silver carps) were reared at the fishery of Ak bugdai etrap, Akhal velayat. At present, the work on releasing young fish in reservoirs is in progress: 1.5 million – in Akhal velayat and 400,000 – in lakes of the velayat; 540,000 – in the Hanhovuz water reservoir of Oguzkhan etrap, Mary velayat. To ensure continuous replenishment of fish resources in the country’s inland water reservoirs, capital repair of the “Garametniyaz” water reservoir in Halach etrap was completed. 500,000 young fish have been grown by now. Besides, to successfully tackle the tasks assigned, the man-made water reservoirs in Akhal velayat (the total area - 450 hectares) are planned to be repaired and cleaned. As reported, after commissioning the new fishing vessels (placed at the disposal of the State Fishery Committee), fishing has increased by 16.6 percent for this year’s two-month period as compared to last year’s similar period. The State Fishery Committee of Turkmenistan has issued a tender for construction of an industrial complex for farming of sturgeons and production of fish products (on account of foreign investments) nearby the settlement of Guvlymayak, Turkmenbashi etrap, Balkan velayat. Summing up the report, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov emphasized the importance of accelerated development of the country’s fish industry, expansion of fishing and farming of commercial fish, high quality processing and production of a wide range of fish products. In this context, having focused on the issue of ensuring high quality of canned fish products, the leader of nation gave the relevant commissions on applying advanced world experience in production of packing containers and effective technologies in the industry. Besides, the leader of nation gave the relevant commissions to Vice-Premier S. Toilyev on taking necessary measures to include nutritious fish products in baby food. The report of Cabinet Deputy Chairman M. Artykov was centered on the preparations for the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Turkmen-Kyrgyz Commission for Trade-Economic, Scientific-Technical and Humanitarian Cooperation to take place in Ashgabat on March 14. The report also included the information about the outcomes of the announced international tender for designing of a complex of buildings of the Institute of Municipal Services of Turkmenistan. On the instructions of the President of Turkmenistan, the country’s Ministry of Municipal Services had carried out the work on defining the structure of the higher education institution. It will have 5 departments and 12 specialties. Focusing on the issue of training qualified personnel in highly-acclaimed specialties, the head of state signed a Resolution “On constructing a complex of buildings and facilities of the Institute of Municipal Services of Turkmenistan in the city of Ashgabat”. Having mentioned further implementation of the education reform among one of the topical objectives of the country’s socio-oriented state policy, President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov gave the Vice-Premier the issue-associated assignments. The nation’s leader also stressed the necessity of purchasing the most advanced equipment from world leaders to systematically improve the material and technical base of the country’s energy industry, to achieve high production results in the field of electrification of settlements, and to ensure capital repairs and reconstruction of the operating energy facilities. Reporting on the current activities in the supervised sectors, Cabinet Deputy Chairman P. Taganov centered on the outcomes of the seventh meeting of the Joint Turkmen-Austrian Commission and the Turkmen-Austrian Business Forum held in Ashgabat on February 23-25, as well as the Turkmen-Iranian Business Forum, which took place on February 26. Besides, the Vice-Premier informed in detail about the preparations for the International Investment Forum of Turkmenistan to be held in Istanbul, the Republic of Turkey on March 4-5, and submitted its Working Plan for consideration by the head of state. As of February 26, 600 participants in the forum - representatives of business circles of 42 countries, different international organizations and banking institutions, had already been registered. In the frames of the visit to Turkey, members of the Turkmen delegation will also hold a number of bilateral meetings. The head of state also focused attention on a role of the presentation and congress activity, which enables to widely demonstrate abroad the progress and achievements made in different sectors of the national economy, its investment potential, and to promote domestically-produced products to new markets. The leader of nation demanded to ensure a high organizational level of the forthcoming Investment Forum aimed at deepening the friendly dialogue between the peoples, broadening the industrial and trade relations, and creating a platform for fruitful and mutually advantageous long-term partnership. The report of Cabinet Deputy Chairman S. Satlykov covered the work ongoing in the transport and communications sector, he is responsible for, including the measures taken to establish a closed corporation for rendering satellite communication services. In addition to the National Space Agency under the President of Turkmenistan, the closed corporation will include the “Altyn Asyr” Closed Corporation and the “Turkmentelekom” State Telecommunications Company. Speaking of the advantages of owning a satellite, the head of Turkmen state has noted that it will contribute to diversification of the economy, intellectual capacity building in new economic sectors, implementation of the science-intensive projects, which, on the whole, will lead to the creation of innovation-oriented economy. The President of Turkmenistan stressed the appropriateness of naming the newly established Closed Corporation -“Turkmen Hemrasy” and gave the Vice-Premier a number of relevant commissions, having emphasized that advanced technical- engineering achievements and innovative technologies, as well as a well-considered and comprehensive approach to tackling the tasks assigned should be basic requirements for implementation of all projects. The Cabinet session participants also considered some other important issues of state life and passed the relevant decisions.