Turkmenistan and ADB

ADB’s forthcoming country partnership strategy for Turkmenistan covering 2024–2028 will support market connectivity, private sector development, human capital building, and economic reforms.

ADB's Work in Turkmenistan

ADB has been a long-standing partner of the Government of Turkmenistan, providing assistance crucial to the country’s development needs. ADB helps the government improve transport infrastructure connectivity, diversify the economy, develop human capital and the private sector, and strengthen policy making capacity. Currently, the bank is preparing projects in the health, finance, transport, and energy sectors. The ongoing National Power Grid Strengthening Project supports the establishment of an interconnected national transmission network to improve electricity supply. Turkmenistan has also benefited from regional technical assistance under the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program.

In 2022, ADB topped up its transaction technical assistance portfolio by $225,000 to help prepare bankable projects in Turkmenistan. ADB advanced significantly with the processing of proposed projects including Improving Nursing Quality and Capacity Project, Building Capacity of Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises Exporters Project and the Ashgabat–Dushak Railway Modernization Project.

To date, ADB has committed 13 public sector loans, grants, and technical assistance totaling $632.6 million to Turkmenistan. Cumulative loan disbursements to Turkmenistan amount to $484.71 million. These were financed by regular ordinary capital resources. ADB’s current sovereign portfolio in Turkmenistan includes 1 loan worth $500 million.

The performance of ADB’s portfolio in Turkmenistan continued to improve in 2022. ADB helped strengthen power transmission infrastructure with significant progress made in the implementation of the National Power Grid Strengthening Project. Under the Improving Energy Efficiency and Capacity technical assistance, ADB provided extensive technical support to the Ministry of Energy and the state-owned utility to help improve project management capacities and ensure full compliance with ADB reporting requirements. Funded by the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific, ADB and the Government of Turkmenistan partnered in preparing policy studies and strengthening institutional capacity of key ministries for improved and evidence-based policy formulation and implementation. This technical assistance covered such areas as budget reform, macroeconomic analysis, public financial management, debt sustainability and risk analysis, and public investment efficiency. The year also witnessed the successful validation of a knowledge-focused technical assistance project that supported two local financial institutions in introducing an international standard for estimating and provisioning against expected credit losses.

Photo: Asian Development Bank
Train on the North–South railway in Turkmenista, assisted by ADB’s loan. Photo: Takeshi Fukayama/ADB

Regional technical assistance continued to complement ADB’s efforts toward achieving greater development impacts in Turkmenistan. The country is working toward accession to the World Trade Organization supported through technical assistance on Implementing the Integrated Trade Agenda in the CAREC Program. ADB delivered a national workshop through two projects—Enhancing Financial Management in Central and West Asia and Supporting Environmental Safeguards in the Central and West Asia Region—which provided insights on (i) financial due diligence, financial reporting, auditing, management and monitoring; and (ii) environmental safeguards reporting and monitoring.

Operational challenges. Development operations in Turkmenistan are affected by limited domestic capacity in ensuring full compliance with multilateral banks’ processes for project initiation, preparation, approval, and implementation; and limited use of international standards such as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Financial management and environmental and social safeguards are among the areas posing challenges to local executing and implementing agencies, and ADB has been helping these agencies build their capacities.

 

Knowledge Work

Knowledge products and services are part of most of ADB’s lending operations in Turkmenistan. For example, technical assistance on Improving Energy Efficiency and Capacity under the National Power Grid Strengthening Project helped the state-owned utility develop an energy efficiency road map, implement the IFRS, and ensure project management skills transfer.

Provision of knowledge solutions will remain an integral part of future investment projects. One example is the proposed financial-intermediation-loan project which envisages knowledge assistance for commercial lenders that will enhance their skills in marketing and underwriting of small and medium-sized enterprise credit, thereby making commercial lenders more accessible to privately-owned businesses.

Shareholding and Voting Power

Number of Shares Held
26,874 (0.25% of total shares)

Votes
65,988 (0.5% of total membership, 0.76% of total regional membership)

*Overall capital subscription
$357.65 million

*Paid-in capital subscription
$17.93 million

* United States dollar figures are valued at rate as of 31 December 2022.


ADB Governor: Toyly Myalikov
ADB Alternate Governor: Vacant
ADB Director: Sameer Kumar Khare (India)
ADB Alternate Director: Nim Dorji (Bhutan)
ADB Director’s Advisor: H. Atheli (India)

 

Financing Partnerships

Financing partnerships enable ADB’s financing partner governments or their agencies, multilateral financing institutions, and private organizations to participate in financing ADB projects. The additional funds provided may be in the form of loans and grants, technical assistance, and nonsovereign cofinancing.

Cumulative cofinancing commitments in Turkmenistan:

  • Sovereign cofinancing: $2 million for 2 technical assistance projects since 2018

 

Future Directions

ADB is formulating the next country partnership strategy for Turkmenistan which will provide the strategic framework for engagement for 2024–2028. The strategy will support national economic development with a strong focus on market connectivity, economic diversification, private sector development and investment, building human capital, supporting climate action including climate adaptation and mitigation, and gender mainstreaming. As part of this process, ADB is conducting a range of diagnostic studies to identify opportunities and priority areas for the next stage of the ADB–Turkmenistan partnership. The new strategy will emphasize the country’s transition to low-carbon energy, in accordance with ADB’s commitment to align its new operations with the Paris Agreement by 1 July 2023.

This article was originally published in the ADB and Turkmenistan: Fact Sheet. Updated yearly, this ADB Fact Sheet provides concise information on ADB's operations in the country and contact information.

Contacts

Turkmenistan Resident Mission
82, 1972 (Ataturk) Street
Berkarar Business Center Building, Office M1
Ashgabat 744036, Turkmenistan
Tel: +993 12 468730
Fax: +993 12 468731

Central Bank of Turkmenistan
36, Bitarap Turkmenistan Avenue
Ashgabat 744000, Turkmenistan
Tel: +993 12 381027
Fax: +993 12 920812

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