Turkish firm builds first Turkmenian yacht club

ASGHABAT

US pop diva Jennifer Lopez performs at Avaza. She sang “Happy Birthday” to Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, president of Turkmenistan. AA photo

Turkmenistan’s first yacht club and resort village, which were built by Turkish Polimeks Construction Company near the Caspian Sea, were inaugurated with a ceremony on the birthday of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.

Berdimuhamedow, who visited the resort village and yacht club named “Yelken” in Avaza tourism region, expressed pleasure over the beauties of the facilities.

“New large projects in Avaza will not only work to make it more attractive as a modern comfortable resort but serve as a push to develop tourism on the Turkmen coast,” the Agence France-Presse reported the Turkmen leader as saying after a boat show marked the opening.

US pop diva Jennifer Lopez also sang happy birthday to Turkmenistan leader in a lavish celebration at a $2-billion Caspian Sea resort Avaza in the Central Asian state.

Development of the 16-kilometre stretch of shore in Avaza is a major project aiming to host up to 20,000 tourists annually when it is completed in 2020.

Polimeks built the resort village comprised of 57 villas and the yacht club for $80 million. The village was built over an area of 362,000 square meters.

Polimeks, which started operating in Turkmenistan in 1995, has completed 120 projects in the country so far.

Polimeks, which is the dominant company in Turkmenistan’s giant construction projects, built the constitution monument, the Palace of Happiness and the television tower. It has won a contract to build a complex to hold the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in 2017 at a cost of $1.97 billion. The company is also to build a new Ashgabat airport costing $2.25 billion.

Local contractors’ boost

Meanwhile, Turkish companies have completed projects worth $34 billion in Turkmenistan so far while their projects this year already surpassed $5 billion.

Currently, Turkey ranks second after China in the world for undertaking contracting projects, according to Engineering News Record (ENR) magazine.

“Turkey has assumed more than 7,000 contracting projects worth approximately $250 billion in 101 countries,” Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan said on June 28.

Attending the third meeting of Turkic Council for Economy Ministers, Çağlayan invited Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to be more active in contracting projects as well.

Turkmenistan is currently not a official member of the council due to its neutral stance; however, it is possible future members of the council.

Complied from Anadolu Agency and Agence France-Presse stories by the Daily News staff.