Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, May 9
By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:
A meeting was held with Zhyrgalbek Sagynbayev, Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for Industry, Energy and Subsoil Use of Kyrgyzstan, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Trend reports referring to the Turkmen Foreign Ministry.
Sagynbayev is also the co-chairman of the joint Turkmen-Kyrgyz Intergovernmental Committee. The parties discussed the possibilities of expanding trade, economic and investment cooperation and stressed the need to increase the volume of trade.
The importance of business contacts between the two states was also emphasized during the meeting.In turn, the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan (UIET) reports that large-scale investment projects implemented by domestic entrepreneurs, including those in the transport sector, developing the country's natural resources, developing the fishing industry, and tourism, were discussed during the meeting with Sagynbayev.
It was reported earlier that Kyrgyzstan is negotiating the possibility of receiving natural gas from a future branch of the Turkmenistan-China pipeline for providing the southern regions of of the country with gas.
Zhyrgalbek Sagynbayev told local media that it is necessary to conduct additional negotiations with all the countries participating in the project in order to resolve the issue.
The construction of the 4th branch "D" of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline via Kyrgyzstan is scheduled to commence by late 2019.
Overall, the new branch "D" is intended for the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan-China route.
At present, 3 branches of the pipeline on the route Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China (branches "A", "B", "C") have been built and functioning. They are to supply 40 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year altogether.
The additional branch's rate of flow is expected to be 25 billion cubic meters of gas, which will allow Turkmenistan to bring the volume of its natural gas exports to China to 65 billion cubic meters annually.
It was reported earlier that, as of December 2018, more than 250 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas had been exported to China since December 2009.