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Turkmenistan’s industrials, entrepreneurs establish political party

Over the 20 years of Turkmenistan’s independence /since 1991/, the country had only one political party

ASHGABAT, August 21 (Itar-Tass) —— After 21 years of a single-party system, a second political party was established in Turkmenistan.

The founding congress featured delegates from business structures of all regions, as well as members of Turkmenistan’s Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs /SPPT/. The participants in the congress adopted the Charter and Programme of Turkmenistan’s Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the country’s governmental press service reported on Tuesday.

The congress elected members of the party’s Central Council, whose chairman would be Orazmammed Mamedov – a chief expert of SPPT.

“Organisation in this country of a multi-party system is in line with the objectives of further democratisation of the society and the major social reforms,” Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said in his election programme during the presidential election in February of the current year.

Over the 20 years of Turkmenistan’s independence /since 1991/, the country had only one political party – Turkmenistan’s Democratic Party, headed by the country’s president.

Small and medium businesses make over 65 percent of all companies in the country. The Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, organised in 2008, unites about 2,000 members. In 2011, the government adopted a national programme to support small and medium businesses in Turkmenistan in 2011-2015. In March of the current year, the government allocated for it 30 million dollars.

The programme contains projects of structural changes in private businesses, of involvement of private businesses in development of richest natural resources, production of goods replacing import, of ecology friendly agricultural products, of various goods in light industry.

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