VZCZCXRO1739
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAH #1349/01 3480853
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 140853Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9874
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
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RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 3100
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 0915
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 0789
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL PRIORITY 1365
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 1348
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE PRIORITY 1991
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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0649
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RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 001349 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL 
AID/W FOR EE/AA (BOB WALLIN) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN:  MEJLIS CHAIRMAN FOCUSES ON BUILDING 
LOCAL GOVERNMENT CAPACITY 
 
 
¶1.  (U)  Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  A delegation led by DRL Deputy Assistant 
Secretary Erica Barks-Ruggles discussed parliamentary reform 
 
SIPDIS 
December 7 with the chairman of Turkmenistan's Mejlis 
(Parliament), who focused her comments on the need to improve 
the capacity and capabilities of local government bodies in 
order to make them more self-sustaining and able to 
strategically plan.  She was especially interested in 
learning more about how other former Soviet states have 
undertaken cooperative local government reform but was 
uninterested in parliamentary reform initiatives that would 
benefit the current Mejlis staff.  She also offered little in 
the way of comment regarding a detailed parliamentary reform 
proposal USAID had put forward in October.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  A delegation led by DRL Deputy Assistant Secretary 
Erica Barks-Ruggles met with Mejlis Chairman Akja 
Nurberdiyeva on December 7 to discuss developments in the 
parliamentary body and to learn more about its plans in the 
coming year.  Nurberdiyeva was lively and engaging and shared 
with the delegation some of the goals achieved thus far as 
well as the breadth of legislative work that is ongoing. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  The Chairman recounted the most significant 
projects the Mejlis has been occupied with, including 
legislation to promote agricultural development and efforts 
to help local government understand and implement legislation 
approved in Ashgabat.  Nurberdiyeva described a program that 
the Mejlis is carrying out jointly with the United Nations 
Development Program (UNDP) to make local government bodies 
more functional, noting that regional government bodies do 
not understand -- and thus do not effectively apply -- laws 
passed by the central government.  According to Nurberdiyeva, 
regional training seminars have already started, although 
they are complex programs that require a great deal of 
attention.  Since President Berdimuhamedov declared the 
development of regional government to be a high priority, 
however, the Mejlis is giving the program the requisite 
attention it needs.  She mentioned also that a legislative 
affairs exchange sponsored by UNDP at both the local and 
national levels of government with Latvia not long ago had 
been very useful because of Latvia's international grant 
experience and because the two countries shared a common 
experience as part of the former Soviet Union. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  When asked if U.S. legal experts might be of use 
in the country's efforts to reform, Nurberdiyeva focused 
almost exclusively on the goal of expanding the functionality 
of local government bodies.  She said there is great interest 
in teaching local government bodies how to be more effective 
and self-governing.  She added that local government needs to 
have its own agenda, understands strategic planning and 
budgeting, and needs to learn to manage its own operations at 
the grassroots level. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  According to Nurberdiyeva, while the Mejlis has 
already begun analyzing the resources and capabilities of 
local government, and is examining the experiences of model 
countries like Latvia, it is also very interested in 
identifying other countries with common histories and similar 
conditions, in order to determine the best way forward. 
Delegation head Erica Barks-Ruggles asked USG officials in 
the delegation from USAID and EUR/ACE to describe to 
Nurberdiyeva the type of assistance the U.S. government can 
provide, depending on the facet of local government the 
Mejlis wishes to focus on. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  USAID Regional Director Kim Delaney invited 
Turkmen officials to come to the United States and learn 
about how local governments operate there.  She also noted 
 
ASHGABAT 00001349  002 OF 003 
 
 
that USAID has done similar work on the local level in both 
Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.  Nurberdiyeva said Turkmenistan's 
government wants to change the way local governments operate 
so that local bodies can plan how to strategically manage the 
money they receive from the central government on their own. 
However, the chairman added, the current government structure 
is dependent on the center and is not self-sustaining.  If 
local governments could become self-sustaining, they can 
build their own infrastructure.  The government budgeted four 
billion dollars not long ago to improve infrastructure 
conditions in the regions, but local governments should be 
taught to manage their own resources and promote their own 
economic development, in part, so that youth there will have 
a reason to stay in rural areas. 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  The delegation told Nurberdiyeva about the work 
that partner organizations like Counterpart are already doing 
in fifteen locations around the country to promote community 
empowerment.  Such projects are on a small scale now, but 
could be expanded and made more robust with the inclusion of 
experts.  Nurberdiyeva wanted to know more about local 
government-oriented programs, but also asked for information 
on the results of such programs after they have been 
implemented elsewhere.  She mentioned a project that theInstitute for Democracy and Human Rights had been involved in 
that looked good on paper, but that had had little to show 
for it ultimately, and no program evaluation opportunity at 
the end.  She said they want to consider proposals with 
specific progress markers and a clear end goal. 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  USAID reps said that such program information from 
other former Soviet states could be provided.  They mentioned 
the success of one program in Kyrgyzstan, which had improved 
the local government's functionality to such a degree that it 
increased its tax revenues by some 20 percent.  Nurberdiyeva 
interrupted saying the government is not looking for 
increased revenue as the result.  It is most important, she 
said, to think strategically.  People need to be taught how 
to catch fish rather than just be given fish. 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  Nurberdiyeva said that, in the next six months, 
the Mejlis will be looking at a wide range of legislative 
areas that need reform:  administrative procedures, the 
family code, the housing code, trade and maritime laws, the 
customs code, the lease law, and laws related to business and 
investment.  The body will also review laws on the media and 
culture in the near term, and will look at possible reforms 
of Turkmenistan's legal, or bar association.  Delegation 
members cited the U.S. government's track record in assisting 
other former Soviet states with legislative reform in the 
areas of tax, trade, investment and commercial codes, 
including overhauls of the entire code or just one segment of 
it. 
 
¶11.  (SBU)  Nurberdiyeva indicated that there were specific 
segments of the laws where she would like to focus future 
cooperation.  Growing interest in moving forward on economic 
development and drawing more foreign investment is creating 
new pressure for legal reform in these areas.  The delegation 
said they would provide information from projects done in 
neighboring states, and also mentioned plans that are 
underway to establish an office in Turkmenistan that will 
make U.S. legal experts regularly available for consultation. 
 Nurberdiyeva responded very positively to this. 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  The delegation reminded Nurberdiyeva that USAID 
had sent a project proposal in late summer regarding direct 
parliamentary reform work with the Mejlis.  She indicated 
that she had studied the proposal, but had not yet made any 
decisions.  The delegation encouraged her to contact post for 
anything she needs regarding parliamentary reform. 
 
ASHGABAT 00001349  003 OF 003 
 
 
Nurberdiyeva said most of the proposals do not fit her needs 
-- she wants to focus any institutional reform agenda on the 
incoming Mejlis representatives who will be elected in 
December 2008, rather than on the staff who are in the Mejlis 
now.  They have been engaged in Mejlis work for 15 years, and 
don't need training, she said. 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  COMMENT:  Nurberdiyeva appeared to be very 
enthusiastic about cooperating with U.S. organizations.  That 
said, her stated interest in local government, her hesitation 
in responding to detailed USAID program proposals, and her 
disinterest in projects to train the current Mejlis staff 
show that she is quite clear on where she would be interested 
in cooperating. 
 
¶14.  (SBU) COMMENT CONTINUED:  It is also interesting to note 
that this was the second time in one week that post officers 
received a message about making local government more 
"self-sustaining," (rather than "independent").  The second 
time this issue came up, it was included in a Neutralnyy 
Turkmenistan article about the delegation's meeting with the 
Central Election Commission.  Although the topic was never 
raised by either side during the meeting, the article 
inaccurately reported that during the meeting, "it was 
emphasized that one of the most important tasks facilitating 
transformation is the formation in the country of an 
effective multi-level vertical line of authority by means of 
redistribution of power from the center to regional and local 
structures."  Local government empowerment is a relatively 
new theme, so it will be interesting to see what priority the 
government assigns to this lofty task.  In the meantime, we 
still await any firm response to our detailed proposals on 
possible programs.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶15. (U) DAS Barks-Ruggles cleared this cable. 
 
CURRAN