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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ASHGABAT 000474 
 
SIPDIS 
 
C O R R E C T E D  C O P Y (PARA MARKING - PARA 1) 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, E, EEB 
E FOR UNDER SECRETARY JEFFERY 
PLEASE PASS TO USTDA DAN STEIN 
ENERGY FOR EKIMOFF/THOMPSON 
COMMERCE FOR HUEPER 
TREASURY FOR BAKER/LANIER 
USAID/W FOR EE/AA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL EAID ECON EFIN SCUL TX
SUBJECT:  TURKMENISTAN:  PRESIDENT TRIES TO KICK-START 
ECON/FINANCIAL, MEDIA, OTHER REFORMS 
 
REF: 07 ASHGABAT 1246 
 
ASHGABAT 00000474  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on 
April 14 held a marathon cabinet meeting at which he 
announced a number of new initiatives in the 
economic/financial, media, and construction sectors directed 
toward accelerating reform.  Most significantly, he ordered a 
one-year process for redenomination of Turkmenistan's 
currency, introduction of a new management department in the 
State Institute for National Economy, fired Central Bank 
Chairman Abilov and promoted Minister of Finance Hojamyrat 
Geldimyradov to Deputy Prime Minister.  He directed that 
media should begin covering foreign news, and instructed that 
Turkmenistan should begin establishing overseas news bureaus 
-- and should begin allowing foreign journalists in to cover 
the country.  All of this is quite remarkable and, if fully 
implemented, would hasten significant reform. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The business-like April 14 cabinet meeting, whose 
purpose was to review results from the first quarter of 2008 
and long-range strategies for economic/social development, 
was one of the longest and most extensively reported that 
President Berdimuhamedov has ever held.  The president 
focused primarily on three sets of issues:  economy/finance, 
media/Internet, and construction.  Demonstrating that this 
was meant to be an unusually important meeting, 
Turkmenistan's newspapers on April 15 focused solely on 
reporting the cabinet meeting and the related presidential 
decrees, contrary to usual practice. 
 
ECONOMIC/FINANCE:  KEY PERSONNEL CHANGES OFFER HOPE OF MORE 
COOPERATION 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Noting the importance of the changes that 
Turkmenistan is making in the financial sphere, including the 
unification of the dual exchange rate, Berdimuhamedov said he 
was making some additional changes, including: 
 
-- A decree on currency redenomination orders banks to begin 
January 1, 2009, introducing new national currency which 
would make one new manat equal to 1000 old manats, and 
requires redomination to be completed by December 31 2009 
(more septel). 
 
-- Turkmenistan's State Institute of National Economy will be 
renamed the State Institute of Economy and Management to 
develop a cadre of highly qualified experts in market 
development and management.  The Institute and the Ministry 
of Education have been tasked to establish a new charter and 
a plan for restructuring the Institute within a month. 
 
-- To help promote a new concept for economic and social 
development, the president designated Balkan Province as the 
pilot province for implementing a stage-by-stage transition 
to a market economy by 2012 with the guidance of UN 
specialists.  Other provinces will be expected to follow 
suit, learning from Balkan's experiences. 
 
-- Central Bank Chairman Geldimurat Abilov was fired "for 
serious shortcomings" and for not following through on tasks 
related to unification of the exchange rate.  Berdimuhamedov 
appointed Vneshekonombank Chairman Guvanch Goklenov in 
Abilov's place (more septel).  (NOTE:  Goklenov's wife and 
Berdimuhamedov's wife are sisters, and Goklenov is also the 
 
ASHGABAT 00000474  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
nephew of Minister of Textiles Jemal Goklenova.  END NOTE.) 
 
-- Berdimuhamedov promoted Minister of Finance Hojamyrat 
Geldimuradov to the position of Deputy Prime Minister, giving 
him responsibility for the entire "economic block," including 
the Ministries of Finance, Economy and Development, Social 
Welfare, the State Tax Service, the Central Bank, and all of 
Turkmenistan's banks. 
 
-- Deputy Prime Minister for Transportation and 
Communications Gurbannazar Ashyrov was removed "for grave 
shortcomings and inability to fulfill his duties." 
Berdimuhamedov temporarily handed over responsibility for 
overseeing these sectors to Deputy Prime Minister for Energy, 
Industry, Construction and Motor Transportation Nazarguly 
Shaguliyev. 
 
-- Chairman of the State Oil and Gas Construction Concern 
Jumageldi Babashev was replaced by Atamurat Durdiyev, 
previously a deputy chairman of the State Concern. 
 
-- Bayar Abayev was appointed Chairman of the Food Industry 
Association. 
 
-- Bayramgeldi Jumayev was appointed Chairman of the 
"TurkmenMallary" Livestock Association. 
 
MEDIA/INTERNET:  FOCUS ON INTERNATIONAL COVERAGE AND 
BROADENING INTERNET ACCESS 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Making Deputy Chairman for Culture and Media Maysa 
Yazmuhammedova and all state reporters attending the meeting 
stand up, Berdimuhamedov delivered a pointed, but still 
gently worded rebuke of their work, stating that they needed 
to increase their professionalism.  Specifically, he: 
 
-- Stated that Turkmenistan's mass media should cover 
international news, ordered that the Watan channel should 
establish a department to cover international news, and said 
there should be a cadre of journalists who specialize in 
analysis of domestic and overseas political events. 
 
-- Instructed that Turkmenistan should establish overseas 
bureaus staffed by Turkmen journalists and said -- without 
elaboration -- that foreign media should be allowed to cover 
events in Turkmenistan. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The president gave all mass media organizations two 
months to address their shortcomings, or face a major 
reshuffling.  After Supreme Audit Chamber Director Japarov 
criticized the Ministry of Communications for not making 
Internet widely available and for excessive prices at public 
Internet cafes, Berdimuhamedov delivered a sharp rebuke to 
the Minister of Communications for the lack of affordable 
public access to the Internet and gave the minister two 
months to show improvement (septel). 
 
CONSTRUCTION:  BEGINNING OF A QUALITY-BASED CONTRACT SYSTEM? 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Noting the importance of construction to 
Turkmenistan's economic development, the president addressed 
representatives of Turkish and France's Bouyges construction 
firms, calling on them to complete their construction 
contracts on time and warning them that their contracts would 
 
ASHGABAT 00000474  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
be taken from them if they do not complete their projects in 
a timely manner.  Listing the best and worst construction 
firms by name, he also warned them that Turkmenistan will 
begin checking the quality of their work, and instructed his 
cabinet not to register or license any construction firms 
with insufficient capital and equipment to do their 
contracted work (more on this septel).  The president split 
the Ministry of Construction and Construction Materials 
Industry into two, and put the minister of the former super 
ministry, Shamuhammet Durdyliyev, in charge of the new 
Ministry of Construction. 
 
OTHER ISSUES:  PREPARING FOR A CENSUS AND CRACKING DOWN ON 
SCHOOLS 
 
¶7.  (SBU) During the meeting, the president also signed a 
large number of other decrees.  Two of the most significant 
included an order to begin overhauling registry procedures to 
carry out a national census in 2012, and an order to ensure 
that all schools are equipped with multi-media centers.  The 
president instructed that any schools that do not obtain this 
new equipment will not be allowed to function. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) COMMENT:  Taken as a whole, the president's changes 
focus on accelerating deeper, more significant reforms in 
Turkmenistan.  We note, however, a trend of appointing people 
the president trusts -- relatives and individuals from his 
home region -- to replace non-performing hangers-on from 
former President Niyazov's regime.  With implementation the 
key to determining these measures' success, getting Abilov 
out of the Central Bank and promoting Geldimuradov (who 
genuinely seems to understand the need for change) to a more 
responsible position seem to be good moves.  It is unclear, 
however, whether Goklenov, whose primary qualification for 
his new position seems to be his relationship to the 
president, will be an improvement on Abilov.  END COMMENT. 
 
BIO:  HOJAMURAT GELDIMURADOV 
 
¶9.  (U)  Geldimuradov was born in 1965 in Borme Village of 
Baharly District in Ahal Province.  He entered the Department 
of Economy and Organization Construction of the Turkmen 
Polytechnic Institute.  From 1983-1985, he served in the 
military in Leningrad (presently Saint Petersburg, Russia). 
He graduated from the Turkmen Polytechnic Institute in 1989, 
and from the Law Academy of Ukraine named after Yaroslav 
Mudryi in 2004.  From 1990 to 1997, he served as the Head of 
the Accounting Department of the State Tax Service of Baharly 
District, then, from 1997-2004, he worked in Ahal Province's 
State Tax Service.  After graduating from the Law Academy in 
2004, he worked for a year as the head of the department on 
overseeing the work of tax services at the Main State Tax 
Service.  From 2005 to 2007, he served as Deputy Minister of 
Economy and Finance, followed by a one-year stint (until 
February 8, 2008) as Minister of Economy and Finance.  In 
this capacity, Geldimuradov represented Turkmenistan at the 
2007 Central Asia TIFA meeting in Washington, DC.  When the 
president divided the ministry into two entities, 
Geldimuradov became Minister of Finance. 
 
BIO:  SHAMUHAMMET DURDYLiYEV 
 
¶10.  (U) Durdyliyev was born in 1963 in Baharly township, 
Ahal Province.  He graduated from the Industrial and 
 
ASHGABAT 00000474  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
Residential Department of the Turkmen Polytechnic Institute, 
where he majored in civil engineering, in 1986.  From 
1986-1990, he served as an engineer for occupational safety 
and construction at Baharden Mobile Mechanical Division #3. 
In 1990, he became an engineer at the production and 
technical department of a self-financed construction field. 
From 1992-1993, he served as Head of the Baharden 
self-financed construction field of the "AshgabatRemBytStroi" 
-- Ashgabat's renovation of public amenities centers.  In 
1993, he served briefly as Head of the Construction and 
Assembling Management #3 of the "Ahal Province Gas" 
Production Association, before becoming construction manager 
at the Baharden District Specialized Mobile Mechanical 
Division #17.  In 1994 he served for a year as deputy head of 
Baharly township, followed by seven years (until 2002) as an 
engineer, senior engineer, then head of the "Baharden water 
management production administration.  From 2002-2007, he 
worked as a deputy head and head of the Ahal village 
construction production administration.  He became Deputy 
Minister of Construction and Construction Materials Industry 
on August 21, 2007, and then, on July 9, 2007, Minister. 
 
BIO:  GUVANCH GOKLENOV 
 
¶11.  (U) From 1997-1999, Goklenov served as Deputy Chairman 
of the Board of Directors of the State Bank for Foreign 
Economic Activities (Vneshekonombank).  From 2000-2001, he 
served as Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of 
Vneshekonombank, while also serving as Governor of the 
Islamic Bank of Development for Turkmenistan and Governor of 
the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development for 
Turkmenistan.  On March 31, 2001, he was named Chairman of 
the Board of Directors of Vneshekonombank. 
HOAGLAND