ABSTRACT
How have Turkmenistan’s economic policy choices since independence affected the country’s political development? Turkmenistan’s economic system may be described as a highly administered, command-style economy, dominated by the government and the ruling political party. Structural market reforms, underway since Turkmenistan became an independent country as a result of the disintegration of the USSR in October 1991, have proceeded slowly. Economic activity in Turkmenistan is characterized above all by dominance of the agricultural sector and by a high concentration of public investment in the export-oriented natural gas sector. Turkmenistan, with an estimated 10-14 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, ranks as the world’s fourth largest potential gas producer, after Russia, the United States, and Iran. Turkmenistan has substantial oil reserves. Turkmenistan also has large deposits of other natural resources, having, for instance, the world’s third largest sulfur deposits. But making use of this natural wealth assumes Turkmenistan’s ability to integrate into the international market, adopt modern trading practices and, above all, attract foreign investment necessary to create the physical and policy infrastructure necessary to bring these commodities to market.
