nCa Report
President Serdar Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan made an official visit to Italy, and during his trip, a major business forum was held in Rome that brought together business representatives from both countries. The event was seen as an important milestone in strengthening the trade, economic, and investment relationship between Turkmenistan and Italy.
Giorgio Cilli, Italy’s Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, kicked things off by calling the forum another significant step in bringing the two countries closer together. He talked about how the Italian government is working hard to help Italian companies compete for the exciting opportunities emerging in Turkmenistan, particularly in energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, defense, and security. He also pointed out that Central Asia is becoming increasingly important for global geopolitics and that Italy has deep ties with the region, including regular consultations with all five Central Asian countries.
The forum clearly demonstrated strong Italian business interest in Turkmenistan’s economic diversification efforts. More than 150 representatives from organizations and businesses in both countries attended the event, which was organized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Trade Agency, and Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Several agreements were signed during the forum, especially in textiles, energy, and cybersecurity.
President Berdimuhamedov told the participants that the main goal of the meeting was to give bilateral ties a real boost through direct business dialogue and create the conditions for taking the partnership to a whole new level. He outlined four strategic goals that shape Turkmenistan’s long-term development and create opportunities for Italian business. First, there’s industrialization, which means transforming the economy from relying on raw materials to building high-tech, knowledge-based production with a green economy approach. Second is diversification, updating industries like chemicals, textiles, agricultural processing, and construction materials. Third, Turkmenistan wants to become a major transport hub connecting East-West and North-South routes with modern logistics infrastructure. And fourth, they’re focused on developing a complete national gas processing industry to produce quality products for international markets.
The President highlighted several strategic areas where he wants to see expanded cooperation. In energy and transit, Turkmenistan is interested in discussing a Western route for energy supplies and invited Italian companies to invest in projects that would supply electricity from Turkmenistan to Europe, including building a massive 1,574 MW power plant on the Caspian Sea. They’re also looking at wind and solar energy cooperation. On logistics and transport, he emphasized both countries’ key role in creating a Caspian-Mediterranean corridor between Asia and Europe, and invited Italian businesses to use the Turkmenbashi port for trans-Caspian transit and help modernize Turkmenistan’s railway network.
For the textile industry, since about a thousand pieces of Italian equipment are already operating in Turkmenistan, the President proposed creating joint ventures for clothing production, where Italian technology and expertise could help develop the entire supply chain and boost exports of finished products. In the financial sector, there’s readiness to facilitate partnership between Italy’s State Export Credit Agency SACE and Turkmen banks to improve the financial and credit system. And in digitalization, there’s huge potential for cooperation in communications, IT, space exploration, and smart cities.
Several Italian company executives confirmed their interest in deepening cooperation. ENI supports the strategy to reduce methane emissions, Leonardo SpA identified Turkmenistan as a key strategic partner in Central Asia, and Italferr highlighted the country’s role as a logistics hub.
After the forum and follow-up sessions, there was a ceremony where a substantial package of bilateral documents was signed for long-term cooperation. These included a memorandum between the foreign ministries on personnel training cooperation, a cultural cooperation agreement between the two governments, and a memorandum between Turkmenistan’s State Committee on Television, Radio Broadcasting and Cinematography and Italy’s RAI broadcasting company. There was also a joint declaration on customs cooperation between the customs services of both countries.
In cybersecurity, a confidentiality agreement and memorandum of understanding were signed between Turkmenistan’s State Cybersecurity Service and Leonardo. The textile industry saw several memorandums signed between Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Textile Industry and four major Italian companies: Marzoli Machines Textile, Itema, MCS dyeing & finishing machinery, and Savio Maccine Tessili. And in energy, a memorandum was signed between Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Energy and Pietro Fiorentini to expand cooperation.
The successful forum and the impressive number of signed agreements showed that both sides are committed to expanding their long-term partnership. The event also featured informal meetings between Italian companies and their Turkmen partners. According to the Italian Trade Agency, in the first half of 2025, total trade with Turkmenistan reached €44.5 million, with Italian exports becoming increasingly diverse and including industrial machinery, transport equipment, chemicals, and technologies for sectors like textiles.
Speech by President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov at the Turkmen-Italian Business Forum
Dear participants of the Turkmen-Italian Business Forum,
Ladies and gentlemen,
First of all, let me express my gratitude for the invitation to speak at this important forum.
I warmly welcome the leaders of Italian companies, business communities, and all participants. I view such a representative attendance as evidence of growing interest in Turkmenistan and a desire to expand mutually beneficial cooperation.
We see the primary goal of today’s meeting as giving a powerful boost to the entire range of Turkmen-Italian ties through direct business dialogue, creating tangible preconditions for moving to a qualitatively new level of partnership that reflects current trends in the global geo-economics, our combined capabilities, and prospects.
We are convinced that today we have every opportunity to achieve this. We have long-standing, good, friendly, and respectful interstate relations, accumulated experience working with a number of Italian companies, and contacts with Italian trade and industrial associations. Today, we must join forces to translate all these positive developments and advantages into concrete, large-scale joint initiatives.
The large-scale reforms being implemented in Turkmenistan, primarily economic reform, have ensured our country’s consistently high growth rates. This factor, along with the country’s abundant natural resources, favorable geographic location, and consistently implemented open-door foreign economic policy, provide significant prospects for profitable capital investment. One of the main goals of this policy is to inject new impetus and momentum into the national economy, with a long-term perspective, making attracting foreign investment a top priority.
With clear development guidelines and priorities, Turkmenistan is now taking real steps to achieve its strategic goals.
First, we are creating an industrial society. We have embarked on a fundamental transformation of the national economy, reorienting it from a raw materials-based model to an industrial one, introducing high-tech, knowledge-intensive production, building modern enterprises producing high-added-value products, and creating a closed-loop “green economy” with a minimal carbon footprint.
Second: economic diversification – both structural and geographic. This involves creating new industries or radically modernizing traditional ones. Impressive results have been achieved in sectors such as the chemical industry, textiles, agricultural processing, construction materials production, and others.
Turkmenistan is actively expanding into new foreign markets and developing cooperation with partners in Europe and Asia. This entails creating a modern transport and logistics infrastructure and transforming the country into a hub for East-West and North-South transport links. This is the third strategic goal, which we are consistently pursuing.
Fourth. With colossal hydrocarbon reserves, Turkmenistan has begun developing a full-fledged national gas processing industry, producing high-quality products for foreign markets.
The diversification of energy flows from Turkmenistan and the construction of main pipelines, including in the western direction, remain an unconditional priority.
As we implement our plans for radically reforming the national economy and developing international cooperation, we would like Italian business to play a significant and respectable role in this process. We are ready to create all the necessary conditions for its operation. We are confident that today, Turkmenistan offers Italian business circles a broad field of mutual interest. This is especially true given that our countries already have a strong track record of economic and investment cooperation.
For many years, Italian businesses have been present in Turkmenistan in the oil and gas sector, the hotel industry, and a number of construction and trade projects are being implemented.
A partnership has been established with the leading Italian oil company Eni, which has been operating in Turkmenistan since 2008.
Italian companies are actively supplying equipment and materials to Turkmenistan’s oil and gas sector. Contracts were signed with ProBusiness, Chimec, and Comair in 2024.
We highly appreciate their work and note the high professionalism and competence of their staff.
At the same time, it’s clear that Turkmenistan and Italy have much broader capabilities today. Our joint efforts can and should encompass other areas, including strategic ones, and focus on long-term cooperation.
When I talk about this, I primarily mean energy and transport.
Italy’s support for our international sustainable energy initiatives demonstrates the closeness of our two countries’ approaches to this global issue. We define energy security primarily as the structural and geographic diversification of energy flows.
Turkmenistan is considering the prospect of a Western route for its energy supplies. We are prepared for a substantive and engaged dialogue on this issue with our Italian partners.
At the same time, we propose not limiting ourselves to the export of raw energy resources. We invite Italian companies to participate in and invest in projects to supply electricity from Turkmenistan to European countries.
Practical preconditions are being created for this; in particular, a power plant with a capacity of 1,574 megawatts is being built on the Caspian coast of Turkmenistan.
We are also ready to work with Italian partners on the use of wind and solar energy.
In this context, we expect Italy, as a respected and authoritative member of the European Union, to support the process of inclusive energy dialogue with Europe. We would like to leverage bilateral ties and existing mutual understanding in the context of activating the European vector of our energy policy. I am convinced that the fundamental, long-term goals of Turkmenistan and Italy coincide in this regard.
Extensive opportunities for developing partnerships are opening up in the transport sector. Here, we attach particular importance to the creation of the Caspian-Mediterranean corridor between Asia and Europe. Clearly, Turkmenistan and Italy, by virtue of their geographic location, are destined to play key roles in its creation.
In this logistical configuration, the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea is of paramount importance. Turkmenistan currently possesses a robust port infrastructure on the Caspian Sea and is prepared to cooperate in utilizing it for trans-Caspian transit to the west. I am convinced that the logistical capabilities of the port of Turkmenbashi could be attractive to Italian businesses evaluating the opportunity to establish and strengthen their presence in the Central Asian and Caspian regions. We invite Italian companies to consider their participation in this major project.
In the transport sector, we also see good opportunities for cooperation with Italian companies in the modernization of Turkmenistan’s railway network.
Another area where our ties are receiving a powerful boost is the textile industry. Several documents in this area are planned to be signed during the current business forum. Currently, approximately 1,000 units of equipment from Italian companies such as Marzoli, Savio, Cormatex, and others are successfully used at textile enterprises in our country. We are committed to a long-term partnership, significantly expanding exports of high-quality Turkmen textiles, establishing joint ventures for ready-to-wear production, and expanding into new markets.
Overall, Turkmenistan is prepared to diversify its product supplies to Italy and significantly expand their range, with an emphasis on finished goods. Naturally, our trade relations must be based on real needs and demands, an objective assessment of mutual potential, serious analysis, and a long-term business outlook. Equally important is establishing mutual trust as responsible and reliable partners. In this regard, I would propose considering the creation of a Turkmen-Italian Business Council, which would include representatives of the business communities of both countries. I believe this structure could be tasked with significant functions in coordinating cooperation in various areas, organizing business contacts between the business communities of Turkmenistan and Italy, and analyzing the state of our ties with a view to identifying new areas for joint efforts.
It is important to intensify business exchanges, participate in exhibitions and fairs held in our countries, and organize targeted trips for entrepreneurs to explore opportunities for participation in various projects.
We are currently implementing significant optimization of the banking and financial sector and lending system in Turkmenistan. We are interested in Italy’s experience in this area, including the development and operation of the Italian financial system, financial institutions, insurance companies, and stock exchanges. In this regard, we are ready to facilitate the establishment of a partnership between the Italian State Export Credit Agency (SACE) and Turkmen banks.
In addition to its core economic sectors, Turkmenistan is actively developing promising high-tech sectors such as communications, telecommunications, IT, and astronautics. Digitalization of all sectors, including manufacturing and social services, and the creation of “smart cities” are underway. In this sense, I am confident, this also opens up broad opportunities for mutually beneficial and productive partnerships.
Dear participants,
Turkmenistan views Italy as a priority partner with whom it intends to build a long-term relationship. We see real opportunities opening up today and are ready for a broad and engaging dialogue across all areas. This approach is driven by an increasingly clear mutual understanding of both the priorities and prospects of bilateral partnership and global economic development trends.
I view this meeting as an important step toward establishing and strengthening long-term trade, economic, and investment ties between Italy’s business community and our country. I invite you, dear friends, to broad and comprehensive cooperation.
I wish the participants of the Turkmenistan-Italy business forum productive work. /// nCa, 26 October 2025