Tamir Shakirov
Perhaps the fairest way to judge 35 years of change is to ask a child.
Not a government official.
Not an economist.
Not an industrialist.
A child.
What does the world look like to someone growing up in Turkmenistan today?
The answer would be almost unrecognizable to someone who was a child in the early 1990s.
Start with something as simple as a school bag.
A child today can encounter a wide range of school supplies, stationery, clothing, shoes, toys, books and educational materials. Children’s products have become a recognizable segment of the consumer market.
Then look at food.
There are packaged dairy products, juices, confectionery, children’s foods and snacks. Domestic food producers increasingly manufacture products specifically designed for different consumer groups.
Then look at entertainment.
There are cinemas, children’s amusement facilities, sports centres, swimming pools, playgrounds and other spaces designed specifically for children.
The Arkaç shopping and entertainment complex in Ashgabat, for example, includes a large children’s entertainment area alongside its retail, dining and other facilities.
This is a very different concept of childhood leisure from simply playing outdoors or visiting relatives.
There is nothing wrong with the latter, of course.
The point is that the range of possibilities has expanded.
And then there is technology.
A child born in 2026 enters a world of smartphones, computers, digital content and internet connectivity. The digital world is now part of the environment in which a growing number of children are raised.
A child can encounter an educational video from another country.
Search for information.
Learn about animals.
Listen to music.
See what another city looks like.
Discover a new sport.
Explore subjects that may not be available in the family library.
The world has become much larger.
But there is another side to childhood that is less technological.
Physical infrastructure matters.
Schools have been modernized. New educational facilities have been constructed. Sports halls and playgrounds have expanded. Children’s health and recreation facilities have received investment.
The modern school is also increasingly surrounded by an ecosystem of services and products that simply did not exist on today’s scale thirty-five years ago.
School uniforms can be produced domestically.
Stationery is widely available.
Modern teaching aids are available in schools.
Children’s clothing has become a significant retail category.
Sports equipment is easier to find.
Books and educational materials come in a wider range.
Even the simple birthday celebration has changed.
There are cakes from specialized bakeries.
Children’s entertainment centres.
Decorations.
Specialized clothing.
Toys.
Restaurants and cafés.
Photography.
All of these are small pieces of a much larger picture.
And there is something particularly interesting about toys.
A toy is one of the least economically important objects imaginable.
It produces no industrial output of significance.
It does not increase GDP in any dramatic way.
Yet what is available in a child’s toy shop tells us something about the world surrounding that child.
There are construction sets.
Educational toys.
Sports equipment.
Electronic toys.
Vehicles.
Dolls.
Games.
Art materials.
The child is being offered not simply entertainment but different ways of imagining the world.
That is perhaps the most important transformation of all.
A child growing up in 2026 has a larger universe of possibilities.
They can dream of becoming a footballer, scientist, engineer, artist, programmer, entrepreneur, pilot, doctor or any number of other things.
Some of those possibilities existed in 1991, of course.
But the world through which a child encounters them has changed enormously.
The internet makes distant possibilities visible.
Modern sports facilities make some activities tangible.
Better-equipped schools provide different learning environments.
A larger consumer market supplies tools, books and equipment.
A broader leisure industry creates more things to do.
/// nCa, 23 September 2026