After Uzbekistan, the Georgian government delegation visited Turkmenistan located in the Central Asian region. During the official visits held yesterday, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that the main purpose of their visit to the country was to deepen trade and economic relations between the countries and discuss the new opportunities. As part of the visit, an agreement was signed between Georgia and Turkmenistan in the field of transport, which, according to Georgia’s Ministry of Economy, will facilitate the launch of direct flights from Ashgabat and the deepening of economic relations.
It should be noted that in terms of foreign direct investments, one of the indicators of economic relations between the countries, Turkmenistan does not stand out. Last year, a total of up to 2 million dollars of investment came from Turkmenistan to Georgia in the form of FDI. In 2020, this number was 70.5 thousand dollars, and in 2019 it was 1.6 million dollars.
Unlike direct foreign investments, trade relations between the countries are relatively active. Last year, the trade turnover of Georgia-Turkmenistan goods amounted to 216.6 million dollars, which was higher than the data of both 2020 and 2019. It is noteworthy that in the first 6 months of this year, the volume of the export and import amounted to 112 million dollars, which was 19% higher than the figure of the same period last year.
Exports have a small share in goods trade with Turkmenistan. In January-June, Georgia received a total of 10.3 million dollars from the sale of goods in this direction. This number is higher than the 2021-2020 figure, although it is 3 times less than the volume of the 2019 export (January-June 2019 - 33.9 million dollars). Georgia exports the largest amount of poultry meat to Turkmenistan.
Imports play a major role in trade relations between the two countries. According to the official statistics, 102 million dollars were sent from Georgia to Turkmenistan for the purchase of various goods. This is the highest rate in the past 5 years. The main import goods in this period were petroleum products, which made up 96% of the imports.
Along with investments and trade turnover, tourism plays an important role in the economic relations. According to the data of the National Tourism Administration of Georgia, prior to the pandemic - in 2019, a total of 13,708 visits were made by Turkmen visitors to Georgia. Last year this number decreased to 765. The number of visits made by Turkmen visitors increased in the first 6 months of this year and 1,011 visits were made this year, which is 481% more compared to the same period of 2021, while 82.8% less than the 2019 figure.
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