Turkmen Authorities Continue White Elephant Projects
Turkmen Authorities Continue White Elephant Projects
Turkmenistan’s late president Saparmurat Niazov was famed for the grandiose construction projects he funded, including a giant revolving golden statue of himself in the capital Ashgabat. When his successor Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov came to power in 2007, he appeared to promise a break with the past. However, he is continuing to plough funds into the same kind of showpiece buildings and monuments, at a time when local observers say the money would be better spent on education, healthcare, industrial development and the arts.
On February 4, President Berdymuhammedov took a helicopter flight over Ashgabat to view the progress of major construction projects that state-run media said would “epitomise the Era of the New Renaissance and great reforms”.
Central Ashgabat is to have new squares, a 400-metre tall television tower, hotels, parks, and sports stadiums.
The centrepiece is to be a new “Neutrality Monument”. 95 metres high and costed at 218 million US dollars. It will replace the current Neutrality Arch, a concrete and glass structure topped by the 12-metre Niazov statue, which rotates with the sun. The authorities announced in January that the statue was to come down.
Berdymuhammedov told a cabinet meeting that nearly 24 billion dollars would be spent this year and next on construction projects around the country. The figure is equivalent to expenditure from the entire government budget for 18 months.
Under Niazov, Ashgabat was transformed with palaces and high-rise government buildings. Some, such as stadiums and a large winter sports complex, have some popular appeal, but NBCentralAsia commentators say the rest are a profligate waste of state funds.
“The money could be used to build two road bridges across the Amu Darya [river], or plants and factories providing 3,000 workplaces,” says a man from Lebap region in eastern Turkmenistan, referring to the planned Neutrality Monument.
Another commentator, based in Dashoguz in the north of the country, noted that only 130 million dollars are earmarked for the arts in this year’s budget. “That means building the Neutrality Monument will cost 88 million dollars more than goes on developing the arts,” he added.
An analyst based in Ashgabat says any spare money should go towards programmes to improve living standards in the countryside, where over 50 per cent of the population live, for which only 50 million dollars is currently set aside.
“Does someone who’s constantly thinking about how to feed his family need stadiums, racetracks, theatres, and fountains?” he asked.
Annadurdy Khadjiev, a Turkmen economist based in Bulgaria, warns that the money spent on the kind of large-scale projects favoured by Niazov and Berdymuhammedov will produce little return.
“Many investment projects do not stand up to scrutiny, and will never pay for themselves,” said Khadjiev. “The numerous hotels standing empty, fountains, tall towers and other non-productive facilities will bring no economic benefits.”
Khadjiev believes the authorities should be investing in medical and educational facilities, new fuel technologies and the transport sector. For example, road and rail tankers are needed to transport crude oil and liquefied natural gas for the country’s burgeoning extraction industries. These could even be manufactured domestically if the right investment was put in place.
(NBCA is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)
On February 4, President Berdymuhammedov took a helicopter flight over Ashgabat to view the progress of major construction projects that state-run media said would “epitomise the Era of the New Renaissance and great reforms”.
Central Ashgabat is to have new squares, a 400-metre tall television tower, hotels, parks, and sports stadiums.
The centrepiece is to be a new “Neutrality Monument”. 95 metres high and costed at 218 million US dollars. It will replace the current Neutrality Arch, a concrete and glass structure topped by the 12-metre Niazov statue, which rotates with the sun. The authorities announced in January that the statue was to come down.
Berdymuhammedov told a cabinet meeting that nearly 24 billion dollars would be spent this year and next on construction projects around the country. The figure is equivalent to expenditure from the entire government budget for 18 months.
Under Niazov, Ashgabat was transformed with palaces and high-rise government buildings. Some, such as stadiums and a large winter sports complex, have some popular appeal, but NBCentralAsia commentators say the rest are a profligate waste of state funds.
“The money could be used to build two road bridges across the Amu Darya [river], or plants and factories providing 3,000 workplaces,” says a man from Lebap region in eastern Turkmenistan, referring to the planned Neutrality Monument.
Another commentator, based in Dashoguz in the north of the country, noted that only 130 million dollars are earmarked for the arts in this year’s budget. “That means building the Neutrality Monument will cost 88 million dollars more than goes on developing the arts,” he added.
An analyst based in Ashgabat says any spare money should go towards programmes to improve living standards in the countryside, where over 50 per cent of the population live, for which only 50 million dollars is currently set aside.
“Does someone who’s constantly thinking about how to feed his family need stadiums, racetracks, theatres, and fountains?” he asked.
Annadurdy Khadjiev, a Turkmen economist based in Bulgaria, warns that the money spent on the kind of large-scale projects favoured by Niazov and Berdymuhammedov will produce little return.
“Many investment projects do not stand up to scrutiny, and will never pay for themselves,” said Khadjiev. “The numerous hotels standing empty, fountains, tall towers and other non-productive facilities will bring no economic benefits.”
Khadjiev believes the authorities should be investing in medical and educational facilities, new fuel technologies and the transport sector. For example, road and rail tankers are needed to transport crude oil and liquefied natural gas for the country’s burgeoning extraction industries. These could even be manufactured domestically if the right investment was put in place.
(NBCA is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)
