According to Gundogar, that retrieved the news from Associated Press:
Turkmenistan allows foreign investors to own companies, property
The president adopted legislation allowing foreign investors to create companies and own property in Turkmenistan ‚ moving the natural gas-rich country further from the isolation imposed by his autocratic predecessor.
An amended law on foreign investment, adopted by President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov and published Friday in the official newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan, allows foreign investors to create and fully own companies, and to acquire existing companies and property including real estate.
This is another great sign of isolation barriers coming down. The problem is of course, that Turkmenistan's government probably owns all of the property available for sale. But you have to start somewhere, and generally speaking, corporations will have the money to invest. The real indicator will be the transparency of property transfer–and of the transparent use of invested capital. Otherwise, the cycle of:
1. government sells property. 2. government fines purchaser or requires draconian permit laws, making it impossible for purchaser to develop property 3. government expropriates property
begins again, leaving the state in as bad a shape as before.
This law is designed to facilitate oil and gas investment; however, it may well lead to other types of investment as well. In particular, some value-added food industry businesses would go a long way toward cutting the cotton monopoly within the state. But some value-added textile industry input wouldn't be a bad thing either.
The link above also gives more articles that indicate greater commerce with the outside world: new cell phone company investment, and a large number of trade and state diplomatic delegations which have visited Turkmenistan since February.
Check out the Gundogar site in the links at right. They do a good work. . .