Country name:

conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Turkmenistan
local long form: none
local short form: Turkmenistan
former: Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic

Capital:

Ashgabat. Population: 574,000 (UN estimate 2003).
 

Location:

Central Asia, bordering the Caspian Sea, between Iran and Kazakhstan

Area:

488,100 sq km (188,456 sq miles).
 

Description:
Turkmenistan shares borders with Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the east, Afghanistan to the southeast and Iran to the south. To the west is the Caspian Sea. Nearly 80% of the country is taken up by the Kara-Kum (Black Sand) Desert, the largest in the CIS. The longest irrigation canal in the world stretches 1,100km (687 miles), from the Amu-Darya River in the east, through Ashgabat, before being piped the rest of the way to the Caspian Sea.

 

Location: Central Asia. Turkmenistan is bordered by the Caspian Sea to the west, Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the east, and Iran and Afghanistan to the south. 

Population: 5.11 million
 

Official Language: Turkmen. Russian is also widely spoken. 

Climate:
Turkmenistan has an extreme continental climate: temperatures in Ashgabat vary between 46?�C (114?�F) in summer and -5?�C (23?�F) in winter, although it has been known to reach -22?�C (-8?�F) in extremity. Temperatures in the desert in summer can reach 50?�C (122?�F) during the day before falling rapidly at night. During the winter, it can reach -10?� to -15?�C (14?� to 15?�F).

Economy - overview:
Although 90% of the land is occupied by the Kara-Kum desert, agriculture is important to the Turkmen economy. Substantial quantities of cotton (the country is the world's 10th-largest producer) are also produced under ecologically ruinous schemes established during the Soviet era. Grain, fruit and vegetables are widely grown and livestock breeding is an important source of employment.

The other mainstay of the economy and its best prospect for the future is an abundance of oil and natural gas deposits, the scale of which rivals anything in the Persian and Mexican Gulfs. New pipelines are planned to supplement the sole existing one, which transports the products via Russia. Other commercially viable reserves include bromine, iodine salts and various other minerals.

Most of Turkmenistan's industry is devoted to processing the country's principal raw materials: textiles are a key export industry and much of the extracted oil is refined within the country. Oil and gas account for 85% of Turkmenistan's export income (under long-term contracts, 80% of the gas goes to the Ukraine while 60% of the oil is bought by Italy).

As one of the poorest republics of the former Soviet Union, Turkmenistan suffered considerable economic disruption and hardship after its demise in 1991 (GDP declined by 10% per year between 1993 and 1998); the increasing inability of many of its former trade partners to pay for its products has also caused serious difficulties. The government responded by seeking out new markets.

Economy:
Although 90% of the land is occupied by the Kara-Kum desert, agriculture is important to the Turkmen economy. Substantial quantities of cotton (the country is the world's 10th-largest producer) are also produced under ecologically ruinous schemes established during the Soviet era. Grain, fruit and vegetables are widely grown and livestock breeding is an important source of employment.

The other mainstay of the economy and its best prospect for the future is an abundance of oil and natural gas deposits, the scale of which rivals anything in the Persian and Mexican Gulfs. New pipelines are planned to supplement the sole existing one, which transports the products via Russia. Other commercially viable reserves include bromine, iodine salts and various other minerals.

Most of Turkmenistan's industry is devoted to processing the country's principal raw materials: textiles are a key export industry and much of the extracted oil is refined within the country. Oil and gas account for 85% of Turkmenistan's export income (under long-term contracts, 80% of the gas goes to the Ukraine while 60% of the oil is bought by Italy).

As one of the poorest republics of the former Soviet Union, Turkmenistan suffered considerable economic disruption and hardship after its demise in 1991 (GDP declined by 10% per year between 1993 and 1998); the increasing inability of many of its former trade partners to pay for its products has also caused serious difficulties. The government responded by seeking out new markets.
 

Industries:

natural gas, oil, petroleum products, textiles, food processing

Raw materials: oil, natural gas, coal, precious non-ferrous and rare metals, Celestine, sulfur, betonies and kaolin clays, iodine, bromine, potassium and common salts, marble onyx, various construction materials, fresh subsoil, mineral waters 

Currency: 1 manat = 100 tenesi