DUSHANBE , July 24, 2008, Asia-Plus - Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov criticized the minister of construction, Shamukhammet Durdyliyev, at an expanded government meeting on July 21. According to the head of state, national construction companies and workers involved in construction of facilities get paid less than foreign partners, Turkmenistan.ru reported.

"Today we can see that there are now construction companies in Turkmenistan that build as good as foreign companies, and some of them do it even better," he said.

At the meeting, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov signed a decree on the "turnkey" construction of 35 apartment buildings in Ashgabat and Abadan . It is for the first time that construction organizations of the ministry of construction and local private construction companies will be involved in this. Under the president''s instructions, they will be paid the same rate as foreign companies.

"Our constructors must prove that they can build high quality apartment buildings as good as their foreign counterparts," the Turkmen president noted.