A core group of Turkmenistan''s practitioners coming from various national ministries and institutions have successfully passed the five-day "Economics of Transition" training course organized by the United Nations Development Programme and the National Institute of Strategic Planning and Economic Development (ISPED) of Turkmenistan. The course was conducted by Dr. Ben Slay, Senior Economist from UNDP''s Regional Centre for Europe and the CIS.

The purpose of training was to enhance the participants'' understanding of the issues of political economy and macroeconomics of the countries in transition, regional cooperation in Central Asia and possible impact of the global financial crisis on the region as well as social, environmental and water-energy aspects of the Central Asian economies.

The training programme allowed for in-depth discussions of the issues related to the macroeconomic stabilization and creation of new regulatory institutions; strategies for mitigating the impact of the global financial crisis on Central Asia; international economic relations in the region and various institutional forms of global and regional integration and many other issues.

The training course is part of the UNDP Project "Support to Analytical Capacity Development for Evidence Based Policy Planning and Making" which started in 2008.