Turkmenistan: Is Berdymukhamedov Spinning a Web Fantasy?

In the hands of the Turkmen people, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov's regime tends to view the Internet as a dangerous implement. Yet, kept under proper supervision, Berdymukhamedov evidently feels the web can make the Turkmen government more efficient.

During a late October cabinet session in Ashgabat, Berdymukhamedov announced an initiative to promote e-government. The electronic revolution, according to Berdymukhamedov's vision, will begin on the local level and work its way up to the national level.

"First you should start with small projects to establish a unified electronic net for towns, then a unified electronic net for regions should be established and finally you should implement a project on setting up a unified electronic government throughout," he said in remarks broadcast on the state-owned Altyn Asyr television channel.

"We must make Turkmenistan a country of advanced electronic technologies, the widespread introduction of which is a key factor for progressive development," he added.

Berdymukhamedov's vision for e-government clashes with the state's reputation as a hardened enemy of free speech and open access to information.

Turkmenistan is on Reporters Without Borders' list of world "Internet Enemies." And in 2008, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) identified Turkmenistan as among "The 10 Worst Countries to Be a Blogger." The state-owned internet service provider, Turkmentelecom, routinely blocks access to opposition sites and independent news websites and monitors e-mail accounts, CPJ claims.

Some experts say it will be impossible to implement Berdymukhamedov's e-government plan anytime soon. Substantial investment in Turkmenistan's communications infrastructure would be needed to connect local and national governmental institutions to the web.

According to the CIA World Fact book, "[The] telecommunications network remains underdeveloped and progress toward improvement is slow. Strict government control and censorship inhibits liberalization and modernization."

There were just 75,000 internet users in Turkmenistan in 2008 out of a population of 4.8 million, it added.