The progressive reforms initiated by Honorable President of Turkmenistan promote significantly strengthening of the positions of sovereign Turkmenistan in the world economy system. The model of the national economy implemented by Turkmenistan is designed to flexibly take into account all the global economic trends. This hypothesis finds irrefutable justification in the recently published fundamental work of Honorable President of Turkmenistan «Turkmenistan: towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals».
The leader of the nation in this book, in projection of theoretical and applied aspects of sustainable development, unfolds the essence and content of the state policy in the field of preserving the natural ecological balance, forming a green economy, protecting the nature and environment as one of the basic vectors of the Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, the importance of fruitful international cooperation, adaptive partnership between the state and private entrepreneurship, compliance with social and gender development in achieving sustainable development is emphasized. Special attention is paid to the development of basic indicators for the formation of sustainable development, including the experience of Turkmenistan in this direction.
The world economy is complex, multiple. This feature is dictated, among other things, by the processes of mutual convergence of national economies in line with dynamic globalization. Globalization reveals characteristic risks and challenges. These include a global slowdown in economic growth, depletion of natural resources and an increase in the cost of their development, increase in financial risks, environmental degradation, as well as the technological progress and anthropogenic impact. The need for quicker resolution of these problems led to emergence in 1980 of the basic concept «sustainable development». The initiative in justification and introduction of this category belongs to the United Nations. Subsequently, this concept started to be used in practice of such key global structures as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Development Bank, as well as the leading regional integrations. From now on, sustainable development has become an integral part of the activities of the UN Organization and its structural units in the context of ensuring the progress and stability of the global economy in the past and current century.
Initially, the concept «sustainable economic development» was considered as a criterion for overcoming various obstacles to the development of world trade. In particular, this indicator was interpreted as an increase in business activity and macroeconomic indicators, more precisely, a consistent increase in the volume of gross domestic product. However, the irrational use of natural resources, the cyclical occurrence of environmental disasters and financial and economic crises led to a significant transformation of the interpretation of this concept. Gradually, the states, private business, public organizations, educational and scientific institutions and individual scientists began to get involved in implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The theory of sustainable development is the English term. It is believed that for the first time the term was used by the Canadian specialists. The fishing industry was one of the most developed segments of the national economy of Canada, which eventually led to the depletion of fish resources, and many species of fish were found to be on the verge of extinction. Awareness of the problem has led to the establishment of production facilities for the artificial breeding of marine animals. Later, the German experts of forestry paid attention to the concept «sustainable development». They noticed a significant predominance of the volumes of logging over the volumes of natural reproduction of forests. As a result, a coherent system of forest protection was developed, including measures to limit the volume of logging, with the simultaneous construction of artificial forest belts in specially designated areas and the use of crop rotation methods (which are still used today).
The term «sustainable» in translation means «stable, long-term, continuous». In Russian, the phrase «sustainable development» sounds as stable, steady development.
In 1972, the Global Conference on Environment was held in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, under the auspices of the United Nations. The problems of anthropogenic human impact on nature were included in the agenda of the forum. However, the forum did not answer the expectations associated with it. Thus, in 1987, the experts of the specially established UN International Commission on Environment and Development prepared the convincing report «Our Common Future» based on the results of the work carried out over four years. The authors of the report substantiate the need to prepare concrete proposals to understand the negative anthropogenic impact on the biosphere, ecology, natural resources, as well as to develop a specific formulation of the concept «sustainable development».
The International Commission on Environment and Development defined the «sustainable development» as the development when the activities of the current generations to meet their own needs should not create dangers for the needs of the future generations». However, not all countries and experts fully agreed with this formulation.
At the initial stage, the study of the category of sustainable development was just the theory. However, in 1992, at the Global Forum on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) the term «sustainable development» became the most commonly used. According to the results of the forum, the final document «Appeal to the XXI century» was prepared. The document for the first time justified the need to find the sources of emergence and the ways to solve the socioeconomic problems. The developed states including the United States of America, Japan, China, and the countries of the European Union, have carried out extensive and effective work in this direction. The measures taken by these countries in the field of preserving the ecological balance, careful use of natural resources, ensuring economic and social progress are of long-term, program nature.
When assessing sustainable development, it should be noted that to date there are no specific, detailed methodological guidelines in this area. The number of indicators to be taken into account in such an assessment is steadily increasing. For example, after the well-known events of 2001 in New York, special items on protection from terrorist actions and on provision of security were included in the methodological system of sustainable development.
There is an urgent need to develop quantitative indicators of development, or vice versa, regression in the global context, as well as by regions, countries, cities and their administrative areas. These indicators are commonly referred to as «indicators of sustainable development». They are important not so much in themselves as in the context of their use to achieve the planned milestones of sustainable development and overcome existing obstacles on this path. Also, these indicators are of great importance in the context of planning economic, social and household development, the development of comprehensive plans and the development of holistic state strategies.
The lack of clear indicators significantly complicates the achievement of sustainable development, the successful implementation of the set goals, the allocation of resources, as well as the effective management of all these processes. The system of such indicators and criteria plays an important role in the development and adjustment of relevant indicators included in the special document in the field of sustainable development «Nature-EconomyPopulation» adopted by the UN. However, in practice, the system of these indicators does not always coincide with indicators in such important areas as the stable-ecological, socio-medical, socio-humanitarian aspect. This is due to the insufficient nature of the current indicators, which necessitates their consistent improvement.
Indicators of sustainable development do not require the abolition of such important macroeconomic indicators as gross domestic product, the GDP per capita, inflation and unemployment. On the contrary, the sustainable development indicators work out requires a detailed study of basic macroeconomic indicators. For example, in the developing countries and the emerging economies, the gross domestic product indicator may gain unexpectedly rapid dynamics, including through the establishment of large-scale exports of natural energy resources. However, such dynamics does not reflect true sustainable development, which implies, along with the increase in hydrocarbon production, intensive development of other economic segments. A clear example of this approach is the positive experience of sovereign Turkmenistan, which has a huge potential of hydrocarbon reserves. Our country optimally combines the production of natural hydrocarbons with the purposeful, diversified development of all systems, industries and segments of the national economy.
Indicators of sustainable development do not require the abolition of such important macroeconomic indicators as gross domestic product, the GDP per capita, inflation and unemployment. On the contrary, the sustainable development indicators work out requires a detailed study of basic macroeconomic indicators. For example, in the developing countries and the emerging economies, the gross domestic product indicator may gain unexpectedly rapid dynamics, including through the establishment of large-scale exports of natural energy resources. However, such dynamics does not reflect true sustainable development, which implies, along with the increase in hydrocarbon production, intensive development of other economic segments. A clear example of this approach is the positive experience of sovereign Turkmenistan, which has a huge potential of hydrocarbon reserves. Our country optimally combines the production of natural hydrocarbons with the purposeful, diversified development of all systems, industries and segments of the national economy.
References:
1. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. State regulation of social and economic development of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat: 2010;
2. «Program of President of Turkmenistan on Socioeconomic Development of the Country in 2019–2025». Ashgabat, 2019.
