Interview with members of the “Turkmen Logistics” Association.

31.08.2021
Oleg Anokhin: “Today is the time for new solutions for effective business”
Oleg Anokhin, director of the company “Aziýa Ulaglary”

Your company has been working in the field of logistics for more than 10 years. What results are most significant for you?

– The company “Aziýa Ulaglary” was founded in 2007. We started almost from scratch. But, we are grateful to our team of specialists with many years (more than 13 years) experience in the field of logistics, customs clearance and transport forwarding that quickly found their niche in the logistics services market. Already in 2009, a contract was signed with a large construction company “Bouygues-Turkmen” for logistics services on the territory of Turkmenistan. A high and professional degree of service provision has provided us with a reputation as a reliable and responsible cargo carrier and, as a result, new customers. These are the companies “Chevron”, “Exxon Mobil”, “RWE”, which were working in Turkmenistan at that time. So, the local service that we started with has grown into an international one. The proof of the quality of our services and the compliance of the company’s management system with international standards was our receipt of the ISO 9001:2015 certificate.

As you have already noted, a high degree of professionalism of employees has become crucial for business development. And it’s hard not to agree with this. And what else distinguishes your company from others working in this segment?

– The fundamental principle of our company when working with a client is the desire to fully meet all the requirements, while being guided by international standards. I emphasize that it is necessary to comply with international standards. This means that we are guided by the requirements of international standards applied to the quality of services and guarantee this quality, including customs clearance, transportation, safety, warehousing and cargo handling. Our goal is to become a long-term and reliable partner of our customers and take a leading position in the market of these services. And we are consistently moving towards this. We have become partners of well-known forwarding and transport companies from Russia, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Germany.

The global pandemic has affected the volume of cargo transportation around the world. How to maintain an effective business in these conditions? Do you have any recipes?

– As paradoxical as it may sound, the economic downturn has not only disadvantages, but also its advantages. Today, everyone is forced to actively look for new approaches that will be more effective than the methods used earlier, in favorable economic conditions. The time has come for new solutions for effective business. For our segment, this is the establishment of partnership relations between Turkmen companies. This is the only way we can compete with foreign companies for international cargo transportation. By the way, the idea of partnership determined the initiative to create the Association “Turkmen Logistics”. IE “Aziýa Ulaglary” was among the seven companies that came out with this initiative.

Is it correct to understand that the crisis and the increase in international competition are uniting Turkmen transport, logistics and forwarding companies?

– The activity of the Association “Turkmen Logistics” gives an unambiguous answer to this. When the Association was formed, it included about 10 companies, in a year this number increased to 130. Through the Association, transport and logistics and forwarding companies were able to reach the level of the government and state structures with proposals related to the development of transport and logistics services in Turkmenistan and the effective use of the country’s transport potential. Also, membership in the Association increases the competitiveness of organizations of the transport and logistics infrastructure of Turkmenistan when integrating into the world transport and logistics network.

What are your company’s plans for the future?

– These plans determine global trends. Firstly, there is a growing demand for container transportation, and secondly, digitalization and the construction of digital transport corridors are on the agenda. We believe in our strength and are optimistic about the future.