Bringing International Best Practices to Turkmenistan
While the role of manufacturing is on the decline in advanced economies, the opposite is true for many emerging economies. In Turkmenistan, for example, manufacturing is experiencing an unprecedented boom, spurring job growth, and creating new business opportunities. Entrepreneurs Batyr Tanrygulyev and Ruslan Mammetseyidov have capitalized on this opportunity to start a new manufacturing venture, and with USAID assistance are seeing immediate success.
After high school, Ruslan studied industrial engineering in Georgia and Turkey. He worked as a teacher for a number of years before pursuing his Ph.D. in management science and technology from Tohoku University, one of Japan’s leading higher education institutions.
Upon returning to Turkmenistan, Ruslan accepted a job offer from his former high school classmate Batyr to join his new company, Halk Hazyna. Together, they imported automotive and industrial lubricants from North America. Yet even though the trade business was going well, Ruslan and Batyr were drawn to manufacturing.
“At the time, we considered many different options,” Ruslan recalls. “To help us make the right decision, we conducted market research and concluded that there was a stark difference in quality between locally-produced and imported food packaging. While the packaging of imported products was beautiful and eye-catching, the packaging of local products was not up to standard, putting Turkmen food and beverage producers at a disadvantage because they had no option but to use locally-produced, low-quality plastic containers. Recognizing significant room for improvement in food packaging, we decided to develop in this area and start manufacturing high-quality food packaging containers to provide Turkmen companies better value for their money and increase their export potential, as packaging plays an important role in the marketability of products.”
In 2019, the team purchased state-of-the-art German equipment and began to lay the foundation for their new factory, where Ruslan assumed the role of Production Manager. One day, he came across a news article describing the Market Development Fund (MDF) available through USAID’s Future Growth Initiative. The MDF aims to help high-potential companies reach new markets, upgrade technology, and access financing to create employment opportunities for small-and-medium-sized enterprises. Halk Hazyna submitted an application requesting co-funding support through the MDF for training on technical aspects of packaging manufacturing, including extrusion processes, thermoforming, and printing.
USAID approved the company’s application, and in January 2021 Halk Hazyna’s managers and technical staff embarked on a series of online training sessions on best practices in food-grade packaging manufacturing. The six-month USAID-funded training program was delivered by world-renowned American experts with extensive industry experience. The training helped build Halk Hazyna’s staff’s technical expertise, to institute proper quality control and troubleshooting systems, and implement more efficient production standards. With the adoption of new approaches and recommended upgrades, the company successfully reduced losses, increased profitability, and introduced more lightweight and eco-friendly packaging solutions.
“The training provided by USAID was instrumental to our current success,” says Ruslan. “We acquired knowledge about quality control, management of technical processes, storage of raw materials, and the intricacies of chemical reactions. Before the training, we sometimes would end up with oval-shaped cups and had no clue how that happened. To help us correct our mistakes, we looked for experienced specialists all around the country but could not find any.”
He says that the choice to apply to USAID’s MDF to support the company’s growth and development was the best decision his team could have made. “The experts hired for us answered all our questions, explained the nuances of the manufacturing processes, and provided clear guidance on the corrective actions we needed to take.”
Following each training session, Ruslan and his teammates sat down together to evaluate their production processes and identify errors that needed to be corrected. The team successfully implemented their new learning, resulting in higher quality products and increased efficiencies and fewer plastic scraps and waste, saving time and money. The products became more cost-effective, enabling Halk Hazyna to grow its client base from 10 to 27 businesses and expand its product exports to Georgia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine.
“It has been a little over two years since the launch of our new manufacturing business, and we can proudly say that we produce the highest quality food packing in the Turkmenistan market,” says Ruslan. “When I walk into supermarkets and see products with our packaging on the shelves, it instantly puts a smile on my face and motivates me to continue to innovate and bring international best practices to Turkmenistan.”
