ASHGABAT (TCA) — Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov is pushing ahead with his plan to make the country tobacco-free by 2025, Turkmen state media reported.
State-run newspaper Neitralny Turkmenistan said on April 15 that the president had signed a program ordering measures to be taken over the next five years to push his initiative.
Berdymukhammedov has been a proponent of healthy living and has made it a key aspect of his autocratic rule. In 2013, he banned the sale of cigarettes in state stores during the month of April each year, RFE/RL reported.
On April 15, the Government of Turkmenistan and the UN Agencies came together to launch the National Programme and Plan of Action on the realization of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control for the period of 2017-2021, the UN Country Office in Turkmenistan said.
Representatives of national ministries, the Parliament, public organizations, and media led by the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry, as well as the UN Country Team highly acknowledged that the National Programme and Plan of Action demonstrate practical application of the political will and leadership of the country to realize tobacco control measures. The country has taken comprehensive pathway towards enhancement of the national public health by reducing tobacco prevalence of smoking among the adult population to the lowest global rate of 8%. The country aims to become the first tobacco-free country in the European Region with the smoking rate at 5% or less by 2025.
The set of concerted and strategic actions undertaken by the Government included ratification of the first global health treaty on Tobacco Control in 2011, enactment of the comprehensive tobacco control law in 2013, establishment of the multi-sectoral response to shared ambition about a tobacco-free country by 2025; free support and counselling services to the individuals in giving up smoking. The Government also proactively implements the WHO Tobacco Control Project “Implementation of the Ashgabat Declaration: towards the tobacco free European Region for 2015-2018”. Thus, the survey commissioned by WHO provided evidence that these efforts yielded remarkable progress and enabled the country to take up a global leadership in tobacco control efforts.
