Turkmenistan has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

Turkmenistan has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

Art. 11 of Law No. 53-II provides that officials and employees of State authorities and administrative bodies, when performing control, supervisory and other functions, have the right, within the limits of their competence as defined by law, to receive information constituting a trade secret. The use of such information by State authorities and administrative bodies is subject to the procedure prescribed by law and may not be disclosed. In addition, information constituting a trade secret is made available to the courts and to bodies and persons conducting initial enquiries or pretrial investigations in accordance with the procedure established by law. Also, enterprises, organisations, institutions and individual entrepreneurs are obliged to report information related to an insured event that constitutes a commercial secret at the request of insurance organisations.

Law No. 53-II provides a framework for the effective protection of trade secrets.

There is no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Turkmenistan to deliver telecom services to end users, and it is not practised in both the mobile sector and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.

It is reported that there is tight state control of the economy, and the government has only allowed significant foreign ownership and foreign direct investment in the energy sector. Therefore, foreign ownership in the telecom sector is restricted. In addition, Art. 16 of the Law about Communications states that government, postal and courier communications, technical means and networks of telecommunications used for defence, national security, protection of the State border and law and order, as well as technical means of national television and radio broadcasting and the enterprises ensuring their operation and development, belong exclusively to State ownership.

The government owns shares in certain telecom companies. In particular, it owns shares in Turkmentelekom TC, which is a fully state-owned enterprise; Ashgabat City Telephone Network, with a 30% participation of the Ministry of Communications of Turkmenistan and 60% of Turkmentelekom; Altyn Asir CJSC (TMcell), which is fully owned by the Ministry of Communications of Turkmenistan.

Turkmenistan is not a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II). In fact, Turkmenistan is not a member of the WTO.

Art. 13.1 of Law No. 158-V states that in the case that in the domestic market of Turkmenistan there are enough potential suppliers, the tender organiser has the right to limit participation in tender procedures to potential suppliers of Turkmenistan or to establish priority for State enterprises and/or public organisations of disabled persons in Turkmenistan.

Art. 13.2 of Law No. 158-V provides that when the tender organiser limits participation to suppliers in Turkmenistan, it may additionally limit the list of potential suppliers to small and medium-sized businesses in Turkmenistan, and/or set conditions for the use of only local labour resources and/or raw materials and supplies.

Art. 17.6 of Law No. 158-V establishes that, unless the organiser decides to accept an additional language, applications must be submitted in Turkmen, which is the state language.

It is reported that a company interested in participating in the tender process must submit all the tender documents to the respective ministry or agency in person. Many foreign companies with no presence in Turkmenistan provide a limited power of attorney to local representatives, who then submit tender documents on the company’s behalf. A list of required documents for screening is usually provided by the state agency announcing the tender. It is also reported that the tender process is opaque and difficult to navigate, particularly for companies outside Turkmenistan, and not all tenders are publicly announced. Many tenders are not fully available online and require a local agent to pay a fee to obtain the information on paper.
It is reported that before most contracts can be signed, the agreement must be approved by the State Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange, the Central Bank, the Supreme Control Chamber, and the Cabinet of Ministers. It is also reported that the approval process is not transparent and often appears politically driven.

Turkmenistan is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), as it is not a member of the WTO.